Archive for February, 2015

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Pakistan boasted of nuclear strike on India within eight seconds
Alastair Campbell’s diaries recount warning by army general at height of military standoff between India and Pakistan
Tony Blair

Tony Blair with the Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf. Islamabad’s nuclear warnings were apparently made during a visit by Blair to the Indian subcontinent after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Pakistan could launch a nuclear strike on India within eight seconds, claimed an army general in Islamabad whose warning is described in the latest volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries.

The general asked Tony Blair’s former communications director to remind India of Pakistan’s nuclear capability amid fears in Islamabad that Delhi was “determined to take them out”.

Britain became so concerned about Pakistan’s threat that Blair’s senior foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning, later warned in a paper that Pakistan was prepared to “go nuclear”.

The warnings are relayed by Campbell in a section in his latest diaries, The Burden of Power, which are being serialised in the Guardian on Saturday and Monday. The diaries start on the day of the 9/11 attacks and end with Campbell’s decision to stand down in August 2003 after the Iraq war.

The nuclear warnings came during a visit by Blair to the Indian subcontinent after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Campbell was told about the eight-second threat over a dinner in Islamabad on 5 October 2001 hosted by Pervez Musharraf, then Pakistan’s president.

Campbell writes: “At dinner I was between two five-star generals who spent most of the time listing atrocities for which they held the Indians responsible, killing their own people and trying to blame ‘freedom fighters’. They were pretty convinced that one day there would be a nuclear war because India, despite its vast population and despite being seven times bigger, was unstable and determined to take them out.

“When the time came to leave, the livelier of the two generals asked me to remind the Indians: ‘It takes us eight seconds to get the missiles over,’ then flashed a huge toothy grin.”

Blair visited Pakistan less than a month after the 9/11 attacks as Britain and the US attempted to shore up support in Islamabad before the bombing of Afghanistan, which started on 7 October 2001. Campbell writes that the Pakistani leadership seemed to be keen for Britain and the US to capture Osama bin Laden, though he added it was difficult to be sure.

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Relations between Islamabad and Delhi plummeted after the Blair visit when terrorists attacked the Indian parliament on 13 December 2001, killing seven people. Five of the attackers died.

India blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terror groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. The tensions became so great that Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state, was sent to the region in May 2002.

Blair returned to the Indian subcontinent in January 2002, shortly after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, amid one of the tensest nuclear standoffs between Indian and Pakistan since independence in 1947.

In the preparations for the visit, Manning prepared a paper for Blair that warned of the real threat of a nuclear conflict. In an extract from his diaries for 4 January 2002, Campbell wrote: “DM had a paper, making clear our belief that the Pakistanis would ‘go nuclear’ and if they did, that they wouldn’t be averse to unleashing them on a big scale. TB was genuinely alarmed by it and said to David ‘They wouldn’t really be prepared to go for nuclear weapons over Kashmir would they?’ DM said the problem was there wasn’t a clear understanding of strategy and so situations tended to develop and escalate quickly, and you couldn’t really rule anything out.”

A few days after the visit, the India-Pakistan standoff was discussed by the British war cabinet. In an extract for his diaries on 10 January 2002, Campbell wrote: “CDS [chief of the defence staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce] said if India and Pakistan go to war, we will be up the creek without a paddle. Geoff [Hoon] said there may have to be limited compulsory call-up of Territorial Army reserves. TB gave a pretty gloomy assessment re India/Pakistan, said [the Indian prime minister Atal Bihari] Vajpayee was really upset at the way [Pakistan’s president] Musharraf treated him. Military dispositions remained the same, with more than a million troops there [in Kashmir]. He assessed that the Indians believed that they could absorb 500,000 deaths. Pakistani capability was far greater than the Indians believed.”

Relations between Delhi and Islamabad have eased in recent years, though they still remain tense because Delhi believes that elements in the Pakistan state encourage Kashmiri terror groups. During his first visit to India in 2010 David Cameron famously accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism.

Campbell also relays another nuclear threat a year later when George Bush told Blair he feared that Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister, was planning to launch a nuclear attack against Iraq. In an account of a conversation with Bush at a Nato summit in Prague in November 2002, as diplomatic pressure intensified on Saddam Hussein, Campbell writes: “[George Bush] felt that if we got rid of Saddam, we could make progress on the Middle East. He reported on some of his discussions with [Ariel] Sharon, and said he had been pretty tough with him. Sharon had said that if Iraq hit Israel, their response would ‘escalate’ which he took to mean go nuclear. Bush said he said to him ‘You will not, you will not do that, it would be crazy.’ He said he would keep them under control, adding ‘A nuke on Baghdad, that could be pretty tricky.'”

admin · February 14, 2015

: Are “Brer Barak” and “Vlad the Fox” having the last laugh?

… by Gordon Duff, VT Sr. Editor

^{Rumors abound that President Obama ordered the release of documents citing a 25 year coverup by the United States that allowed Israel to conduct not only nuclear espionage and openly sell nuclear weapons technology, but be underwritten by $86 billion in illegal American aid in the process.}

^{The rumors state that upon receiving evidence of US and Israeli complicity in the 9/11 attacks, both detailed satellite and signals intelligence, supplied by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Obama ordered the documents released.}

^{Only a week after Pravda published an extremely controversial story citing US complicity along with unnamed “proxies” in staging the 9/11 attacks, the US has released a bombshell.}

^{The US has been sitting on a 1987 report, still heavily censored, citing Reagan/Bush complicity in passing on nuclear secrets to Israel allowing their development of thermonuclear weapons.}

^{At the time of the report, VT editor, Colonel James Hanke, was ranking US military official in Israel and was tasked with gathering intelligence on Israel’s nuclear program.}

^{Soon afterward, VT editor Jeff Smith, a nuclear weapons specialist and physicist, joined the IAEA and began investigations of nuclear proliferation activities on behalf of Israel and other nations done in concert with AIPAC and Victor Bout’s arms smuggling operations.}

^{Now, just prior to the highly controversial and politically charged visit to the US by the Likudist ruler of Israel, Netanyahu, the Obama Justice Department settles the lawsuit that was withholding key information damaging not only to Israel but that directly threatens US aid to that nation as well.}

^{The report, Critial Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations, cites Israel as being in broad violation of nuclear non-proliferation laws:}

^{“The Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits most U.S. foreign aid to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside international safeguards,” Smith wrote.}

^{“The Glenn Amendment of 1977 calls for an end to U.S. foreign aid to countries that import nuclear reprocessing technology.”}

^{President Putin has become increasingly concerned at Israel’s stepped up assistance to ISIS including the downing of a Syrian Mig 21 today, between the city of Daraa and ISIS supply routes through the border conjunction between Israel, Syria and Jordan.}

^{It is believed that ISIS jihadists and weapons are landed on, according to well placed sources, carefully marked highways inside Israel.}

^{These roads, designated as landing strips, are blocked off to allow landing of C130 aircraft. The same aircraft fly to Libya to pick up weapons and fighters, dropping personnel for infiltration through Jordan and then take off, to resupply ISIS fighters outside Kobani and Kirkuk.}

^{From Russia Today:}

^{Conceding to a federal lawsuit, the US government agreed to release a 1987 Defense Department report detailing US assistance to Israel in its development of a hydrogen bomb, which skirted international standards.}

^{The 386-page report, “Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations,” likens top Israeli nuclear facilities to the Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories that were key in the development of US nuclear weaponry.}

^{Israelis are “developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs. That is, codes which detail fission and fusion processes on a microscopic and macroscopic level,” said the report, the release of which comes before Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech in front of the US Congress in which he will oppose any deal that allows Iran’s legal nuclear program to persist.}

^{Read more}

^{Obama promises to veto new sanctions on Iran}

^{“I am struck by the degree of cooperation on specialized war making devices between Israel and the US,” Roger Mattson, a formerly of the Atomic Energy Commission’s technical staff,said of the report, according to Courthouse News.}

^{The report’s release earlier this week was initiated by a Freedom of Information Act request made three years ago by Grant Smith, director of the Washington think tank Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. Smith filed a lawsuit in September in order to compel the Pentagon to substantially address the request.}

^{“It’s our basic position that in 1987 the Department of Defense discovered that Israel had a nuclear weapons program, detailed it and then has covered it up for 25 years in violation of the Symington and Glenn amendments, costing taxpayers $86 billion,” Smith said during a hearing in late 2014 before Judge Tanya Chutkan in US District Court for the District of Columbia.}

^{Read more}

^{‘Elections, not Iran’: Israeli PM accused of vote-scoring, risking US ties at Congress speech}

^{Smith described in his federal court complaint how those federal laws were violated by the US in the midst of Israel’s budding nuclear program.}

^{“The Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits most U.S. foreign aid to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside international safeguards,” Smith wrote.}

^{“The Glenn Amendment of 1977 calls for an end to U.S. foreign aid to countries that import nuclear reprocessing technology.”}

^{In November, Judge Chutkan asked government lawyers resistant to the report’s release why it had taken years for the government to prepare the report for public consumption.}

^{“I’d like to know what is taking so long for a 386-page document. The document was located some time ago,” Chutkan said, according to Courthouse News Service.}

^{“I’ve reviewed my share of documents in my career. It should not take that long to review that document and decide what needs to be redacted.”}

^{image from the report “Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations”}

^{The government’s representatives in the case — Special Assistant US Attorney Laura Jennings and Defense Department counsel Mark Herrington — initially said confidentiality agreements required a “line by line” review of the Defense Department’s report. They later shifted, arguing that its release is optional and not mandatory, as “diplomatic relations dictate that DoD seeks Israel’s review.”}

^{Smith and the US agreed that the government would redact sections of the report on NATO countries, though the passages on Israel remain intact.}

^{“The capability of SOREQ [Soreq Nuclear Research Center] to support SDIO [Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, or “Star Wars”] and nuclear technologies is almost an exact parallel of the capability currently existing at our National Laboratories,” said the report, written by the Institute for Defense Analysis for the Department of Defense.}

^{“SOREQ and Dimona/Beer Sheva facilities are the equivalent of our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories…[and have] the technology base required for nuclear weapons design and fabrication.”}

^{The report’s authors Edwin Townsley and Clarence Robinson found that Israel to had Category 1 capability regarding its anti-tactical ballistic missile and “Star Wars” weapons programs.}

^{“As far as nuclear technology is concerned the Israelis are roughly where the U.S. [w]as in the fission weapon field in about 1955 to 1960,” the report said. “It should be noted that the Israelis are developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs.”}

^{In a statement on the report’s release, Smith said Thursday, “Informal and Freedom of Information Act release of such information is rare. Under two known gag orders — punishable by imprisonment — U.S. security-cleared government agency employees and contractors may not disclose that Israel has a nuclear weapons program.”}

^{Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s planned address before the US Congress was controversially arranged by Republican leadership without consultation of congressional Democrats or the White House.}

^{The speech will occur weeks before Netanyahu will seek reelection, and is to center around his opposition to any agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, a deal the US — while levying heavy sanctions on Tehran — has pursued despite protests from its preeminent ally in the Middle East, Israel.}

^{Tehran’s nuclear program is legal under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Israel is one of the few United Nations members that is not a signatory.}

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Paradigm shift in regional scenario

Asif Haroon Raja

Pakistan and Afghanistan have traditionally had a complicated relationship characterized by mutual suspicion. Northern Alliance heavy Afghan regime under Hamid Karzai had remained heavily tilted towards India and had not only given high preference to India in her internal and external matters but also had adopted a hostile policy towards Pakistan. With the blessing of Washington, Karzai had given full liberty of action to India to emerge as the key country in Afghanistan and to fill up the security vacuum after withdrawal of ISAF. After signing strategic partnership agreement with India, Karzai allowed Indian military to train Afghan Army officers in their military institutions and meet Afghanistan’s defence needs. India took advantage of it and besides consolidating her hold in Afghanistan; she made full use of Afghan soil to foment insurgencies in FATA and Balochistan. India was content that this arrangement would continue under weak unity regime as well because of Dr. Abdullah. In 2014, a stage was being set to induct Indian military into Afghanistan. The US-India-Karzai led Afghan regime remained a close-knit team and remained focused towards destabilization of Pakistan. Equilibrium between the three strategic partners remained steadfast for 13 years, but with Ashraf Ghani taking over power, and the US military quitting Afghanistan after failing to defeat the Taliban, the balance got disturbed and gave birth to new equation in November 2014. Pakistan, which remained the whipping boy all these years, has replaced the most favored India. Suspicion and distrust piled up for over a decade has been replaced with goodwill, cooperation and sharing. Blame-game has almost ceased and the gap in trust bridged in the wake of ominous threats from the Taliban and other armed militant groups. China, Kabul and Washington seem to have put their faith in Gen Raheel Sharif and see him as the sole silver lining in the otherwise dark horizon. The trio is looking towards Pakistan Army to help in defeating terrorism and bringing peace in war torn region. Pakistan has long been blamed for harboring and abetting Haqqani network (HN) in its cross-border terrorism. Pakistan military had its own socio-politico-security compulsions to maintain a difference between good and bad Taliban and to target anti-Pakistan militants only. These compulsions restrained Pakistan from launching a military operation in North Waziristan (NW). The concerns were however pushed aside after the gruesome attack on Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2016. A change in the outlook of new National Unity Regime under President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Dr. Abdullah and also in the thinking of Washington towards Pakistan has occurred essentially because of the across-the-board military operation in NW in which all militant groups based in NW were targeted. Uprooting of HN and Gul Bahadur groups from NW and comprehensive briefings given by Gen Raheel Sharif in GHQ to visiting President Ghani and his military team led by ANA chief Gen Sher M. Karimi, to ISAF Commander Gen Campbell, to US military officials in Pentagon and to British top officials made the difference. The other reason of extension of whole-hearted cooperation by Kabul is Pakistan’s declared stance that it has no favorites and that it would fully support Afghan led/owned reconciliation process. One more reason is Pakistan’s relatively better clout over Taliban and its critical support in a patch up. More so, it has been accepted by all and sundry that Pak Army is the only one which can fight and win battles against ideologically motivated militants. In order to reciprocate Pakistan’s laudable efforts in war on terror, while the US declared Mullah Fazlullah as the global terrorist, ANA launched an operation in Kunar against Fazlullah’s men. Five culprits having linkage with Peshawar incident have been arrested on the pointing of ISI. ANA managed to destroy some hideouts and inflicted casualties on TTP men but in the process lost over fifty soldiers. CIA operated drones are at times targeting militant hideouts in inaccessible areas in Shawal Range and along Pak-Afghan border. Both the US and China look positively and receptively towards the fast growing relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan and see it as a healthy development. While China has agreed to take active part in bringing peace in Afghanistan, the US has finally acknowledged the importance of Pakistan and is cooperating. Pak-US relations that were downhill are once again moving uphill. At the recently concluded Beijing Conference Ashraf Ghani defined five circles manifesting Afghanistan’s future foreign policy. He placed Pakistan in Ist circle (immediate six neighbors) and 2nd circle (Islamic World) and India in 4th circle (Asia). This is indeed a huge shift in thinking of Afghan leadership. What it implies is that Afghan top leadership has consented to prefer Pakistan over India. For a change, the US has readily reconciled with changed priorities of new regime without any ifs and buts. Kabul dropped another bombshell on India by declining her military aid and training assistance, and to rub salt on her wounds asked Pakistan to train Afghan officers. For the first time 16 Afghan cadets are receiving training in PMA Kakul. To add to India’s woes, Ghani made it clear that he will not allow Afghan soil for proxy war against any neighbor. He further distressed India by inviting Pakistan to host the next ‘Heart of Asia’ Conference, which earlier on was scheduled to be hosted by India. Pakistan’s reservations on use of its trade route by India from Wagah to Afghanistan have been accepted by Afghanistan, USA and China. On the military front, bilateral visits of senior military leaders and top intelligence personnel have recently increased. Gen Raheel and Corps Commanders 11 Corps and Southern Command undertook trips to Kabul. DG ISI Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar visited Kabul thrice. Militaries and intelligence agencies of both sides are carrying out intimate coordination to manage the porous border, training matters, intelligence sharing and also taking care of each other’s security concerns. Military commanders and security officials are now regularly consulting to mutually share intelligence and coordinate security operations. Joint border control centres at Torkham and Spin Boldak have been revived to coordinate operations against the militants and share intelligence on illegal cross-border movement. The US has reconciled to the emerging changes in Afghanistan not by choice but because it has been forced by circumstances. To compensate its natural ally and strategic partner India, Obama undertook a second trip to India and skipped Pakistan. Besides removing the irritants in Indo-US nuclear agreement signed in 2008, and signing another 10 year defence pact, the visitor made the old promise of helping India to earn a permanent berth in UNSC and also elbowed India to become a leading partner in Asia-Pacific Coalition to counter China. Following conclusions can be drawn from the emerging scenario:- • Afghanistan and its immediate neighbors have come on one page to establish regional peace and usher in prosperity in this war torn region and to keep out chief trouble maker India. • Pakistan’s foreign policy has come out of its traditional apologetic and defensive policy and Gen Raheel Sharif has played a key role in making it slightly pro-active by showing the real face of India to governments of Afghanistan, US and UK. • Although Pakistan has been preferred over India by Ashraf Ghani, India which by now has penetrated in every department of Afghanistan including Army and intelligence agencies will continue with its dirty work of keeping Pak-Afghan relations tense in pursuit of its regional ambitions. • Irrespective of the US apparent affability towards Pakistan, India will continue to remain its strategic partner and Pakistan a tactical partner to serve its short term goals. • Genuine peace in Afghanistan will return once all foreign troops go home, Indian interference is curtailed, and Taliban agree to share power.

The writer is a retired Brig, war veteran/defence analyst/columnist/author of five books, Director Measac Research Centre. asifharoonraja@gmail.com

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Muslims Appointed to Homeland Security

Posted on November 10, 2010

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Arsalan Iftikhar is in the dock as Supreme Court to open up ‘old corruption allegations case’

By Sarmad Ali

Pak Destiny

Islamabad (Pak Destiny): The Supreme Court has finally decided to discuss, in the open court, a controversial document signed by former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to teach a lesson to those who levelled corruption allegations against his son Dr Arsalan.

By the office note, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had instructed the Office of the Court to immediately initiate contempt proceedings “against all concerned” who allegedly brought out some critical information about his son, Dr. Arsalan, in connection with his ‘moral and financial dispute’ with property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain.

The former chief justice had instructed that the new contempt case shall be fixed before the same bench of two Judges which was hearing the dispute after his formal recusal from the bench. In apparent breach of his declared dissociation from the case, the taller than life Chief Justice still tried to rescue his son by scaring the likely witnesses of the financial transactions between the parties in England. Dr. Arsalan had denied the transactions which included the bills for his vacations and shopping in England.

The certification of the contentious document, originally an Office Note of the Admn Branch, was sought in Nov. 2012 through a constitution petition that sought enforcement of the Fundamental Right of “Access to information”.

The Office objected to the petition

stating that the Court, by its Rules, could not certify a non-judicial document. Besides, the copy of the document was not legally obtained by the petitioner. The Office even refused to register an appeal against its order by calling it a scandal and delayed further proceedings for more than two years.

On Jan. 7 last, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali while hearing the controversy in the chamber ruled that the Office objections were misdirected.

The Judge in Chambers directed the appellant Shahid Orakzai to read out the objectionable portions. The appellant complied by explaining how his son “was accused of extorting money from a litigant before this Court” and the Chief Justice “initiated speedy criminal proceedings against potential witnesses who could bring in evidence against his son.” The appellant also read out the line that “the document, if and when placed before the Supreme Judicial Council would make headlines”.

Current Members
Tony Blinken	Deputy National Security Advisor
Danielle Borrin	Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Deputy Director of Public Engagement
Gary Gensler	Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Jonathan Greenblatt	Special Assistant to the President and Director, Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation (Domestic Policy Council)
Jack Lew	Secretary of the Treasury
Eric Lynn	Middle East Policy Adviser
Matt Nosanchuk	Associate Director, Office of Public Engagement for Jewish Outreach
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Janet Yellen	Chairwoman, Federal Reserve
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Former Members
Ben Bernanke (2006-2013)	Chairman, Federal Reserve
Mary Schapiro (2009-2012)	Chairwoman, Securities and Exchange Commission
Steven Simon (2009-2012)	Senior Director, Middle East/North Africa, National Security Council
Rahm Emanuel (2009-2010)	Chief of Staff to the President
David Axelrod (2009-2011)	Senior Advisor to the President
Elena Kagan (2009-2010)	Solicitor General of the United States
Peter Orszag (2009-2010)	Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Lawrence Summers (’09-’11)	Director National Economic Council
Mona Sutphen (2009-2011)	Deputy White House Chief of Staff
James B. Steinberg (’09-’11 )	Deputy Secretary of State
Dennis Ross (2009-2011 )	Special Assistant to the President
Ronald Klain (2009-2011)	Chief of Staff to the Vice President
Jared Bernstein (2009-2011)	Chief Economist/Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President
Susan Sher (2009-2011)	Chief of Staff to the First Lady
Alice Rivlin	Member, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform
Lee Feinstein (2009)	Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor
Mara Rudman (2009)	Foreign Policy Advisor

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Archive for February, 2015

President Pervez Musharraf Telling What He Did When India Was Going to Attack Pakistan in 2002

Obama Leaks Israeli Nuke Violation Doc Before Bibi Visit

Obama Leaks Israeli Nuke Violation Doc Before Bibi Visit

Gordon Duff

February 14, 2015

… by Gordon Duff, VT Sr. Editor

^{Gordon Duff}

Paradigm shift in regional scenario by Brig (Retd) Asif Haroon Raja

Paradigm shift in regional scenario

Asif Haroon Raja

Nut-Think in America: Cant Hate Blacks or Jews: Muslims Are Fair Game For Racists; Islamophobia Run Amok Among Nutcases in US

Please Read Article Below from : http://www.factcheck.org/2010/11/muslims-appointed-to-homeland-security/

Muslims Appointed to Homeland Security

Sources

Arsalan Iftikhar is in the dock as Supreme Court to open up ‘old corruption allegations case’ by Sarmad Ali

Arsalan Iftikhar is in the dock as Supreme Court to open up ‘old corruption allegations case’

By Sarmad Ali

Pak Destiny