Sunday 15 May 2011

Pakistan's Friends & Foes?




Friday the 13th lived up to its reputation in Pakistan. It was a bleak day for the nation when, for the first time in history, the Director General ISI, Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha surrendered himself before the parliament, admitting failure in the Osama killing episode in Abbottabad and sought an apology from the nation.

“The failure was not intentional but I admit that it was a mistake,” he said adding that he would resign if the parliament demands so.

The opposition did not miss their chance to kick the man when he was down and chanted slogans of “shame…shame.” PML-N Leader Chaudhry Nisar said: “Since ISI has accepted the failure, now there is need to fix the responsibility.” He demanded that there has to be some kind of reparation for everything that went wrong.

Pakistan Air Chief, Rao Qamar Suleman, revealed that fully armed US aircraft were ready to react to any Pakistani reaction. He further disclosed that Pakistan’s Shamsi Air Base was under the control of the United Arab Emirates. “Our radar system was not jammed at the time of when US Navy Seals helicopters conducted a raid in a compound in Abbottabad. I do not know where from, the helicopters who participated in the Abbottabad operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, flew,” he added.

 
It was confirmed that currently contact between the ISI and the CIA is next to nothing. The Federal Minister for Information, Firdaus Ashiq Awan, reassured everyone that the country’s strategic assets are secure with “a highly sensitive and modern security system in place to guard Pakistan’s strategic assets that are spread across the country” and warned that “no one should even consider casting an evil eye”.

In response, terrorists began their killing spree to ‘avenge Osama’s death’ this Friday killing more than 80 and wounding 140 in a double suicide bombing on a paramilitary police training centre. This has been the deadliest attack since July 9, 2010 when bombers killed 105 people in Mohmand.


Then on Saturday, at least six people were killed and 10 others wounded when a bomb planted in a bus exploded in Kharian.


Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said, by telephone from an undisclosed location, “This was the first revenge for Osama's martyrdom. Wait for bigger attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan".

To top it off, with a war against terrorism on their hands, sinister CIA spies involved with terrorists in dubious activities continue to be caught all over the country mainly in sensitive areas starting with a CIA contractor identified as Raymond Davis who was apprehended in Lahore for killing 2 people. Succumbing to US pressure the Pakistani government set him free.

Then a Swiss Citizen “Merko” entered Balochistan from Iran and was taken into custody for not having an NOC from Balochistan’s Home Department which is a necessity for his own security. 

Another American national, Aaron Mark DeHaven, was arrested on Friday after he outstayed his Pakistani visa which expired in October. He stated that was aware that his visa had expired and has admitted that it was a mistake not to renew it. Funny enough, he claims to be working for security contractor ‘Catalyst Services’, providing ‘security and accommodation to foreigners working on development projects in the region’. 

Not that they didn’t have their hands already full, on the same day as the so called “in camera” briefing to the parliament by the Director General ISI, another man far away asked for some camera time too to announce his return to the country in just a few months. This was none other than the former President General Pervez Musharraf all keen to launch his election campaign for the year 2012.

 
Pakistan’s arch enemy, India, did not lose time and released a “Most-Wanted List” which includes the names of five serving majors in the Pakistan army amongst others.

Analysts in Islamabad are certain that since the tension between Pakistan and the US increases, “Pakistan will get closer to China and Russia” as China has increased its existence in Pakistan over the last decade, constructing the Gwadar port in Baluchistan to secure Chinese access to energy supplies via the Arabian Sea. It has also strengthened its civil nuclear support with Pakistan to counterbalance closer relations between the Unites States and India. 


Pakistan received kind words from Beijing. On May 6, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman advised the international community to show “more comprehension and support” to Pakistan, also reminding them that “national sovereignty should be respected”, showing disapproval of the American raid.

The PM of Pakistan, Mr. Gilani, praised China, describing it as “a source of inspiration for the Pakistani people”.

Though it is not my intention to defend Pakistani intelligence agencies for their negligence, but this is not the first time intelligence failures have occurred. Intelligence lapses have been a recurrent part of history around the world. Wasn’t 9/11 an intelligence failure by the CIA, or the Mumbai Attack by RAW or the London Bombings by the SIS or M15?

Some say that Obama’s actions can not be justified as this a case of the US indulging in blatant terrorism against Pakistan by invading their territory as is the case with the ongoing drone attacks where the killing of innocent civilians including women and young children is considered ‘collateral damage”.

Noam Chomsky stated in an article, “We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.”

Pakistan, as a nation, is going through tough times. It is time for the people of Pakistan to ask themselves what their country has gained from their alliance with the United States in all these years. Perhaps it is time to bring some changes in Pakistan’s diplomacy in order to free itself from America’s clutches and understand the difference between its friends and foes.




Wednesday 11 May 2011

Even Half Naked Girls in the Sink won't get me to go to KFC!



In 2008, the employees of a KFC branch in California were fired when they stripped to their underwear and took a bath in the restaurant’s dishwashing sink. And just when you think they couldn’t sink lower, they just did when one of them boldly posted the photos of the event on her public MySpace Web page. Of course, they were fired after the pictures went viral on the Internet.

Now, the KFC restaurant, that gained notoriety because of these young girls, has filed for bankruptcy. D&D Food Management Inc. (that owns the KFC, one of about 80 in the company's fold) filed for Chapter 11 protection last week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis. 

This incident took place four months after a Burger King employee was fired for taking a bubble bath in a restaurant sink.


These girls made the same mistake and posted photos of the escapade which eventually landed them in hot water.

After firing them, Rick Maynard, a KFC spokesman said, "KFC has zero tolerance for violations of our operating standards, and our franchisee has taken immediate action by terminating the employees who were involved."

Fern Hastings, senior environmental health specialist, said the deep multi-section sink is designed to be used to pre-rinse, wash, rinse and sanitize dishes. "You just don't think someone is going to get in there," Hastings said. "It's definitely not made for humans."

After removing the photos on her MySpace page from public access, the 17-year-old girl, put up what appeared to be a message for the media:

"Its a sad world when one has to stoop low enough to go through ones dirty laundry....one woman’s trash is another’s treasure! -Thanks a lot for having good respect how can you live knowing the little bit of money you made was made hurting someone!"


Well, at least now we know why some people find KFC so tasty: it’s because of their "secret ingredient"



Tuesday 10 May 2011

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…You can't get fooled again." OR CAN WE?



Three days ago, Steve Pieczenik, one of the most experienced international crisis managers, with over twenty years of experience in resolving international crises, who worked for four U.S. administrations, serving as Deputy Secretary of State under Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance and James Baker, working with Secretary of State George Schultz, involved in the conflict in the Middle East between Israel, Jordan, Syria, confessed in an interview that Osama Bin Laden, who was allegedly killed in Pakistan on May 1, 2011, had already been “dead” over nine years ago.

“I worked with Osama bin Laden in ’78, ’81,” Pieczenik said, adding that he later turned terrorist hunter during subsequent administrations.

“I found out through my sources that he had had kidney disease. And as a physician, I knew that he had to have two dialysis machines and he was dying,” Pieczenik reported during an April 24, 2002 interview.

“And you could see in those films, those made-up photos that they were sending us out of nowhere. I mean, suddenly, we would see a video of bin Laden today and then out of nowhere, they said oh it was sent to us anonymously, meaning that someone in the government, our government, was trying to keep up the morale on our side and say oh we still have to chase this guy when, in fact, he’s been dead for months,” added Pieczenik.

Pieczenik then explained that the video tape of a fat Bin Laden look alike “taking responsibility” for 9/11 that was released in December 2001 was “such a hoax” designed to “manipulate” people in the emotional aftermath of 9/11.

The subsequent war in Afghanistan that followed 9/11 was planned “with the agreement of the bin Laden family, knowing fully well that he would die,” said Pieczenik. “And I think that Musharraf, the then President of Pakistan, spilled the beans by accident three months ago when he said that bin Laden was dead because his kidney dialysis machines were destroyed in East Afghanistan.”

In addition to Pieczenik, in August 2002, a high level Republican source announced that Bin Laden was dead and that his body was being kept “on ice”, physically, until Osama’s death could be announced at the most “politically expedient” time.

“Did the intelligence community or the CIA doctor up this situation, the answer is yes, categorically yes,” said Pieczenik, referring to Sunday’s claim that Bin Laden was killed at his compound in Pakistan, adding, “This whole scenario where you see a bunch of people sitting there looking at a screen and they look as if they’re intense, that’s nonsense,” referring to the images released by the White House which claim to show Biden, Obama and Hillary Clinton watching the operation to kill Bin Laden live on a television screen.



According to Pieczenik the decision to launch the hoax now was made because Obama had reached a low with plummeting approval ratings and the fact that the birther issue was blowing up in his face.
Bin Laden, “Was used in the same way that 9/11 was used to mobilize the emotions and feelings of the American people in order to go to a war that had to be justified through a narrative that Bush junior created and Cheney created about the world of terrorism,” stated Pieczenik.

Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there, he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.

On 1 November 2001, The Guardian reported that just two months before September 11, Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by a local CIA agent.

The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.


 Alex Jones & top government insider Steve Pieczenik (Part 1)

 Alex Jones & top government insider Steve Pieczenik (Part 2)

Here is Jon Stewart’s take on the pictures of Osama Bin Laden's dead body being too horrible and inflammatory to show:


Recently, on 09 May 2011, Pakistani PM Gilani insisted Pakistan reserved the right to "retaliate with full force," though he stopped short of saying what, if anything, would be done should the US stage another such high-profile anti-terror raid.

While the British daily newspaper reported that the US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago authorizing a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.

This deal was struck between the then military leader General Pervez Musharraf and President George Bush after Bin Laden escaped US forces in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001.

Under its terms, Pakistan would permit US forces to conduct an independent raid in Pakistan in search of Bin Laden, his second hand, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the al Qaeda No3. Afterwards, both sides agreed that Pakistan would vociferously protest the raid.

"There was an agreement between Bush and Musharraf that if we knew where Osama was, we were going to come and get him," said a former senior US official with knowledge of counterterrorism operations. "The Pakistanis would put up a hue and cry, but they wouldn't stop us."

While, there has been heavy movement along the Pakistan India border as the Indian government claim that, like the US, they too have a right to conduct such raids in Pakistan, without Pakistan's authorization, if any terrorist is found there.

And now, people are already eyeing the $25 million reward that the US federal government reserved for finding Osama bin Laden. The White House announced that no one would receive the bounty since no one intentionally directed U.S. intelligence officials to the al Qaeda leader.

In a press briefing on Monday, Carney said "as far as I'm aware, no one knowledgeably said, 'Oh, Osama bin Laden's over here in Abbottabad at 5703, you know, Green Avenue.'

While, Gary Brooks Faulkner, a 51-year-old American, who was detained last year in Pakistan while setting out on a "lone wolf" mission to track down Osama bin Laden, has a different opinion.

""I got off my ass. I got the son of a bitch out. He's dead now," Faulkner said in a recent interview. "Whether it was by my hands or something else...You still realize that we lost total contact after he left Tora Bora. Nobody knew anything. He's in Pakistan, he's in Africa, he's in Somalia...he's everywhere else. People did nothing, absolutely nothing until I came on the scene, and that's a fact."

To highlight the golden words spoken by former President Bush:


 
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…You can't get fooled again.”

I beg to differ! Let’s just wait and see how many times we get fooled.


Sunday 8 May 2011

Saturday 7 May 2011

Will the Real Bin Laden Please Stand Up?


Pentagon has  released 5 new videos of Osama Bin Laden taken from the Pakistani compound where he was reportedly killed last week

Osama preparing for propaganda video

 
Osama watching himself on TV 

We asked for evidence and we got it. Now you decide if these videos are the kind of evidence that will help confirm his death.




Osama Bin Laden: The Changing Story


Since the death of Osama Bin Laden, officials at the White House have already issues a number of statements that contradict previous assertions. To date, no clear account or solid evidence has been presented to the public who continue to remain in darkness.

At present, White House has decided to stop providing details about the firefight since it has attributed mistakes and contradictions to "the fog of war." The President's spokesman, Jay Carney, told reporters on Tuesday: "We provided a great deal of information with great haste in order to inform you ... and obviously some of the information came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated on".

Osama was ARMED and RESISTED

A senior Pentagon official reported on Monday that the Navy Seals engaged in a firefight and Bin Laden resisted giving a strong impression that Bin Laden had been armed and may have been shooting.

John Brennan, White House security adviser, stated that, "He (Osama) was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in, and whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don't know. The president put a premium on making sure that our personnel were protected and we were not going to give Bin Laden or any of his cohorts the opportunity to carry out lethal fire on our forces. He was engaged and he was killed in the process. The concern was that Bin Laden would oppose any type of capture operation. Indeed he did. It was a firefight. He, therefore, was killed in that firefight."

He further told a reporter: "There were some firefights that were going on as these guys [the Navy Seals] were making their way up the staircase of that compound."

The Change:

Contradicting his account Carney said that, “The only shots fired by those in the compound came at the beginning of the operation when Bin Laden's trusted courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, opened fire from behind the door of the guesthouse next to the house where Bin Laden was hiding. After the Seal members shot and killed Kuwaiti and a woman in the guesthouse the Americans were never fired upon again."

He further added, “Bin Laden was also shot as he resisted the assaulter. He was not armed but resistance does not require a firearm." 

Asked by a reporter: "Is the fact of a firefight solid?", Carney said: "You heard the account that I read yesterday, and that is information that I provided. And I'm not – I'm just simply saying I'm not going further than that." 

Leon Panetta, the CIA director, stated that though Osama was not armed but there were "some threatening moves that ... represented a clear threat to our guys. And that's the reason they fired." 

The Pakistani Intelligence Agency reported that Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter had told them that the US forces captured her father alive and shot him dead in front of family members. 

Osama used WOMEN as HUMAN SHIELDS

Brennan said on Monday: "There was family at that compound and there was a female who was in fact in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield Bin Laden from the incoming fire."

Pentagon backed this story that some other male combatants "certainly did use women as shields".

The Change: 

The president's spokesman on Tuesday reported, "In the room with Bin Laden, a woman – Bin Laden's – a woman, rather, Bin Laden's wife, rushed to the US assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed."

Osama's son, Khalid, was KILLED

Brennan told reporters: "Bin Laden died, along with the two al-Qaida facilitators, the brothers, who were the courier and his brother in the compound; Bin Laden's son Khalid; and the woman, presumed to be his wife, who was shielding Bin Laden."

The Change: 

Later the name of the son changed to Hamza in the transcript.

The LUXURIOUS $ 1 MILLION compound

Defense officials, on Monday, said that Bin Laden's luxurious compound was worth $1m and was highly discernible compared to the "much more dire conditions" endured by his "terrorist colleagues" and speculated on what they might be thinking "when they see that their leader was living, relatively speaking, high on the hog".

The Change:

The local estimate of the house is worth $250,000. Videos captured from inside the compound paint a different picture, with cooking equipment on the floor, shabby furniture, medicines left on a shelf with no cabinet and the pantry seemed rudimentary. The paint was peeling outside the building with grass growing off a ledge below the roof. The outside walls were scarred with damp and mold and there was no air-conditioning in the compound. A hand-painted advertisement for Jamia Girls College, in Urdu and English, was painted on one of the outside walls of the compound. 

Obama watched the raid unfold LIVE

Brennan reported, on Monday: "We were able to monitor in a real-time basis the progress of the operation from its commencement to its time on target to the extraction of the remains and to then the egress off of the target. We were able to monitor the situation in real time and were able to have regular updates and to ensure that we had real-time visibility into the progress of the operation. I am not going to go into details about what type of visuals we had or what type of feeds that were there, but it was … it gave us the ability to actually track it on an ongoing basis."

The Change: 

Carney clarified, on Tuesday, that the updates were "minute-by-minute" and "they were looking at and listening to those updates". Leon Panetta said: "Once those teams went into the compound, I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes that we really didn't know just exactly what was going on."

Carney was caught in a crossfire of his own when he was asked about the number of floors in the compound in Pakistan. “Even I’m getting confused,” Carney said as he looked through his notes.


Another recent detail was released that after Osama was killed the Navy Seals attempted to identify him by his height, which was 6ft 4in, but since they did not have the necessary equipment to do that, one member of the team volunteered to lie down next to his body so they could make an estimate.

And the biggest change of all is the name change of "Osama" to "Usama' in official American documents so as not to get confused with the fact that ‘Osama’ was killed by ‘Obama’.

Thursday 5 May 2011

The Osama Drama



This is yet another conspiracy theory that has come up after the death of Osama Bin Laden giving an account of how the CIA contractor, Raymond Davis fits in the picture.

In August 2010 Pakistani authorities shared intelligence with US about the compound in Abbottabad. After its own intelligence gathering, US ascertained that the compound was occupied by Osama’s children.

In January 2011 the young CIA contractor worked “extra hard” to gather information related to ISI and Al Qaeda relationship. The contractor, now well-known as Raymond Davis the “American Rambo” received a call from one of his assets, on January 27 about a high value target. Raymond Davis hired a rent a car, to deceive the ISI agents keeping a tap on him, and drove to Lahore, while his security detail followed him in a bullet proof Land Cruiser. The ISI agents falling for his trap followed the embassy’s Land Cruiser. Raymond Davis arrived at Lahore one hour earlier than his detail and met with the asset. The asset gave him some pictures of an intelligence building at Tarbela and recording of a phone call. Listening to the phone call Raymond Davis realized the gold mine he had struck.

In the next hour, the ISI higher ups realized that Raymond Davis had given them a slip earlier in the morning and in the couple of hours he had in Lahore, he may have obtained some important information. Immediately, they put two contractors on his tail. Raymond Davis seeing a tail feared the worse and shot them both in the back, at a traffic stop, without logically realizing that there was no way ISI could have know what he was holding.

His security detail which was close behind rushed to his “rescue” however, by then the police had chased and arrested him, while the security Land Cruiser, running over pedestrians, escaped towards US embassy compound in Islamabad. ISI officers quickly reached the scene and confiscated the memory sticks only to realize Raymond Davis had unearthed a deep secret which even their immediate bosses had no knowledge about.

Raymond Davis in police custody
The sensitivity of information unnerved the entire echelons of the ISI and even its own officers were sent under house arrest while the concerned cell stepped forward to handle to matter. The biggest secret of the century was now out. No body, except the concerned cell, knew that Osama bin Laden had died and his body was kept frozen at Tarbela. Raymond Davis got to know. But now Pak top brass knew it was only a matter of time before US obtained the intel.

In the next six weeks Pakistan blocked all leaks related to Osama’s death, however, when Raymond Davis was released on March 16, the secret was out and everyone in the US chain of command now wanted to use the information to further personal goals from General Petraeus to President Obama.

On March 17, knowing that Pakistan had lost its trunk card General Pervaiz Kayani released a press statement in which he critically criticized drone attacks, first from him. From then on Pak Military raised its stance against drone attacks, fearing that US now might target its nuclear assets. While in USA politics was at its full swing.

General Petraeus wanted to use Osama bin Laden’s death for his future political ambitions, while President Obama wanted the credit to help his sliding popularity. While the scuffle continued, the other issue still pending was how to confirm Osama’s death. In the next one month, nearly every week a top US official visited Pakistan, everyone meeting with General Kayani trying to convince him to hand over Osama’s body, while the stance from Pakistan remained, “Osama, Who?” It was the first time in history that so many US top officials had visited and met with a military chief of a foreign country in such a short time.

In a meeting with General Kayani, General Mattis asked about Pakistan’s cooperation in capturing Osama bin Laden. Pakistan knew that US knew that Pakistan knows that US knows that Osama is dead. But Pakistan continued the innocent game of “Osama Who?” while US continued to play the game that “Osama must be captured”. General Mattis left with veiled threats and stresses that Pakistan must do more against the Al Qaeda and Taliban, or indirectly saying that Osama bin Laden must be handed over.

Then, Adm. Mike Mullen met with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Khalid Shameem Wynne and General Kayani on April 20. Admiral Mullen again demanded indirectly that Pakistan needs to help USA in locating Osama bin Laden. Pakistan’s response was again, “Osama, Who?” Admiral Mullen, however, left with another threat that if they came to know about Osama bin Laden’s location they would go ahead and take unilateral action.

In response to continued threats from USA, Pakistan started taking back its air bases from US in an attempt to avoid launching of any operation from its own soil. As a result on April 22 the news appeared that Pakistan had taken Shamsi Airbase back from CIA, US forces. While Obama Administration was pilling pressure on Pakistan, General Petraeus visited Pakistan on April 26 and met with General Kayani openly asking him to hand over Osama bin Laden, otherwise get ready to face the consequences. Pakistani Military couldn’t understand Obama Administration’s continued position on ‘capturing’ Osama bin Laden when they knew he was already dead. General Petraeus left with the ultimatum that either Pakistan handed over Osama or US would get him.

On April 28 President Obama signed General Petraeus’ transfer to CIA and next day signed the orders to attack the Abbottabad compounds. Thus Osama bin Laden’s credit was assured to President Obama.

On 29 April after President Obama signed the orders to “bring back” Osama bin Laden, Pakistani security agencies got a report that another order had been signed which had authorized US forces to neutralize Pakistan’s nuclear assets, if needed. The report was nothing short of seeing a death angel for the top Pak Military brass.

As night fell on Sunday, 1 May, four choppers from a US Afghan base flew at a low altitude towards its destination in Abbottabad, to the same compound where Osama’s children were in the hiding. It was then that Pak Army was notified that they had a choice: either face an entire barrage of US choppers attacking Pak nuclear assets or hand over Osama’s body.

In the meanwhile the small gun battle at the Abbottabad compound continued and to give the drama some authenticity the US forces torched one of their own choppers. Pressed for time a Pakistani helicopter flew from Tarbela carrying Osama bin Laden’s dead body. Once the Pakistani helicopter reached the compound the three US choppers and the Pakistani helicopter flew towards the Afghan border.
An aerial view of the compound
A damaged Stealth Chopper
The three bodies left behind

The next day, the world woke up to the news that Osama bin Laden was dead and President Obama had delivered what President Bush and Dick Cheney could not. Overnight, Obama became a hero with his approval rating surging above 50 percent increasing his chances to serve TWO terms as President.

 An eye-witness account of the raid in Abbottabad

Though there are still many questions that remain unanswered but one fact remains, that this is the start of the third theater of war and evidently this time the target is Pakistan.

 Webster Tarpley Exposes the Osama Drama by the US


Tuesday 3 May 2011

Osama Bin Laden Dead...For the Ninth Time


When Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was dead last night, this was not the first time. Osama Bin Laden has been dead before too, 9 times to say the least. Here are some claims made over the years:

·         In 2002, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Bin Laden had kidney disease announcing: “I think now, frankly, he is dead.”
·         The same year the FBI’s top counter-terrorism official, Dale Watson, said, “I personally think he is probably not with us anymore.”
·         High-level Council on Foreign Relations members asserted that Osama Bin Laden had died of kidney failure in early 2002.
·         In December, 2002, a Taliban leader claimed that Bin Laden was suffering from a serious lung complication and died in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora Mountains.
·         In February, 2004, Iranian state radio claimed Osama bin Laden had been captured in Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan. Pentagon and Pakistani officials denied the report.
·         In November 2005, Senator Harry Reid revealed that Osama may have died in the Pakistani earthquake of October that year.
·         In September 2006, French intelligence leaked a report suggesting Osama had died in Pakistan.
·         Recently, just before her assassination in 2007, Benazir Bhutto said in an interview that Osama bin Laden had been killed by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a man convicted of kidnapping and killing journalist Daniel Pearl.
·         In March 2009, former US foreign intelligence Angelo Codevilla stated: “All the evidence suggests Elvis Presley is more alive today than Osama Bin Laden.”

Osama was already dead
What makes it different and believable this time? The images and videos of the compound, the crashed helicopter, the blood-stained floors should be enough to know that this time he is actually dead! Who cares if there is no body? This time we believe what we are told. We believe he was in Pakistan since the last 6 years without the knowledge of the Pakistani government, the IB, the ISI or the MI.

Osama's death a hoax?
Osama: better alive than dead?

An al- Qaida commander stated: "The killing of Osama bin Laden will bring no change to jihad. Osama is the leader of al-Qaida and he is a powerful man in jihad. Losing him will be very painful for the mujahedeen, but the shahadat [martyrdom] of Osama, will never stop the jihad. We will continue our fight until we liberate our lands from the Kafirs."

He said his fighters planned to launch an operation called Bader "to avenge the killing of Osama" and claimed many other similar operations would be launched.

A Taliban fighter said, "Even if he is dead, I don't think it will make any difference to our fight. He is just one of thousands of fighters, and from a different organization."

A Yemeni jihadi claimed the death of Bin Laden would not stop al-Qaida insurgents mounting attacks. "I am not fighting for Bin Laden to stop fighting if he is killed, we are not people who worship figures, he – may God have mercy on him – is a brave man who created and led the jihad but it will not stop here and now look what is happening with all the dictators, they are falling because we have been fighting them for so long and that's thanks to the ways of the Sheikh the shahid [the Sheikh the martyr]. Many brothers will I am sure be planning revenge attacks at the moment."

The astonishing discovery that Osama bin Laden had been living, since 2005, in a $ 1 million luxury compound in a cantonment located near the Pakistan Military Academy and three regimental centers, which train recruits and turn them into soldiers, close to national capital, Islamabad, is an enormous embarrassment for the Pakistan's government, who claim to have no knowledge or involvement in the operation. Tens of thousands of people have died in Pakistan as a result of terrorist activity since 9/11, more than all the European and American victims combined.

And now amidst all the killings already taking place in our country at the hands of our politicians, killing each other in order to win a popularity contest, a Taliban commander in Afghanistan has promised that his fighters would mount attacks to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden. TTP’s spokesman said ‘Pakistan will be the prime target. The US had been on a man-hunt for Osama and ‘now Pakistani rulers are on our hit-list’.

It doesn’t matter to us. We stand by our government and our army, who are responsible for the respect, sovereignty and safety of our country. We will not question their intentions or raise doubts about why Osama was here in the first place, or how come no one knew, or how did the US get to know, or why did we stay silent and most of all, who do we turn to for sincere help now that we need it the most.



Monday 2 May 2011

"killing OBAMA is our number one priority!"




A dumb blonde moment!

 Get your story right!



This one seems too deliberate.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Pakistan's Dirty Linen: Mukhtar Mai



Internationally known gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Bibi, recognized as Mukhtar Mai, which means ‘respected big sister’, is a Pakistani woman who was sentenced by a tribal council to be gang-raped for an alleged offense of her younger brother. Several of her neighbors brutally raped her and forced her to walk naked through her village. She was meant to be so dishonored that she would commit suicide, instead she found the courage to conquer her disgrace and demand justice.

Her Story

In June, 2002, Mukhtaran’s adolescent brother Shaqoor was suspected and accused by Mastoi, a rich and influential tribe, of committing fornication with a Mastoi woman, Salma.

Shaqoor, later, testified that he had been abducted by three Mastoi men, each of whom sodomized him in a sugarcane field.

Early in the afternoon of Saturday, June 22, 2002, Shaqoor was abducted by three Mastoi men and taken to the residence of Abdul Khaliq, Salma's brother.

Shaqoor shouted for help on the way and his relatives heard his cries. Mukhtaran, her mother, and other women of the house rushed outside, where several Mastoi men claimed that Shaqoor had fornicated with Salma. The women went immediately to Abdul Khaliq's house to demand his release, but Abdul Khaliq refused. Mukhtaran's mother then sent her brother to the police station which is 18 km to the north across dirt roads.

The police arrived before sunset, freed Shaqoor from the Mastoi, and took him to a police station and held him, pending a possible sex crime charge against him.

Mukhtaran's family proposed to settle the matter with the Mastoi by marrying Shakoor to Salma, and marrying Mukhtaran to one of the Mastoi men, and - if Shakoor was found guilty- to give some land to Salma's family as compensation.

But the men of Salma's family refused and insisted that illicit sex must be settled with illicit sex according to the principle of an eye-for-an-eye.

Later, some Mastoi men went to Mukhtaran's family, and told them that the Mastoi would accept the marriage proposal as settlement, if she would personally come and apologize to Salma's family. She went to the Mastoi gathering, of about 70 people, with her father and maternal uncle. The Mastoi tribe stated that the dispute was settled and Mukhtaran's family should be "forgiven".

Immediately afterward and less than a hundred meters away, Abdul Khaliq, armed with a 30-caliber pistol, forcibly took Mukhtaran into a stable where she was gang raped. After about an hour inside, she was pushed outside wearing only a torn qameez (long shirt). To make an example of her so as not to defy the local authorities, she was paraded naked in front of hundreds of onlookers on the orders of the village jurors. Her father covered her up with a shawl and took her home.

That same night, the police were informed that the two clans had settled their dispute, and that Salma's family was withdrawing its complaint against Shaqoor. His uncle retrieved him from the police station around 3 a.m.

Mukhtaran and her family went to the police station on June 30, 2002 to file charges.


Injustice Served

Mukhtaran's attackers, and the Mastoi of the village jurors that conspired in her rape, were sentenced to death by the Dera Ghazi Khan Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in 2002. The court convicted six men (4 rapists and 2 of the village jurors) and sentenced them to death on 1 September 2002. Eight other accused men were released.

On 10 June 2005, the then President of Pakistan, Parvez Musharraf, put Mukhtaran on Pakistan's Exit Control List (ECL), a list of people, usually criminal suspects or political figures, prohibited from traveling abroad because he did not "want to project a bad image of Pakistan".

Musharraf was asked about the Mukhtar Mai case while on one of his many overseas trips. He advised the victim not to air the country’s dirty linen in public as it tarnished Pakistan’s image abroad. He also suggested that in his experience, “Some women got raped in order to gain asylum in the West”.

On 13 June, the police took her from her village, and no word was heard from her. Her cell phone remained unanswered too.

Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani human rights lawyer confirmed that Mukhtaran had been taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that Musharraf was very angry with her. She was led sobbing to detention at a secret location and barred from contacting anyone, including her lawyer.

On 3 March 2006, the Lahore High Court reversed the judgment by the trial court on the basis of "insufficient evidence" and five of the six men sentenced to death were acquitted.

The Lahore high court ruled on 6 June 2005 that the accused men could be released on payment of a 50,000 rupees ($840) bond. However, the men were unable to come up with the money, and remained in jail while the prosecution appealed their acquittal.

Just over two weeks later, the Supreme Court intervened and suspended the acquittals of the five men as well as the eight who were acquitted at the original 2002 trial. All 14 were retried in the Supreme Court.

On December 11, 2008 Mukhtaran was informed by the sitting Federal Minister for Defense Production, to drop the charge against the accused threatening her that if she did not comply, he and his associates would not let the Supreme Court’s decision go in her favor.

On June 11, 2009, the Multan Electric Power Company raided the MMWWO (Mukhtar Mai's Women Welfare Organization to support and education Pakistani women) in Meerwala, Pakistan, disconnecting all electricity to the grounds, falsely accusing the organization of stealing electricity despite records proving they have paid all bills in full. To this date, they are still without electricity suffering in the blistering temperatures.

And on April 21, 2011 the Supreme Court upheld the Lahore High Court verdict, announcing that five have been acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan while the sixth suspect, Abdul Khalique had his life sentence upheld.

Now, with the release of these suspects, Mukhtaran Mai and her family are continuously threatened by them and the government. While, these rapists are set free she is under house-arrest. Is this the justice she has been waiting for since the last nine years? Is this how she is repaid for having a voice and taking a stand against the inhumane acts done on innocent women?

This woman is not someone our people and the government should be ashamed of or shut her up. She has given hope and courage to women across the world. In 2005, the US magazine Glamour named Mukhtaran as their ‘Woman Of The Year’. She received the 2006 North-South Prize of the Council of Europe for her contribution to human rights. She has met countless renowned people such as the French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor, Laura Bush etc. Books about her ordeal have been published in French ("Déshonorée"), German ("Die Schuld, eine Frau zu sein"), English ("In the Name of Honor: A Memoir.") and 23 other languages.



Sadly, she is not alone in her suffering. This story of heartbreak is typical of innumerable stories of women and girls in poor countries around the world. The exploitation of women, mainly in poor countries, is the most serious abuse of human rights in the world today. I pray for the health, welfare and dignity of our sisters.