US Can Replace Supply Routes But Not Pakistan's Role

Pakistan has sincerely cooperated with the US-led coalition in establishing peace and a working government in Kabul after 2001.

A working government in Kabul and a semblance of peace in Afghanistan is possible today thanks to Pakistan's diplomatic and logistical role in late 2001 and early 2002.

In return, US turned Pakistan into a punching bag. But this will not continue. The US can replace supply routes but not Pakistan's key role and US officials, in government, military and intelligence, will have to learn to respect Pakistani interests if they hope to convince Pakistan to resume at least some cooperation. 

Voice Of Russia: Is US Attack On Pakistan Calculated Or A Blunder?

I join Kudashkina Ekaterina of Voice of Russia radio network to discuss a key question: Is the United States attack on Pakistani military checkposts killing 24 soldiers a blunder? My argument in this brief interview is that it is a deliberate act of war. Click here http://j.mp/tm657y to listen to the interview.

Rauf Khalid: My First And Last Meeting

[Photo credit: Arshad Mehmood's Facebook page]

With a heavy heart, I condole the death of Mr. Rauf Khalid in a car accident today. He's from Peshawar, was residing in Islamabad and died en route to Lahore on the motorway a few hours ago. Apparently his car tire burst and he smashed into the dividing fence.

With his death, Pakistan loses a patriot and a nationalist who devoted the last months and years of his life to the cause of awakening our great nation's young to take charge, rise, and save the homeland from the hands of those who are bringing it down.

Mr. Khalid founded the National Institute of Cultural Studies at Lok Virsa. He was its first President and Chancellor. I met him for the first time on 2 November 2011 at the International Islamic University's Faisal Mosque Campus.

Our colleagues in the Human Rights Forum at the university had organized a seminar on youth leadership and the challenges facing Pakistan, and I was a speaker along with Khalid Saheb. He was a Pakistani patriot and a nationalist like none I've seen in recent times. My turn to speak came right after his superb address. I was left with nothing to add. He said everything I wanted to say. Mashallah, a gifted speaker and one who aroused patriotic sentiments in the crowd in no time, with reason and logic.

And what a talent he was. A painter, a poet, a writer, an actor. And a soldier who has served in our armed forces with pride and honor.

We needed you at this time, Khaled Saheb, when our good people are embarking on a mission to change our country for the better. In my first and last meeting with him, I promised we'll meet after Eid. I could see that this is someone who can and will play a role in mobilizing our youth and our good people for change in 2013.

Make no mistake: change we will bring.  But Abdul Rauf Khalid won't be there with us to see what he always aspired to see: Good, decent, capable, and patriotic Pakistanis making it to the top.

Something We Can Learn From The Saudis

Yesterday, when the news poured of the death of Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Sultan bin Abdulaziz, 80, who died of cancer in a New York City hospital, a question came to my mind: Why NYC when I heard the Saudis have some of the best healthcare facilities in the Middle East?

My question was answered on the same day, when I read that his brother, King Abdullah, 85, was receiving critical medial care at the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. The king was discharged from hospital on the same day his half-brother died and was shifted to his palace to continue medical treatment at home.

The king has been to foreign hospitals for critical surgery but has used Saudi hospitals for all other types of surgeries. Generally, senior Saudi officials do not travel abroad for minor medical treatment. Their own hospitals and doctors are good enough. A large number of Saudi and foreign doctors run these hospitals.

There are two huge medical complexes in Saudi Arabia: the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, the capital, and the King Abdulaziz Medica City in Jeddah on the Red Sea.

The Saudis have also developed world-class hospitals in the private sector that attract much of Middle East's 'medical tourism.'

Education is another area where the Saudis have done well. Up to 50 modern universities exist in a country of almost 25 million people. Almost half of the students are girls. In some Saudi regions the girls surpass boys in college admissions. The illiteracy rate in 2009 was 13%, which is not bad.

Saudi Arabia was a very backward place in 1932 when it was declared a kingdom.

Its first modern university was launched in 1957. The latest one opened doors in 2010.

Much of Saudi Arabia's achievements are buried under unwarranted and politically motivated criticism in the English-language American and US media that dominate internationally. But there is a lot to the kingdom behind  the smokescreen.

P.S. In Pakistan, almost the entire Pakistani political elite, which is a closed-circle mafia in many ways, lives abroad, banks abroad, resides abroad, and receives all medical treatment abroad. It comes to Pakistan only when it is its turn to rule.  The alleged dictatorships of the Gulf are far better than our fractious, violent and fake democracy.

Hillary Clinton's Quick Wit

This comes with years of training and practice but I really liked this accidental video of Mrs. Clinton in Kabul hours before she flew in to Islamabad, the world's closest capital to Kabul [a lot of people don't know this].

For those in the television news business, the video here shows the AP crew preparing to tape and 'feed' the interview back to their reporting station via satellite. So the tape is running but the interview has not started.

The cameraman and the producer probably didn't expect to get this unusual scoop: America's foreign minister caught giving her raw reaction to hearing about Gaddafi's death.

For me, two things make this short video very interesting.

One is that you don't see government officials at her level giving their natural reactions to hardcore news. If not for this chance video, we would have read somewhere that US State Department released a carefully worded statement by Mrs. Clinton on Gaddafi's death.

Not here.

Here we have a senior government official humanized. Like the rest of us, she gets the news on her cell phone and then reacts naturally.

The other thing that really caught my attention, and is the reason why I am sharing the video, is Mrs. Clinton's professionalism that is on display here.

Here she is, the foreign minister of major world power, sitting with journalists. She gets a major breaking news. And how does she react? She's calm and reasoned. Someone tries to drag more out of her but she is very matter-of-factly, saying there have been false alarms before. She avoids any displays of bravado considering that her country was in armed conflict with the now dead Libyan.

That's what really attracted me.

Gotta go now. Reading many reports on the just concluded visit of Mrs. Clinton and her high-powered delegation. A lot of info in the public domain. I also have reports from a couple of our reporters and sources talking to PakNationalists.com.  Some really exclusive stuff. For example, there was a somewhat tense moment during Mrs. Clinton's closed-door meeting with senior Pakistani diplomats at the Foreign Office. And there are some very juicy details about how Mr. David Petraeus, CIA chief, known here as 'chief anti-Pakistan propagandist', was treated by Pakistani officials, and some details about how the Zardari government surrendered our state-run media to Mrs. Clinton's media handlers to use to dish out US propaganda without being countered in any way, and there are many polite ways of doing it, like ensuring some people representing your side are invited to TV events addressed by Mrs. Clinton. Didn't happen. More on this in a few hours as we finish sifting through the piles of info.

Twitter Is Infested With Indians Spreading Hate Against Pakistan

Pakistan is a fascinating country that has generated a lot of interest. Many jobless researchers, journalists and documentary filmmakers have made a career out of becoming self-styled 'Pakistan experts': on women issues, religious schools, Islam, ISI and Kashmir. Recently, no less than the US government has turned to Sufism, not out of love for Islamic mystical orders but in the hope of pitching one group of Pakistani Muslims against another to serve American goals in our region.

So, interest in Pakistani issues is widespread and profitable. But when a large number of people from a particular country do nothing online except demonize another country, then we are confronting an organized propaganda effort. And when these hatemongers claim they are not obsessed with everything Pakistan and pretend to be the world's biggest democrats and liberals, then you know why this issue is important.

Several of our volunteers and interns working at PakNationalists.com, the Pakistani nationalist political lobbying group, are reporting something interesting. Many of them run our Twitter account @paknationalists. One of the interns, Majeda, emailed me with the following observation:

"After spending a month updating the Twitter account of PakNationalists, I noticed a strange trend. I found a large number of Indians updating and commenting on Pakistan. Some using names and others nameless. And I found unanimity in their views and direction, united in spreading hate and anti-Pakistanism. It's as if they are all one person or working for one organization. Could it be that Indians have a propaganda department funded by New Delhi and tasked with highlighting negativities and insinuations about Pakistan? Or is it simply the case of too many hateful Indians out there who are obsessed with Pakistan?  They deny this when you confront them but hating Pakistan is a constant theme on Indian television. They do this in their films, it's in their statements, in the fact that 60 Pakistanis believed Indian claims of peace and traveled to India in 2007 but were burned alive aboard a train by hateful Indians. [In contrast, not a single Indian visitor to Pakistan ever faced anything except legendary Pakistani hospitality].  Indians on Twitter avoid discussing anything Indian. They ignore endless Indian problems like massive poverty and disease, female infanticide, rising Hindu terrorism, and mass graves in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The chief suspect in the genocide of 2,000 non-Hindu Indians over 3 days nine years ago is yet to be indicted. There's so much in India to keep everyone busy. But these Indian hate campaigners won't discuss any of this. Talk to them and they'll cynically say the mass graves belong to terrorists, or that the 2,000 murdered Indians were Pakistani agents and so the genocide was justified."

Majeda's perceptive observations don't end here. She went on in her report to explain how a few Pakistani bloggers including some working for mainstream Pakistani media react to this organized Indian campaign on Twitter. These Pakistani journalists, she wrote, refuse to see how organized the Indians are on social media in spreading hate against Pakistan and Pakistanis. What's worse, these few Pakistani journalists often endorse and promote anti-Pakistan propaganda in the name of liberalism and ignore how many of these hateful Indians are religious extremists in their views and posts.

I have a Twitter account @AQpk and use it often. I spent the past three days verifying the observations of Majeda and our other social media team members. I can second her observations.

My only reaction is this: Pakistani tweeple should question these hateful Indians. Don't get into arguments with them. They are not there to exchange opinions. They have one agenda and that's spreading disinformation on Pakistan. Instead of arguing, confront them with issues India faces and ask them to mind their own business. Tell them to react to:

1. Mass graves of Kashmiris killed by India's occupation army. Ask them about 21st century's first genocide, in 2002, where 2000 Indians were killed in just three days for believing in the wrong religion.
2. Remind them of how Hindu extremists burned an Australian priest and his two underage boys alive not far from New Delhi as Indians stood by watching the priest's under-ten boys burn in flames.
3. Ask them what India is doing about being the world's Number One country in female infanticide in the world [killing baby girls at birth because it's not a boy]. India is also Number One in the world in female underage marriages. Also ask them about India's position as home to the world's biggest concentration of poverty, hunger and disease, according to various UN records. 

Many of these insecure and hateful Indians come online using fake Pakistani identities, using words such as Pashtun, Punjab and Balochistan. They try to use regional Pakistani languages to create differences.

It is important that Pakistanis see this organized Indian work against Pakistan and react to it. We need to raise this issue to answer those - Indians and Americans - who claim India wants peace but Pakistan is a hurdle. The Am-Brit media in particular conceals negative news out of India because of US and UK's strategic goals of installing India as an Anglo-American slave soldier in Asia assigned to fight future Am-Brit wars.

We want peace but we can't achieve it as long there are so many educated Indians out there intent on spreading hate.

UPDATE: This discussion cannot be complete without reading two more brief yet interesting posts:

How Hateful Indians Operate Against Pakistan - Read it at http://j.mp/ydoAEO

and;

Hateful Indians At It, Again - Read it at http://j.mp/yJXjOM

Should Pakistan Accuse Pentagon And CIA Of Murdering Rabbani?

Should Pakistan Accuse Pentagon And CIA Of Murdering Rabbani?

Ironically, the assassination removed a friend of Pakistan and served the interests of Pentagon, CIA and their Afghan allies. While avoiding confrontation, Pakistan needs to speak up and not let disinformation dominate the air waves. Here are key points that weaken American propaganda.

AHMED QURAISHI | Monday | 26 September 2011
PakNationalists.com

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—There is a reason why the United States has ignored the cold-blooded murder of ex-Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani and focused all its energies instead on the attacks on US embassy and NATO offices in Kabul.

The assassination neatly fits in with the interests of three parties: US military, CIA and their Afghan warlord allies. It might well be the first planned murder of a senior Afghan government official opposed to US meddling in Afghan reconciliation.

This is the work of the same American lobbies opposed to President Barrack Obama’s Afghan pullout plan and his defense budget cuts.

There is no credible confirmation yet on who exactly eliminated the man who served as President Karzai’s key manager of reconciliation with Afghan Taliban and someone who recently converted into a friend of Pakistan.

After the assassination, the United States military and intelligence tried to create a wedge between Kabul and Islamabad by invoking an alleged Pakistani hand. But this was effectively countered by Pakistani officials, who have become accustomed to American games. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s quick dash to Kabul to offer condolences and support and later army chief’s cool and calm response to Leon Panetta and Mike Mullen’s anti-Pakistan outbursts helped counter the attempt to poison Karzai’s newfound understandings with Islamabad.

Rabbani’s murder removed an advocate of bringing Afghan Taliban into government, and blaming Pakistan for his murder built pressure on Karzai to sever ties with Islamabad. Such a move would have destroyed Pakistan’s strategy of working closely with Karzai – and Rabbani – to reach a deal with Afghan Taliban and re-empower the Pashtuns despite American opposition.

In short, it is Pakistan that should be raising questions about the mystery of who killed Mr. Rabbani and not vice versa.

The only party that was well prepared to make the most out of Rabbani’s murder was Pentagon and CIA. Both of them moved quickly on two fronts: domestic politics and Pakistan. Domestically, the Panetta-Mullen duo organized a joint anti-Pakistan briefing on 22 September and later Mullen appeared before US Senate armed services committee.

The domestic objectives of Pentagon and CIA from this anti-Pakistan campaign are:

1.    Save the skin of US military and intelligence officials responsible for security lapses in Afghanistan

2.    Dodge accountability

3.    Send a message that major cuts in defense budget won’t be acceptable, and

4.    Underline that Afghanistan continues to require foreign military and intelligence presence

Afghanistan today is CIA’s largest base of operations anywhere in the world. The agency is loath to abandon an outpost that gives it direct access to the backyards of several strategic nations at once: Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia. No sane strategist would let go of such an opportunity. Mr. Rabbani’s peace mission may not have shown initial signs of success but it had already upset the policy direction favored by US military, intelligence and their Afghan warlord allies. India was also skeptical about the Rabbani-Karzai plans. Ending the isolation and punishment of the Pakhtun and incorporating them into Afghan power structure has never appealed to these parties. Another common denominator among these parties is their expressed anti-Pakistanism.

In fact, whoever assassinated Mr. Rabbani was also aiming at ensuring that Afghanistan remains an anti-Pakistan outpost. Islamabad has advocated ending the policy of isolating the Pashtun and worked hard to convince Mr. Karzai that friendship and respect for the legitimate interests of both Afghanistan and Pakistan is in both nations’ interests and would benefit stability in the region. Mr. Rabbani had made several overtures to Pakistan in recent months. In January he used the platform of Geo television to address Pakistanis. He spoke in Urdu as a special gesture.

PAKISTAN’S RESPONSE

Pakistan is pursuing the right policy with regards to American provocations. What is lacking in this policy is the media edge. For example, several Pakistani officials have sent strong direct and indirect messages to Washington recently. The list includes the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Interior Minister, Chief of Army Staff and ISI director. But Pakistan faces a sweeping campaign of demonizing the country. This American policy continues since 2004. Both political and military establishments have failed to counter the American narrative. The danger in the massive American campaign is that it paves the way for stronger future actions and limits global support for Pakistani positions. An example is the intense propagandist reporting on Iraq’s WMD in 2002 which helped Washington invade that country on fake evidence.

We need to become more overt in questioning US positions with regards to several key issues. This includes:

1.    CIA support and safe havens for terrorists meddling in Balochistan

2.    TTP’s easy access to US weapons

3.    The freedom of movement granted to anti-Pakistan terrorists inside US-controlled Afghan territory

4.    The intense demonization of Pakistan primarily and largely in mainstream US media as part of an unstated American policy

5.    Transforming US-controlled Afghanistan into a hub for anti-Pakistan forces in the region

6.    Meddling in Pakistani politics

7.    Buying out Pakistani media and planting mouthpieces in print and TV.

We should also review the argument that we can’t abandon America’s war on terror to ensure US aid flow and to fight domestic extremism. Washington will keep Pakistan afloat but will continue to drag its feet on key strategic issues such as energy generation and access for Pakistani textiles to US market. The US won’t sign any written agreements on CIA’s illegal activities inside Pakistani territory and airspace. As for domestic extremism, apart from TTP terror group that is linked to the Afghan mess, all other forms of domestic extremism are an internal Pakistani issue and should be delinked from America’s Afghan war.

All of this strengthens the argument that we need to declare an end to our direct participation in America’s Afghan war, known as the war on terror. Bilateral Pak-US cooperation to find an end solution in Afghanistan can continue. The move will give us a chance to redesign our relations with Washington and get rid of the verbal commitments made earlier.

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Advice Of A Sikh Leader To Pakistanis On Their Independence Day

Piare Barkhurdar Ahmed Quraishi ji,

Aslaam O Alaikum!

The 14th August, 1947, is Independence Day of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The vision of Sovereignty and Independence of Janab MA Jinnah, Dr (Sir) Iqbal, staunch supporters, believers, and followers and their sincereity of the Awam brought the vision of Pakistan into reality.

The 14th August, 1947 is the day for all Pakistanis to re-determine that:

(i) the Sovereignty of Pakistan will be the prime importance for every citizen of Pakistan, despite all eventuality,
(ii) do not keep any weak leadership of a person like 10-25% and his 'joe boys and joe girls', (iii)
have 100% faith in those who are responsible to protect the political 'integrity' of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and
(iv) always trust the 'brain power' of Pakistan, which is 1000% better than the 'Brahmins-Hindus'.

Best wishes and extended to every citizen of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. May the Khudawand Bakhshinda shower His blessings on you all.

Pakistan Paindabad!

As always,

Awatar Singh Sekhon (Machaki)

A Meeting With Kuwait's Emir

In 2000, Kuwait's incumbent Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah was third in line when I met him for the first time. Even then he was so humble and informal that, at one point, I excused him to leave and stood up and walked four steps away when he suddenly gestured with his hand that he forgot to say something.

There was a senior royal family member seated between me and the Emir. The guest began talking to someone and I couldn’t cross him to the emir, so I sat on the sofa with the guest between me and the Emir. In his classic style, Sheikh Sabah had no problem reaching out to me from behind the back of the guest, me doing the same, and then saying a couple of words in my ears related to the subject we were discussing earlier.

I know this would’ve offended other junior sheikhs. But not this man.  Reporters and cameramen present were surprised to see Sheikh Sabah do this. Many assumed I enjoyed a personal relationship with him. Of course I didn’t and it just so happened that he was familiar with my work and seized the occasion to share information.

Kuwait’s present Emir is one of key persons who had a say in the royal family's decision to share the immense oil wealth with their people and pampering them from cradle to grave. I respect this because I know that these sheikhs could have done what Akbar Bugti and others have done and continue to do in our country: pocket all the riches from natural resources and leave their people suffer. Example: the people of Dera Bugti and many other strategic districts and towns in Pakistan.

I was checking YouTube videos and stumbled on this song, by Saudi singer Rashid al Majid, dedicated to Sheikh Sabah in January 2011 on the fifth anniversary of assuming the throne. I can understand the lyrics but the rest of you will enjoy the tunes. 

India's Racism In A Foreign Mask

An Indian-origin Baroness, Shreela Falther [Mrs. Gary Denis Flather] accuses Pakistani & Bangladeshi families in UK of producing more children to get state benefits. She defends large Indian families by saying they don't count because they're educating their kids. No, really, that's what she said.

What she is doing is to show a red cloth to the British right wing bull. In other words, it is okay for British Indian families - the largest Asian migrant community - to continue milking the government for child benefits because these families are educating their children. The Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are not, according to the Indian-born baroness.

I highlight this story because it represents a trend. More and more Indian-origin migrants are being quietly recruited by Indian government to serve Indian objectives where possible. New Delhi has shown special interest in recruiting Indian migrants sitting in positions of influence in their adopted homelands. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the United States, where Indian-origin journalists, Congressional aides, and TV anchors are already part of a loose network linked to Indian government lobbyists in DC. The Indians have picked this bright idea from none other than AIPAC, the formidable pro-Israel lobby group.

This is why you see more and more influential Indian-origin migrants in influential countries raising issues that serve the Indian government. For example, these prominent Indians would attack Pakistan, highlight dangers from 'Islamic terrorism', underplay Kashmir genocide, downplay high rates of girl infanticide in India, etc.

In this example, the Baroness is playing to the British rightwing by suggesting economic threats from Pakistani- and Bangladeshi-origin migrants. What she doesn't say is that her community of Indian-origin Brits stand to benefit if the other two migrant communities are downsized. This is a serious conflict of interest. But at least she's working for the interests of a friendly foreign government. Is there a law in England against that?

I am glad that I am not the only one who has noticed Indian-born Mrs. Flather's racism. In fact, that's the exact word that came to the mind of a British blogger, Suzanne Cameron-Blackie, when she heard the baroness's tirade.

AQ On Karachi Turf War: Failed Politicians Fighting Over Money

What Punjabi Taliban?

Many US think-tanks act as 'idea incubators' for US government, military and intelligence. 


These think-tanks are often funded by different departments of the US government. They also are home to what is known in intelligence parlance as 'assets'; people that the US government, military or intelligence consider useful for strategic reasons. The think-tanks act as grooming schools for these assets.

Recently, two young American-Pakistanis were funded by a little known think-tank in Washington DC to travel to southern Punjab in Pakistan and write an alarming report about the famed Punjabi Taliban. [NOTE: One more thing: Assignments by most of the DC-based think tanks are designed to serve larger US policy interests. Which is a good idea, but this little known fact should be known more widely because it affects transparency and motives behind recommendations and conclusions.]

I read the report and then read the comments below it, posted at a website for an American news publication.

I reproduce below a comment left by a reader, possibly a Pakistani citizen. The reason I am sharing this here is because it exposes the myth that is Punjabi Taliban, a group that has no address or presence in Pakistan but the US media and 'Pakistan experts' there continue to insist that it exists [apparently they know our country better than we do:)].

Here's the comment:

"An excellent report. I have one question to the budding young authors: Can you pinpoint to me where exactly the famed Punjabi Taliban exist in southern Punjab? 

The fact is the term 'Punjabi Taliban' was invented in the mainstream US media, especially in those publications that are renowned for publishing conspiracy theories that quote no names and are often the work of focused minds in US intelligence. 

It is academic dishonesty on the part of the authors of this piece to talk about 'Punjabi Taliban' without mentioning to the readers that you won't find a single person in entire Pakistan who says, 'Yes, I am Punjabi Taliban.' There is no such thing. CIA analysts and a few American think-tank types have come up with this term to basically malign pro-Kashmir activists and groups that are based in Punjab. The pro-Kashmir groups are there for natural reasons. Pakistan's Punjab province is geographically contiguous to Indian-occupied parts of Kashmir and a large number of Kashmiris have settled in these areas after they escaped Indian atrocities on the other side over six decades. 
The US has taken upon itself recently to drag pro-Kashmir groups into its Afghan 'war on terror' as a favor to India. US diplomats and media have been feverishly trying to incite the peaceful Sufi denominations of Islam in southern Punjab to go to war with other denominations that are involved in volunteering to fight foreign occupiers in Kashmir [and Afghanistan]. "

Around five years ago, US diplomats and CIA agents posted as diplomats in Pakistan tried hard to spy on the pro-Kashmir groups in the region. These diplomats and fake diplomats would meet local and federal Pakistani officials and demand action against 'Punjabi Taliban'. But they would never call their targets by their real names: pro-Kashmir groups.

American policy is smart. To convince Pakistan and its military to start seeing Afghan Taliban as enemies, some CIA agents in Kabul came up with the brilliant idea of creating and funding Pakistani Taliban, which was born after the Americans landed in Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban, the real Taliban, say they don't trust this new Pakistani version, whose sole claim to fame is to kill ordinary Pakistanis and soldiers in the largest numbers possible.  There is also information that CIA in Afghanistan has used these terrorists as a tool of revenge against a Pakistani military that refuses to act as a proxy to American and Indian interests in the region.

Kashmir Won't Go Away

In July, CIA attempted to harm Pakistan's most important national security priority: Kashmir, a territory that is under Indian occupation since 1948. Out of nowhere, the US spy agency arrested Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, a soft-spoken American who migrated from the Indian-occupied territory and set up a Kashmir center in Washington to raise the voice of his people.

The US government claimed the American-Kashmiri activist was a Pakistani spy out to influence US politicians on Kashmir.

Now, two months later, legal experts say he was arrested on little or no evidence. Evidence is mounting that US authorities arrested him for the media effect. In their desperation to harm Kashmiri and Pakistani interests, US authorities went as far as casting doubt on Kashmiri activists and groups active in Europe.

The arrest itself is not the issue here. It's the well-crafted media campaign that accompanied Mr. Fai's arrest.

The CIA circulated several stories in major US news outlets. These stories had one objective: to permanently damage Pakistan's international case on Kashmir. The campaign had little effect on Pakistanis except to further worsen US-Pakistan ties. The CIA made it clear where it stood on that count. [Pakistani officials, dismissing CIA's July move, say Pakistan's Kashmir case remains strong, based on UN resolutions that India had accepted. More importantly, the case is bolstered by courage of Kashmiris in confronting and embarrassing India's military machine.]

Americans are keen to brush Kashmir under the carpet. That is the only way they can tell Pakistanis, 'See, you don't have a problem with India, so start cooperating on granting India military and strategic access to Afghanistan.'

This access is not possible with using Pakistani land routes and airspace, and Pakistan will not go along unless the international dispute of Kashmir is resolved.

Washington's plans to induct India in Afghanistan as a cheaper replacement for the expensive American and NATO deployment there have been hampered by Pakistani objections. Those plans lie in tatters now.

Dr. Fai's arrest was CIA's response to Pakistani decision to restrict the agency's illegal activities inside Pakistan.

It was also a cheap attempt at appeasing the Indians as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited India, where she made sure to ignore the massive human rights violations and the rapes of Kashmiri women by Indian soldiers, as documented by various international human rights organizations.

But despite the best efforts of the Indians and the Americans, Kashmir won't go away.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera has recently published an excellent dossier on happenings inside Kashmir, where a half a million plus Indian soldiers cram a tiny region.

And its latest report by a Kashmiri eyewitness is a strong indictment of India on the discovery of mass graves in the territory, mostly men and boys summarily executed by Indian soldiers, and some local women kidnapped and buried.

How US Policy Created An 'Imported' Debate Of Sufi vs. Wahabi And Religious vs. Secular In Pakistan; Nation Needs Unity And Not Divisions That Serve Foreign Interests

I don't know why some of our 'liberals' love to confuse our national debate. [So do some of our religious extremists].

Foreign commentators [Read: Americans] decide that our national battle should be Sufi saints vs. Wahabi Saudi Arabia [to borrow from the 'imported' vocabulary, because 'Wahabi' is used in the US and the UK media, but never in Saudi Arabia], and our liberals adopt this line without questions.

Our foreign well wishers also decide to limit the entire great and magnificent reality of Pakistan into one single speech by our Quaid on 11 August 1947. Which is a great speech. The objection is that US's Pakistan policy has hijacked this speech to support its agenda of how the government should look like in Islamabad.

Our Quaid, God bless his soul, was a well versed man and had the courage of his convictions. He, and we, want Pakistan to be a modern state. Pakistan is a modern state barring some deformations that occurred after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Our Quaid was great at expressing his thoughts but he never used the word 'secularism'. And so the insinuations that US policymakers and their Pakistani poodles are trying to inject into his 11 Aug. 1947 speech should end. It's none of their business anyway.

Who says that Sufi vs Arab and 11 Aug speech vs. everything else is our main battle in Pakistan?

If some Pakistani citizens want to follow Sufi saints, that's their right. If some Pakistanis want to follow Arab schools of thought in Islam, that's their right too. If somebody here wants to be a westernized liberal Pakistani, that's their choice.

More divisions in a nation exhausted by fake political and linguistic divides are not welcome. A war between these fake divides is certaily not Pakistan's battle, regardless of what American think-tank types suggest.

The Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal can accommodate the Sufis and others, as well as those who are westernized or, to be more accurate, our version of 'liberals'.

Pakistan's real battle is to create and strengthen Pakistani Nationalism. And this nationalism covers our multidimensional identity that spans the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of India/South Asia.

Our challenge of rebuilding the Pakistani State consists of many smaller challenges. Religious-liberal divisions are not one of them. Let's not get behind this ridiculous recipe offered to us by American think-tank types. If these think-tank types and their recipes were any good, they would've handled Iraq and Afghanistan better and prevented their nation from squandering their wealth and reaching the point of default in less than a decade.

   

New York Times' Links To CIA Propaganda Established

The New York Times published a bogus claim of responsibility for the Norway attack. According to NYT, the attack was committed by 'Ansar al-Jihad al-
Alami' [Supporters of Global Jihad] which no one heard of before. Once a pro-Israel Christian terrorist was arrested, the NYT quietly removed this highlighted
part from its report. Of course, no apologies and no accountability for the broadsheets that cooperate with CIA in promoting wars. [CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

 

New York Times Caught Publishing CIA Propaganda On Norway Attack

An American investigative journalist uncovers how the New York Times tried to link the Norway attack to a Muslim group that doesn’t exist and then how it quietly pulled the story later from its online edition, without offering an apology. Alexander Higgins, also uncovers how two other news outlets, one American and the other British, continued to demonize Muslims hours after a Christian extremist was arrested.

SPECIAL REPORT | Monday | 25 July 2011
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—In the first few hours after a Christian terrorist killed tens of Norwegians, the New York Times published a report claiming an unknown Muslim group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Aalami [Supporters of Global Jihad] has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Within a couple of hours of the attack, an online report warned that CIA and its broadsheets in the US media will exploit the attack to garner European support for the failing Afghan war.

This is exactly what many CIA-affiliated websites and ‘translation companies’ have been doing for the past decade, translating claims of responsibility after every terrorist attack anywhere in the world.

As expected, the New York Times published this claim quoting an unknown American analyst who said he saw the claim of responsibility on a website in Arabic and that he translated it into English.

The truth is that an ordinary discussion forum in Arabic, like millions of similar online forums, published what appears to be a celebratory note on the Norway attack arguing the attack was punishment for all the wrong done in Libya and Afghanistan, the two wars where Norway is a participant by default because of its NATO membership.

But nowhere in the Arabic was text there a claim of responsibility. Also, the person who posted the text in Arabic used a fake name.

So a claim by an unknown group that no one heard of, using a fake profile on a discussion forum? Any real journalist would ignore it.

But not the New York Times, which is famous for publishing absolute lies drafted by the CIA. The paper spent the whole of 2002 publishing sophisticated ‘news reports’ about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction complete with expert illustrations of alleged Iraqi weapons. One of NYT’s top reporters, Judith Miller, was discredited because she ran CIA-planted stories under her byline and went to jail in another case of harassment of a US diplomat and his wife who exposed US government lies on Iraq.

UK's The Sun knew it was al-Qaeda before anyone else! [CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

HOW NEW YORK TIMES
WAS CAUGHT

The credibility of the mainstream US media and its links to US government and the CIA is an open secret. The Pakistani military has accused the New York Times of running a ‘slander campaign’ against Pakistan, its military and its spy agency at CIA’s behest.

Even the Norwegian media was cautious when the NYT came up with this claim of responsibility. Norway TV did its own translation of the text and discovered there was no explicit claim of responsibility for the attack.

The investigative work that reveals NYT’s professional dishonesty was done by Alexander Higgins, and published on his blog under the telling title, Corporate Media Runs False CIA Story Stating Muslim Group Claimed Responsibility For Oslo  .

Here we reproduce images from Mr. Higgins blog along with their original captions that tell the full story.

[CLICK HERE to see how Fox News misled American viewers. Some parts of the US media were desperate to implicate Muslims. Pro-war lobbies want any excuse to continue a policy of deception and wars.]

CIA Runs B.S. Story That Muslim Group Claimed Responsibility For Oslo Bombings - Highlighted. Text & image courtesy of Alexander Higgins' blog. [CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

SHOOTER IS PRO-ISRAEL AND IMPRESSED
BY ANTI-MUSLIM AMERICANS

Mr. Higgins makes several interesting observations in his report.

The first is that Norway is a Muslim-friendly country that has not followed the American policy of harassing its Muslim community. It is also a supporter of Palestinian rights and an independent Palestinian state. The Norwegian government has also formally apologized for a couple of local newspapers that reprinted cartoons offensive to Muslims. So unlike the propaganda in American media, Muslims have little reason to attack Norway.

The second important observation is that while the American media continues to emphasize that the Christian extremist is anti-Islam, more important is the fact that he is pro-Israel and a big admirer of anti-Islam writers and bloggers in the US.

This last point is very critical because it confirms our longstanding argument that the United States government and in particular its main intelligence service the CIA are promoting anti-Muslim feelings inside the US and worldwide to continue their interventions in other countries in the name of war on terror. 

The anti-Pakistan propaganda worldwide is also the work of CIA and other elements of the US government. They have been using the same twisted methods of demonizing Pakistan that have come to the surface now after the Norway attacks.

Jihadica, one of many websites suspected of links to CIA that have sprung up to scare the Americans of Islam
and secure their support for endless wars in the Middle East. Photo courtesy of Alexander Higgins' blog
[CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

Urgent, From Admiral Mike Mullen

click photo to enlarge

Sean Hoare, British journalist who exposed phone-hacking scandal in UK is found dead. He exposed complicity of British police.

Did they kill him?

Where is homicide detective Admiral Mike Mullen [part-time US Chairman Joint Chiefs] to give us his expert opinion?

Remember he single-handed exposed ISI and Pakistani military's involvement in the murder of another journalist, Saleem Shahzad.

But this time, there are no CIA-leaked report in US papers accusing British police of killing Hoare?

Where is Mrs. Clinton?

Surely the US government cares about Hoare as they did about poor Saleem Shahzad?


  

Accurate Reporting On Mumbai Blasts

Hours after the three consecutive blasts in India's Mumbai, our team of India analysts at PakNationalists.com released a brief report titled, Fearing Inside Job, India Plays Wise, So Far.

The crux of our argument was simple: India hasn't formally accused Pakistan yet for a very simple reason.

Almost all low-impact terror attacks in India in the past three years were the work of Indian extremists trying to increase pressure on Pakistan.

These new blasts come at a time when the United States has an interest in opening the Indian front amid tensions with Pakistan.

Our report was markedly different and our analysis was entirely based on recent cases from the Indian judicial system and reporting by major Indian news sources.  At a time when Indian and American news outlets were insinuating a Pakistani connection based on the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, our analysts wrote that eight serving and retired Indian military intelligence officers are under investigation for murdering 43 Pakistani goodwill visitors near New Delhi in 2007.  After that attack, the Indian government and British and American media outlets accused Pakistan's ISI of masterminding the attack to derail peace talks.

It turned out Indian military officers encouraged Hindu terror groups to kill Pakistani visitors and blame it on ISI. The sick plot was meant to keep the premier Pakistani spy service under pressure.

Between 2007 and 2009, Indian military officers organized similar attacks across India. And they were caught.

Our argument is that the Indian government was careful this time, fearing the three consecutive, low-impact blasts in Mumbai might have a similar objective, pushing India toward a confrontation with Pakistan at a time when the US is searching for every possible opportunity to raise the heat with Islamabad.

Now, more than 24 hours after the Mumbai blasts, the world media is increasingly picking up the angle that we floated, that the blasts are probably the work of domestic Indian terrorists, almost certainly linked to Hindu terror groups, with some prodding from extremist elements within Indian military.

[See the report here.]

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Hinduism and terror.(Opinion): An article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life