Everyone Knows Better That Why
Mr Zardari Is Ignoring China?
On Sept. 24, Prime Minister Gilani arranged an Iftar-dinner for foreign reporters in the Pakistani capital where Chinese journalists were completely ignored by the Pakistan premier in favor of American and British journalists, whose media is at the forefront of spreading ‘anti-Pakistanism’ around the world. The seating arrangement preferred by the Pakistani prime minister is a small issue, but the new foreign policy of Mr. Zardari’s government is not. He is calling Kashmiri freedom fighters ‘terrorists’ in America and then comes back to Pakistan to deny it. It is time for Islamabad to come out of the closet. The Afghan Taliban, with whom we ended diplomatic relations seven years ago, is a legitimate Afghan player along with the other Afghan resistance and opposition groups. We have no quarrel with them and there is no way that peace can be achieved in Afghanistan without bringing them on board. This is necessary to stabilize our own areas and end America’s excuses to invade Pakistan............................
Mr. Zardari's policy thrust is to focus on United States and India and lessen Pakistan's tilt toward China. His US ambassador, Husain Haqqani, was reported to have verbally warned senior officials in the Pakistan Foreign Office not to focus 'too much' on China because this is Mr. Zardari's policy."
A small incident on the lawn of Prime Minister’s House in the Pakistani capital on Sept. 24 reverberated as far away as Beijing. In the last days of Ramadan, Mr. Gilani invited foreign media for a dinner. Probably by coincidence and not design, British and American journalists were given the high seats on the Prime Minister’s table. Chinese journalists were left out. A few blocks away, at the Chinese Embassy building, China’s ambassador was hosting a dinner and handing out DVD players as gifts for the Pakistani Para-Olympic team and the lone Pakistani player who won a medal in Beijing. At least someone feted our heroes.
A week later, a senior Chinese journalist in the capital was heard complaining. His concern was not that he and his Chinese colleagues were ignored by Pakistani officials during a formal dinner. That’s a small matter. He linked it to the overall perception that, after Feb. 18, something has changed in the relationship with Beijing and that the new elected leadership is not big on China, Pakistan’s traditionally close ally.
"Is everything over after Musharraf?" says the senior Chinese journalist, with some bitterness. I will not quote a name because I don’t have the permission to do that. It does sound dramatic. And it may not be true considering the strong military-to-military Sino-Pakistani relations, reinforced by our Gen. Kayani’s just-concluded visit to Beijing. But this is an impression from someone whose voice is heard by many Pakistan-watchers in the Chinese capital.
Obviously this is not about seating arrangements at official banquets. This is about a whole new foreign policy that is apparently being thrust on Pakistanis without discussion. While it is the prerogative of a new elected government to introduce its own vision for international relations, it is our right to debate it and even reject it, if a majority wants so. This debate is being stifled.
Whether America’s war on terror is ours or not – and no amount of paid advertisements will make it ours – there is no question that Pakistanis don’t want their country to become Washington’s third war after Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Bush administration is feverishly pushing in that direction before the end of its term in order to force the hand of a future government in Washington.
What part of American successes in Iraq and Afghanistan is the current Pakistani government so impressed with that it has no problem in turning Pakistan into CENTCOM’s third area of operations? The U.S. military, which is so keen on training Pakistanis, has been a failure in counterinsurgency warfare in two war zones. It has turned Iraq into a permanently weak and divided nation. In Afghanistan, U.S. military is supporting criminals, warlords and drug smugglers in government. The Afghan opposition, including Afghan Taliban, is being pushed to the wall and slaughtered instead of being reconciled and given a stake and ownership in their own country.
This is why it is stunning that President Zardari’s government is doing very little to stop Pakistan from becoming America’s next war zone. There should not be a problem in deciding this one: this for sure is not our war. Why is it difficult for our President to tell the Americans they need to pacify the Afghan opposition and resistance groups and end the reign of Karzai’s ‘war-lord regime’ in Kabul in order to bring peace to that country?
It is also time for Islamabad to come out of the closet. The Afghan Taliban, with whom we ended diplomatic relations seven years ago, is a legitimate Afghan player along with the other Afghan resistance and opposition groups. We have no quarrel with them and there is no way that peace can be achieved in Afghanistan without bringing them on board. This is necessary to stabilize our own areas and end America’s excuses to invade Pakistan. If Washington cannot understand this, it is our job to ensure they do.
With America’s steep financial crisis, it is strange how our government is slavishly pinning hopes on a rescue package for Pakistan and in the process is keeping mum on major acts of hostility from our so-called allies. Mr. Robert Gates, the U.S. defense secretary, has publicly declared that his country is working on ending its reliance on Pakistan as a transit route for fuel and cargo. And hardly a day goes by without Gen. David Petraeus threatening Pakistan that we risk our very ‘existence’ of we don’t allow U.S. boots on our soil. And as soon as Mr. Karzai’s ambassador in Geneva was elected to IAEA board last week, his first order of business was to raise the ‘issue’ of Pakistan’s proliferation record and urge a reopening of investigations into the matter. Meanwhile, India, which according to our President is no longer a threat, is boldly blocking water coming to us from the rivers of occupied Kashmir. Of course, there is hardly any mention of the mounting and brave Kashmiri resistance in the face of Indian state terrorism.
Pakistanis used to be chided by the Americans after 9/11 for fostering ‘anti-Americanism’. Now our so-called friends are spreading ‘anti-Pakistanism’ around the world, misrepresenting the Pakistanis and reintroducing us as ‘Iraq II’. But not a single voice of defense from Pakistan. History is inviting President Zardari to take a stand and carve a name for himself. He should start by doing and saying the right things in his upcoming unnecessarily delayed ‘first official trip’ to China.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Never Make Joke Over Zardari, Govt Will Arrest You ????
'Never Make Joke Over Zardari, Govt Will Arrest You??
.........................................................................................
By Mr Sajid Hussain PhD
Investigative Journalist
Friday, October, 3 2008.................................
http://Investigativereporterandeditor.blogspirit.com
Overseas Desk::---------------------------------->
President Asif Ali Zardari has given instructions to FIA to hunt down Pakistanis writing jokes about him. The FIA has already begun its witch-hunt, searching the Internet for the ‘criminals’. Prime Minister Gilani wants no newspaper to write anything about him without checking first with his press secretary. A ‘dictator’ like Musharraf never did any of this. This is the fake democratic leadership of our country where the President is busy with the jokes on him when the country is facing hostile action from Zardari’s own allies in Washington. What can Pakistanis do if President Zardari gives them opportunities to make jokes? Who told him to alert the entire media by disappearing from an official dinner to go celebrate with his former girlfriends at a private party? Who is setting him up? ? ?? ????????????????????????????????
President Zardari might have a funny side but it’s obviously reserved for Americans like Sarah Palin and not for Pakistanis. Before he left for his U.S. tour (which he camouflaged as a U.N. tour to fool our friends in Beijing who expected the Pakistani President to make his first visit to China), Mr. Zardari gave stern instructions to the sleuths at Federal Investigations Agency, FIA, to hunt down Pakistanis responsible for circulating jokes about Mr. Zardari through emails and text messages.
Mr. Zardari was especially angry at someone who faked his signature on the Visitors’ Book at the Mausoleum of Pakistan’s Founding Father, the Quaid-e-Azam, in Karachi, where Mr. President landed on 14 August to pay his respects.
That email was a particularly nasty job where Mr. Zardari was shown to have supposedly written God as ‘goad’ and strength as ‘strent’.
So angry is Mr. Zardari with those poking fun at him that no less than the official news agency, the APP, was told to release a story to all Pakistani newspapers where an unnamed official (we suspect it’s either Husain Haqqani or Sheri Rehman) denied the President ever wrote those words and denounced the jokes at President’s expense. There was also a dire warning to all fun-loving Pakistanis: the cyber crime wing of the FIA has been instructed to hunt down those circulating jokes on him through emails or mobile phones. Several prominent journalists in Islamabad have already received calls from secret numbers where the caller on the other side inquired about journalists and people opposed to Mr. Zardari, since according to FIA sleuths only declared critics of the President could do this. [Tip to FIA honchos: Don’t forget to check Naheed Khan, Makhdoom Amin Faheem and Enver Baig’s cell phones for a secret war-chest of Zardari jokes!]
Here I’d like to remind those Pakistanis who voted for Mr. Zardari and his party [only 40% of Pakistanis vote, and most of them are illiterate and they vote at gunpoint by their feudal lords, so I’m not optimistic they are reading this] that President Pervez Musharraf, the last of the great Pakistani statesmen, despite his many follies, and a military ‘dictator’, spent 90% of his time in government with an extremely hostile media and one of the nastiest character-assassination campaigns ever seen in Pakistan, through SMS messages, emails, Internet, newspapers, and television channels. What did Musharraf do? He allowed more private TV channels. And he never complained, except for the last few months of his office, and even then he never reacted to jokes about him and character-assassination and his anger was aimed at other types of political criticism that he thought demoralized the nation.
As for these fake democrats who are in power today in Pakistan thanks to a British-American ‘deal’, Prime Minister Gilani issued an order that no media organization can publish anything about him without checking first with his press secretary. And now President Zardari wants to ban all jokes about him. A ‘dictator’ like Musharraf never issued such ridiculous orders.
So what if some Pakistanis joke about Mr. Zardari? After all, he does have a colorful past and his unlikely rise to power beats even the most melodramatic Indian films with absurd story lines. And what to say of Mr. Zardari’s knack for saying and doing things that make it easy for those who want to crack a joke or two at his expense. Take for example of his flimsy failed flirt attempt with Sarah Palin, or his sudden disappearance from an Iftar-dinner reception for Pakistanis to attend a private-room party with his girlfriends at an upscale Manhattan restaurant in New York City.
In the spirit of free speech and free jokes, let me conclude with this latest one on Mr. Zardari:
"Just imagine Sarah Palin divorces her current husband and marries Asif Zardari.
Then Palin becomes Vice President of USA.
Then Zardari kills Palin, changes the Will which henceforth says, ‘Zardari will become the President of USA if I die.’
And eventually Zardari becomes President of USA six months after Palin’s death.
Bilawal ends up changing his name to Bilawal Palin-Zardari."
.........................................................................................
By Mr Sajid Hussain PhD
Investigative Journalist
Friday, October, 3 2008.................................
http://Investigativereporterandeditor.blogspirit.com
Overseas Desk::---------------------------------->
President Asif Ali Zardari has given instructions to FIA to hunt down Pakistanis writing jokes about him. The FIA has already begun its witch-hunt, searching the Internet for the ‘criminals’. Prime Minister Gilani wants no newspaper to write anything about him without checking first with his press secretary. A ‘dictator’ like Musharraf never did any of this. This is the fake democratic leadership of our country where the President is busy with the jokes on him when the country is facing hostile action from Zardari’s own allies in Washington. What can Pakistanis do if President Zardari gives them opportunities to make jokes? Who told him to alert the entire media by disappearing from an official dinner to go celebrate with his former girlfriends at a private party? Who is setting him up? ? ?? ????????????????????????????????
President Zardari might have a funny side but it’s obviously reserved for Americans like Sarah Palin and not for Pakistanis. Before he left for his U.S. tour (which he camouflaged as a U.N. tour to fool our friends in Beijing who expected the Pakistani President to make his first visit to China), Mr. Zardari gave stern instructions to the sleuths at Federal Investigations Agency, FIA, to hunt down Pakistanis responsible for circulating jokes about Mr. Zardari through emails and text messages.
Mr. Zardari was especially angry at someone who faked his signature on the Visitors’ Book at the Mausoleum of Pakistan’s Founding Father, the Quaid-e-Azam, in Karachi, where Mr. President landed on 14 August to pay his respects.
That email was a particularly nasty job where Mr. Zardari was shown to have supposedly written God as ‘goad’ and strength as ‘strent’.
So angry is Mr. Zardari with those poking fun at him that no less than the official news agency, the APP, was told to release a story to all Pakistani newspapers where an unnamed official (we suspect it’s either Husain Haqqani or Sheri Rehman) denied the President ever wrote those words and denounced the jokes at President’s expense. There was also a dire warning to all fun-loving Pakistanis: the cyber crime wing of the FIA has been instructed to hunt down those circulating jokes on him through emails or mobile phones. Several prominent journalists in Islamabad have already received calls from secret numbers where the caller on the other side inquired about journalists and people opposed to Mr. Zardari, since according to FIA sleuths only declared critics of the President could do this. [Tip to FIA honchos: Don’t forget to check Naheed Khan, Makhdoom Amin Faheem and Enver Baig’s cell phones for a secret war-chest of Zardari jokes!]
Here I’d like to remind those Pakistanis who voted for Mr. Zardari and his party [only 40% of Pakistanis vote, and most of them are illiterate and they vote at gunpoint by their feudal lords, so I’m not optimistic they are reading this] that President Pervez Musharraf, the last of the great Pakistani statesmen, despite his many follies, and a military ‘dictator’, spent 90% of his time in government with an extremely hostile media and one of the nastiest character-assassination campaigns ever seen in Pakistan, through SMS messages, emails, Internet, newspapers, and television channels. What did Musharraf do? He allowed more private TV channels. And he never complained, except for the last few months of his office, and even then he never reacted to jokes about him and character-assassination and his anger was aimed at other types of political criticism that he thought demoralized the nation.
As for these fake democrats who are in power today in Pakistan thanks to a British-American ‘deal’, Prime Minister Gilani issued an order that no media organization can publish anything about him without checking first with his press secretary. And now President Zardari wants to ban all jokes about him. A ‘dictator’ like Musharraf never issued such ridiculous orders.
So what if some Pakistanis joke about Mr. Zardari? After all, he does have a colorful past and his unlikely rise to power beats even the most melodramatic Indian films with absurd story lines. And what to say of Mr. Zardari’s knack for saying and doing things that make it easy for those who want to crack a joke or two at his expense. Take for example of his flimsy failed flirt attempt with Sarah Palin, or his sudden disappearance from an Iftar-dinner reception for Pakistanis to attend a private-room party with his girlfriends at an upscale Manhattan restaurant in New York City.
In the spirit of free speech and free jokes, let me conclude with this latest one on Mr. Zardari:
"Just imagine Sarah Palin divorces her current husband and marries Asif Zardari.
Then Palin becomes Vice President of USA.
Then Zardari kills Palin, changes the Will which henceforth says, ‘Zardari will become the President of USA if I die.’
And eventually Zardari becomes President of USA six months after Palin’s death.
Bilawal ends up changing his name to Bilawal Palin-Zardari."
Saturday, September 27, 2008
US , Musat Talk To Taliban's Mullah Omar
U.S Must Talk To Taliban's Mullah Omar'
Karzai an ‘obstacle’ to peace
By,
Investigative Journalist
Saturday, September 27 2008,
Overseas Desk::-------------->
[ U.S apologists and poodles inside Pakistan are trying to convince Pakistanis to unnecessarily ‘own’ America’s blunders in the region as Pakistan’s own. Not Owais Ghani, the governor of NWFP. Terrorism inside Pakistan is partially linked to foul ]
play on the Afghan side of the border, and partially to misguided local Pakistani extremists who, again, are influenced from across the border. The real issue is Washington’s failure to bring peace to Afghanistan despite seven years of occupation. Mr. Ghani comes out to tell the truth: The U.S. must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region. Mr. Ghani’s also said that Hamid Karzai represents no one but himself and is dependent on a foreign power and that he is an obstacle to bringing peace to Afghanistan. When asked about allegations that Pakistan has used the Taliban to retain its influence in Afghanistan, Mr. Ghani replied: "We could counter that by saying India uses the Northern Alliance." Mr. Ghani’s landmark proposal came in an interview published by an esteemed Daily publication, Here are excerpts.
Mr Owais Ghani former Balochistan's governor and now who governs the North West Frontier Province and its adjoining tribal areas, is the most prominent figure to date to publicly advocate holding talks with militant commanders leading the insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
"They have to talk to Mullah Omar, certainly – not maybe, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Haqqani group," Mr Ghani said,
"The solution, the bottom line, is that political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan."
The governor's remarks are likely to cause controversy among Pakistan's allies in the U.S.-led "war on terror" and at home where the ruling Pakistan's People's Party is opposed to the Taliban.
Mullah Omar went into hiding during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. British intelligence believes that he has his headquarters in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan. But there is no evidence to suggest he is anywhere in Pakistan.
In 2006, Mr. Musharraf acknowledged that some retired Pakistani intelligence officials may still be involved in supporting their former Taliban protégés whom they worked with during the 1990s when Pakistan helped the movement sweep to power in Afghanistan.
[Seven years later, and with the fact that U.S. has empowered Pakistan’s traditional enemies in Afghanistan, including the Indians, it is only natural some officials in Islamabad begin to review their blind support to the U.S. occupation next door]
Jalaluddin Haqqani is a veteran commander of the American-backed Afghan war against Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and developed links with Osama bin Laden during that period.
Haqqani has had close links with the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agencies, notably the military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
An esteemed daily, reported in July that the CIA had given the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, evidence of the ISI's continued involvement with Haqqani, who is now leading militants against coalition forces in Afghanistan, along with evidence of ISI connections to a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed nearly 60 people on July 7.
[On 12 July, Islamabad retorted by giving U.S. military chief Adm. Mike Mullen and the deputy director of CIA who arrived for a brief visit evidence that Afghan soil was being used for exporting terrorism into Pakistan as part of deliberate effort to stoke ethnic and sectarian terrorism in the country]
The Hezb-e-Islami, the Mujahideen faction of the former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was one of the groups which helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan but has had links with Pakistan since 1978.
But in the civil war that followed in the early 1990s, his group clashed violently with other Mujahideen factions in the struggle for control of the Afghan capital, Kabul. The Hezb-e-Islami was blamed for much of the terrible death and destruction of that period, which led many ordinary Afghans to welcome the emergence of the Taliban. Some of his party members are part of the Afghan parliament and he is said to have taken part in back-channel negotiations with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
Mr. Ghani said that all three militant commanders were in Afghanistan.
"They are a power group that has to be preserved to seek political solutions. We would not destroy them because then you are contributing to further instability," he said. He denied that Pakistan "wants the Taliban back". He added: "No sir, we have no favorites in Afghanistan."
Mr. Ghani said that West must accept that the "Mullah is a political reality".
However he denied that Pakistan is supporting them by pointing out that it had handed over key Taliban ground commanders operating in Helmand province where British forces are based.
[Not only that, but Islamabad needlessly humiliated and handed over to the Americans such Taliban officials as the former ambassador to Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, someone who has in the protection of the Pakistani State and had not taken part in any unlawful activity, as transpired later when the Americans released him prematurely from Guantanamo Bay detention facility]
Senior American commanders and policymakers are considering a shift in strategy in Afghanistan. The chairman of the U.S. joint chief of staffs, Admiral Mike Mullen, recently said that failure there was possible and "time was running out".
Mr Ghani said: "You are headed for failure. I think Afghanistan is practically lost. It is compounding our problems."
The governor added that the West must hold talks with the Taliban as al-Qaeda was regrouping from Iraq to Afghanistan. Russia had begun to supply weapons to militants and that the Afghans were intolerant of foreigners on their soil and so were staging "a national uprising".
"To eliminate the Taliban you have to slaughter half the Afghan nation," said Mr Ghani.
Members of a cross-border Afghan-Pakistani tribal council agreed last year to pursue talks with the Taliban. The initiative received initial encouragement from the Taliban but its leadership then set preconditions for the 50,000 U.S. and Nato troops to be withdrawn.
Washington rejects talks with the Taliban maintaining that America will not negotiate with "terrorists". Mr. Karzai and the United Nations have stipulated that a key condition for peace talks is that the Taliban must accept the constitution that was signed by Mr. Karzai in 2004.
It is doubtful that America's allies in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance, would accept such talks.
Mr. Ghani said that Mr. Karzai "does not represent any power group – tribal, religious or political and therefore like the people in his government he is dependant on foreign power. He is therefore an obstacle to dialogue and peace."
He described Pakistan's military strategy as one of containment. "We are not looking for quick fixes. We want to hold it to a level where we can just tolerate it until Afghanistan settles down," said Mr. Ghani.
When asked about allegations that Pakistan has used the Taliban to retain its influence in Afghanistan, Mr. Ghani replied:
"We could counter that by saying India uses the Northern Alliance."
Karzai an ‘obstacle’ to peace
By,
Investigative Journalist
Saturday, September 27 2008,
Overseas Desk::-------------->
[ U.S apologists and poodles inside Pakistan are trying to convince Pakistanis to unnecessarily ‘own’ America’s blunders in the region as Pakistan’s own. Not Owais Ghani, the governor of NWFP. Terrorism inside Pakistan is partially linked to foul ]
play on the Afghan side of the border, and partially to misguided local Pakistani extremists who, again, are influenced from across the border. The real issue is Washington’s failure to bring peace to Afghanistan despite seven years of occupation. Mr. Ghani comes out to tell the truth: The U.S. must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region. Mr. Ghani’s also said that Hamid Karzai represents no one but himself and is dependent on a foreign power and that he is an obstacle to bringing peace to Afghanistan. When asked about allegations that Pakistan has used the Taliban to retain its influence in Afghanistan, Mr. Ghani replied: "We could counter that by saying India uses the Northern Alliance." Mr. Ghani’s landmark proposal came in an interview published by an esteemed Daily publication, Here are excerpts.
Mr Owais Ghani former Balochistan's governor and now who governs the North West Frontier Province and its adjoining tribal areas, is the most prominent figure to date to publicly advocate holding talks with militant commanders leading the insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
"They have to talk to Mullah Omar, certainly – not maybe, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Haqqani group," Mr Ghani said,
"The solution, the bottom line, is that political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan."
The governor's remarks are likely to cause controversy among Pakistan's allies in the U.S.-led "war on terror" and at home where the ruling Pakistan's People's Party is opposed to the Taliban.
Mullah Omar went into hiding during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. British intelligence believes that he has his headquarters in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan. But there is no evidence to suggest he is anywhere in Pakistan.
In 2006, Mr. Musharraf acknowledged that some retired Pakistani intelligence officials may still be involved in supporting their former Taliban protégés whom they worked with during the 1990s when Pakistan helped the movement sweep to power in Afghanistan.
[Seven years later, and with the fact that U.S. has empowered Pakistan’s traditional enemies in Afghanistan, including the Indians, it is only natural some officials in Islamabad begin to review their blind support to the U.S. occupation next door]
Jalaluddin Haqqani is a veteran commander of the American-backed Afghan war against Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and developed links with Osama bin Laden during that period.
Haqqani has had close links with the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agencies, notably the military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
An esteemed daily, reported in July that the CIA had given the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, evidence of the ISI's continued involvement with Haqqani, who is now leading militants against coalition forces in Afghanistan, along with evidence of ISI connections to a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed nearly 60 people on July 7.
[On 12 July, Islamabad retorted by giving U.S. military chief Adm. Mike Mullen and the deputy director of CIA who arrived for a brief visit evidence that Afghan soil was being used for exporting terrorism into Pakistan as part of deliberate effort to stoke ethnic and sectarian terrorism in the country]
The Hezb-e-Islami, the Mujahideen faction of the former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was one of the groups which helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan but has had links with Pakistan since 1978.
But in the civil war that followed in the early 1990s, his group clashed violently with other Mujahideen factions in the struggle for control of the Afghan capital, Kabul. The Hezb-e-Islami was blamed for much of the terrible death and destruction of that period, which led many ordinary Afghans to welcome the emergence of the Taliban. Some of his party members are part of the Afghan parliament and he is said to have taken part in back-channel negotiations with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
Mr. Ghani said that all three militant commanders were in Afghanistan.
"They are a power group that has to be preserved to seek political solutions. We would not destroy them because then you are contributing to further instability," he said. He denied that Pakistan "wants the Taliban back". He added: "No sir, we have no favorites in Afghanistan."
Mr. Ghani said that West must accept that the "Mullah is a political reality".
However he denied that Pakistan is supporting them by pointing out that it had handed over key Taliban ground commanders operating in Helmand province where British forces are based.
[Not only that, but Islamabad needlessly humiliated and handed over to the Americans such Taliban officials as the former ambassador to Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, someone who has in the protection of the Pakistani State and had not taken part in any unlawful activity, as transpired later when the Americans released him prematurely from Guantanamo Bay detention facility]
Senior American commanders and policymakers are considering a shift in strategy in Afghanistan. The chairman of the U.S. joint chief of staffs, Admiral Mike Mullen, recently said that failure there was possible and "time was running out".
Mr Ghani said: "You are headed for failure. I think Afghanistan is practically lost. It is compounding our problems."
The governor added that the West must hold talks with the Taliban as al-Qaeda was regrouping from Iraq to Afghanistan. Russia had begun to supply weapons to militants and that the Afghans were intolerant of foreigners on their soil and so were staging "a national uprising".
"To eliminate the Taliban you have to slaughter half the Afghan nation," said Mr Ghani.
Members of a cross-border Afghan-Pakistani tribal council agreed last year to pursue talks with the Taliban. The initiative received initial encouragement from the Taliban but its leadership then set preconditions for the 50,000 U.S. and Nato troops to be withdrawn.
Washington rejects talks with the Taliban maintaining that America will not negotiate with "terrorists". Mr. Karzai and the United Nations have stipulated that a key condition for peace talks is that the Taliban must accept the constitution that was signed by Mr. Karzai in 2004.
It is doubtful that America's allies in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance, would accept such talks.
Mr. Ghani said that Mr. Karzai "does not represent any power group – tribal, religious or political and therefore like the people in his government he is dependant on foreign power. He is therefore an obstacle to dialogue and peace."
He described Pakistan's military strategy as one of containment. "We are not looking for quick fixes. We want to hold it to a level where we can just tolerate it until Afghanistan settles down," said Mr. Ghani.
When asked about allegations that Pakistan has used the Taliban to retain its influence in Afghanistan, Mr. Ghani replied:
"We could counter that by saying India uses the Northern Alliance."
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Forcibly Enjoyment Of Exported Democracy
''America Retreating Everywhere, Except In Pakistan"
Russia under the leadership of a nationalist like Vladimir Putin has deftly pushed back America. The Americans are tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan and their threats have more bluster than bite. This does not mean we go to war with Washington, which is still a superpower. It means that Pakistan, too, can deftly handle the cowboys. For starters, U.S. drones entering Pakistan must be a fair game. So should be the Afghan army soldiers who participate in violating our border. Pakistan should not go a step beyond defending our border. The message should be clear. In this case, half the battle is psychological. This is a message to some of the defeatists in Pakistan, a minority, who are advocating surrender in advance.
By Mr Sajid Hussain PhD
Investigative Journalist
Monday, September 15 2008
Overseas Desk::---------------------------------------------------->
The U.S. Army's III Corps is in Iraq. The 4th Infantry Division is at Camp Victory. The 3rd Infantry Division is in Baghdad. The 1st Armored Division is in Tikrit. America's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigades have been fighting in Iraq. America's 25th Infantry Division and the 172nd Infantry Brigade have been engaged in Iraq. America's XVIII Airborne Corps, 1st Armored Division and the 4th Infantry Division have also been occupied in Iraq. The 10th Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing are also busy fighting. The U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been supporting air operations in the 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility (USS Theodore Roosevelt has since gone back to its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia). The carrier Strike Group USS Ronald Reagan is now in the northern Arabian Sea. While the war in Iraq goes on, the CIA's paramilitary teams, the U.S. Army Special Forces, Navy Seals and the U.S. Air Force's air commandos are all busy in Afghanistan. America's 173rd Airborne Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, 86th Combat Support Hospital, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and 101st Combat Aviation Brigade are all fighting the emboldened Taliban. To be certain, the Russian Federation, the largest country in the world that covers one-eighth of the world's land area, has been in hibernation since it splintered into Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Russia's 20-year hibernation made America the lone hegemonic global power. Over those 20 years, here's what America did to Russia: Three Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were inducted into NATO. Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania were also brought into NATO. In 1994, the former Soviet state of Georgia was coaxed into joining the NATO-run 'Partnership for Peace'. Israeli trainers, along with a hundred U.S. 'military advisers', began training the Georgian military. In 2003, the CIA displaced President Eduard Shevardnadze (in what is referred to as the 'Rose Revolution'). In 2004, the CIA financed the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. In 2008, at the Bucharest Summit, Georgia was invited to join NATO. At the Caucasus, a mere thousand miles from Moscow, America has been stitching a pro-America belt comprising Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. To top it all, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline was built to capture Caspian Sea's oil wealth away from Russian influence. Imagine; eight of the fifteen former Soviet states are now part of NATO. On 8 August 2008, the carnivoran Russian bear came out of its 20-year hibernation. Ten thousand Russian troops, tanks, armored personnel carriers, towed artillery, truck-mounted rocket launchers of the 58th Army, 76th Air Assault Division, 98th Airborne Division, Russian Air Force's Sukhoi all-weather Su-24s, 25s, 27s, Tupolev Tu-22 supersonic bombers and the Russian Black Sea Fleet invaded Georgia in a lightning, efficiently executed campaign (Georgian army, navy and air force were completely destroyed)
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline is on fire. America, pinned down in Iraq and Afghanistan, is left with little to challenge a resurging Russia. The reality of a powerful, assertive Russia is dawning on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The American foreign policy establishment has been caught napping. On September 1, Dmitry Medvedev, the 43-year old President of Russia, was at his presidential residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. President Medvedev told Russian television Channel One that "Russia will never yield to the world order where all decisions are taken by the United States exclusively; the world should be multicolor.What's next? Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania or the Black Sea? On August 26, the destroyer USS McFaul, carrying humanitarian aid supplies, docked at the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti. With most of their boots in Iraq and Afghanistan, all that American destroyers can now do is deliver humanitarian aid. Imagine; in another direct blow to America's foreign policy establishment, Azerbaijan has now shipped 200,000 barrels of oil to Iran.
With $600 billion in reserves, Russia is 'resurging' and America is left with little to block that resurgence. On September 10, two Tupolev Tu-160s, Russia's supersonic, nuclear-capable, variable-geometry heavy bombers, landed in Venezuela, a mere thousand miles from Florida. In November, elements of Russia's Northern Fleet are going to be in the Caribbean. The American foreign policy establishment has been caught sleeping.
Postscript: Pakistan's foreign policy establishment was also shocked when the Indian army announced the completion of a road by virtue of which Afghanistan's Nimroz province now stands connected to the Iranian free-trade port of Charbahar. Landlocked Afghanistan will no longer be dependent on Pakistan..!!!
Russia under the leadership of a nationalist like Vladimir Putin has deftly pushed back America. The Americans are tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan and their threats have more bluster than bite. This does not mean we go to war with Washington, which is still a superpower. It means that Pakistan, too, can deftly handle the cowboys. For starters, U.S. drones entering Pakistan must be a fair game. So should be the Afghan army soldiers who participate in violating our border. Pakistan should not go a step beyond defending our border. The message should be clear. In this case, half the battle is psychological. This is a message to some of the defeatists in Pakistan, a minority, who are advocating surrender in advance.
By Mr Sajid Hussain PhD
Investigative Journalist
Monday, September 15 2008
Overseas Desk::---------------------------------------------------->
The U.S. Army's III Corps is in Iraq. The 4th Infantry Division is at Camp Victory. The 3rd Infantry Division is in Baghdad. The 1st Armored Division is in Tikrit. America's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigades have been fighting in Iraq. America's 25th Infantry Division and the 172nd Infantry Brigade have been engaged in Iraq. America's XVIII Airborne Corps, 1st Armored Division and the 4th Infantry Division have also been occupied in Iraq. The 10th Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing are also busy fighting. The U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been supporting air operations in the 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility (USS Theodore Roosevelt has since gone back to its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia). The carrier Strike Group USS Ronald Reagan is now in the northern Arabian Sea. While the war in Iraq goes on, the CIA's paramilitary teams, the U.S. Army Special Forces, Navy Seals and the U.S. Air Force's air commandos are all busy in Afghanistan. America's 173rd Airborne Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, 86th Combat Support Hospital, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and 101st Combat Aviation Brigade are all fighting the emboldened Taliban. To be certain, the Russian Federation, the largest country in the world that covers one-eighth of the world's land area, has been in hibernation since it splintered into Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Russia's 20-year hibernation made America the lone hegemonic global power. Over those 20 years, here's what America did to Russia: Three Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were inducted into NATO. Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania were also brought into NATO. In 1994, the former Soviet state of Georgia was coaxed into joining the NATO-run 'Partnership for Peace'. Israeli trainers, along with a hundred U.S. 'military advisers', began training the Georgian military. In 2003, the CIA displaced President Eduard Shevardnadze (in what is referred to as the 'Rose Revolution'). In 2004, the CIA financed the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. In 2008, at the Bucharest Summit, Georgia was invited to join NATO. At the Caucasus, a mere thousand miles from Moscow, America has been stitching a pro-America belt comprising Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. To top it all, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline was built to capture Caspian Sea's oil wealth away from Russian influence. Imagine; eight of the fifteen former Soviet states are now part of NATO. On 8 August 2008, the carnivoran Russian bear came out of its 20-year hibernation. Ten thousand Russian troops, tanks, armored personnel carriers, towed artillery, truck-mounted rocket launchers of the 58th Army, 76th Air Assault Division, 98th Airborne Division, Russian Air Force's Sukhoi all-weather Su-24s, 25s, 27s, Tupolev Tu-22 supersonic bombers and the Russian Black Sea Fleet invaded Georgia in a lightning, efficiently executed campaign (Georgian army, navy and air force were completely destroyed)
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline is on fire. America, pinned down in Iraq and Afghanistan, is left with little to challenge a resurging Russia. The reality of a powerful, assertive Russia is dawning on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The American foreign policy establishment has been caught napping. On September 1, Dmitry Medvedev, the 43-year old President of Russia, was at his presidential residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. President Medvedev told Russian television Channel One that "Russia will never yield to the world order where all decisions are taken by the United States exclusively; the world should be multicolor.What's next? Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania or the Black Sea? On August 26, the destroyer USS McFaul, carrying humanitarian aid supplies, docked at the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti. With most of their boots in Iraq and Afghanistan, all that American destroyers can now do is deliver humanitarian aid. Imagine; in another direct blow to America's foreign policy establishment, Azerbaijan has now shipped 200,000 barrels of oil to Iran.
With $600 billion in reserves, Russia is 'resurging' and America is left with little to block that resurgence. On September 10, two Tupolev Tu-160s, Russia's supersonic, nuclear-capable, variable-geometry heavy bombers, landed in Venezuela, a mere thousand miles from Florida. In November, elements of Russia's Northern Fleet are going to be in the Caribbean. The American foreign policy establishment has been caught sleeping.
Postscript: Pakistan's foreign policy establishment was also shocked when the Indian army announced the completion of a road by virtue of which Afghanistan's Nimroz province now stands connected to the Iranian free-trade port of Charbahar. Landlocked Afghanistan will no longer be dependent on Pakistan..!!!
Arrested Democracy Of Zardari & Karzai
''Zardari & Karzai: Democracy On The Back Of An American Tank''
By Mr Sajid Husain
Investigative Jounalist
Wednesday, 16 September 2008.
Overseas Desk::-------------------------------------------------
......................................... Peoples Party slogans pushing back the national anthem, Benazir Bhutto’s picture hung right next to that of the great Founding Father of the nation, and a smug-faced Hamid Karzai, Washington’s barking dog in Afghanistan, invited as a guest of honor. If you are a Pakistani nationalist and you are disgusted by any of this, check the last item on the list: While extolling the virtues of the founder of his wife’s party, the new Pakistani president excitedly waved his hand in the air reminding everyone that his is the party that "took K2 [Pakistan’s highest mountain peak] back from China."
What a perfect greeting to our Chinese friends from a Pakistani president on the day he takes oath of office. [Please read the column on how the Zardari-Gilani government deliberately sidelined China in its first four months in office.]
Appeasing the Americans was more important for President Asif Ali Zardari than respecting the sensibilities of the Pakistani nation. So he gave Karzai the honor of becoming the only foreign head of state to be present in the Pakistani presidential palace during the oath of office. It makes perfect sense. President Zardari is an American creation. Washington brokered the deal that made him and his late wife the rightful owners of a staggering unexplained wealth. Karzai is the head of the puppet regime that Washington is keeping alive in Kabul. If the Americans leave, the fate that awaits Mr. Karzai is no different than the one the Afghan people meted out to another former puppet president, the pro-Soviet Najibullah.
During the press conference that Pakistanis watched live today, Zardari and Karzai appeared too small, too insignificant and too unsuited for the offices they hold. Two pygmies. Two historical mistakes.
The Pakistani media, intellectuals, writers and activists have been chiding former President Musharraf for being a ‘dictator’ and have been extolling the virtues of democracy that won’t be complete without the great Pakistani democrats back in power.
So here’s your democracy, on the back of an American tank.
When a reporter from Aaj TV asked President Zardari to condemn the U.S. military for its terrorism and the deliberate killing of women and children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, our new Commander-in-Chief retorted, "There is something called a U.N. Charter. They are in Afghanistan under sanction from the U.N. Are you saying that the U.N. is a terrorist organization?"
Dr. Condoleezza Rice must have shaken her head. ‘How come I never thought of this line?’
To his credit, President Karzai actually did chide the Americans on civilian deaths. His words were far stronger than anything President Zardari had to say when asked about Pakistani women and children killed in our tribal belt by U.S. soldiers who sneaked in the dead of the night, barged into houses and opened fire on sleeping men, women and children.
Do you know what the new Pakistani president said when asked about this? He said he has proposed the creation of a support fund for the victims of such operations.
Thank you, Mr. President, for having a big heart.
Never was the Pakistani Presidential palace so disgraced as it was on 9 September 2008. Please mark it. When the President-elect entered the main hall and the National Anthem was played, the ignorant party activists of the PPP continued to chant ‘Zinda Hai BB Zinda Hai’ [Benazir is alive] halfway through the national anthem. After a few seconds, even President Zardari’s famous grin began to contort. And then the chanting abruptly stopped. We didn’t see it on the screen but obviously someone went there and told them to shut up.
Have you ever seen uncouth and uncivilized party workers shouting such slogans when a president is administered the oath in the White House? Or when a Turkish prime minister from any party does the same in Ankara? Or for that matter anywhere else in the world?
The best part was the joint Zardari-Karzai press conference. Behind them on the wall hung two frames. A dull, simple picture for the Founding Father, the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and right next to him at the very same level, a brighter and a more focused picture of late Benazir Bhutto.
By Allah, all Pakistanis, let me ask you: Is Benazir Bhutto of equal stature as the Founding Father of Pakistan? Have you seen anyone play such party gimmicks with the picture of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk? Or with the picture of Ayatollah al-Khomeini? Or Mao Tse-Tung?
What would be the reaction in Turkey if any party activists or a president or a prime minister dared put their party leader’s picture at par with that of Ataturk at the Presidential Palace?
So there you go. The first day of ‘complete British democracy’ in Pakistan.
By Mr Sajid Husain
Investigative Jounalist
Wednesday, 16 September 2008.
Overseas Desk::-------------------------------------------------
......................................... Peoples Party slogans pushing back the national anthem, Benazir Bhutto’s picture hung right next to that of the great Founding Father of the nation, and a smug-faced Hamid Karzai, Washington’s barking dog in Afghanistan, invited as a guest of honor. If you are a Pakistani nationalist and you are disgusted by any of this, check the last item on the list: While extolling the virtues of the founder of his wife’s party, the new Pakistani president excitedly waved his hand in the air reminding everyone that his is the party that "took K2 [Pakistan’s highest mountain peak] back from China."
What a perfect greeting to our Chinese friends from a Pakistani president on the day he takes oath of office. [Please read the column on how the Zardari-Gilani government deliberately sidelined China in its first four months in office.]
Appeasing the Americans was more important for President Asif Ali Zardari than respecting the sensibilities of the Pakistani nation. So he gave Karzai the honor of becoming the only foreign head of state to be present in the Pakistani presidential palace during the oath of office. It makes perfect sense. President Zardari is an American creation. Washington brokered the deal that made him and his late wife the rightful owners of a staggering unexplained wealth. Karzai is the head of the puppet regime that Washington is keeping alive in Kabul. If the Americans leave, the fate that awaits Mr. Karzai is no different than the one the Afghan people meted out to another former puppet president, the pro-Soviet Najibullah.
During the press conference that Pakistanis watched live today, Zardari and Karzai appeared too small, too insignificant and too unsuited for the offices they hold. Two pygmies. Two historical mistakes.
The Pakistani media, intellectuals, writers and activists have been chiding former President Musharraf for being a ‘dictator’ and have been extolling the virtues of democracy that won’t be complete without the great Pakistani democrats back in power.
So here’s your democracy, on the back of an American tank.
When a reporter from Aaj TV asked President Zardari to condemn the U.S. military for its terrorism and the deliberate killing of women and children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, our new Commander-in-Chief retorted, "There is something called a U.N. Charter. They are in Afghanistan under sanction from the U.N. Are you saying that the U.N. is a terrorist organization?"
Dr. Condoleezza Rice must have shaken her head. ‘How come I never thought of this line?’
To his credit, President Karzai actually did chide the Americans on civilian deaths. His words were far stronger than anything President Zardari had to say when asked about Pakistani women and children killed in our tribal belt by U.S. soldiers who sneaked in the dead of the night, barged into houses and opened fire on sleeping men, women and children.
Do you know what the new Pakistani president said when asked about this? He said he has proposed the creation of a support fund for the victims of such operations.
Thank you, Mr. President, for having a big heart.
Never was the Pakistani Presidential palace so disgraced as it was on 9 September 2008. Please mark it. When the President-elect entered the main hall and the National Anthem was played, the ignorant party activists of the PPP continued to chant ‘Zinda Hai BB Zinda Hai’ [Benazir is alive] halfway through the national anthem. After a few seconds, even President Zardari’s famous grin began to contort. And then the chanting abruptly stopped. We didn’t see it on the screen but obviously someone went there and told them to shut up.
Have you ever seen uncouth and uncivilized party workers shouting such slogans when a president is administered the oath in the White House? Or when a Turkish prime minister from any party does the same in Ankara? Or for that matter anywhere else in the world?
The best part was the joint Zardari-Karzai press conference. Behind them on the wall hung two frames. A dull, simple picture for the Founding Father, the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and right next to him at the very same level, a brighter and a more focused picture of late Benazir Bhutto.
By Allah, all Pakistanis, let me ask you: Is Benazir Bhutto of equal stature as the Founding Father of Pakistan? Have you seen anyone play such party gimmicks with the picture of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk? Or with the picture of Ayatollah al-Khomeini? Or Mao Tse-Tung?
What would be the reaction in Turkey if any party activists or a president or a prime minister dared put their party leader’s picture at par with that of Ataturk at the Presidential Palace?
So there you go. The first day of ‘complete British democracy’ in Pakistan.
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