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Posted by Dr. Salman in Zainab-Shaheed (Martyred) Daughter of Pakistan on January 30th, 2018
Posted by jahanzeb in US Attacks on Pakistan, US CLEAR & PRESENT DANGER TO PAKISTAN, US DRONE WAR ON PAKISTAN, US FOREIGN POLICY & INTERNATIONAL LAW on January 26th, 2018
The US war in Afghanistan has entered into its 17th consecutive year of dismay. It is learnt that this winter, Afghan security forces have intensified their operations against the rogue elements despite heavy snow and bitter cold instead of a usual slowdown in fighting during Afghanistan’s harsh winter tide.
Would it prove effective or not will be reckoned with time, however, the cause of fretfulness remains that even after 16 years of war, with thousands dead and innumerable wounded, it still has no clear end in sight. The summer of 2017 has been a bloody one in Afghanistan, with the death toll nearing a thousand. On the word of the United Nations, the number of civilians killed in this six-month period touched an eight-year record high.
So much so that even the senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Michael Kugelman voiced the grim reality that despite this immense sacrifice in lives and resources, the chief gains from the Afghan war’s early years have effectively been reversed.
The US has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in Afghanistan since 2001 on a war that has been subsisting on the lives of more than 2,400 American soldiers and over 31,000 Afghan civilians. Estimated number of causalities are as high as 43,362 which includes Afghan security forces, coalition troops and nearly 2,000 Contractors. Undoubtedly, what Dominic Tierney wrote in 2015 while describing the situation at home is still valid today. He said, raising the topic of Afghanistan is like mentioning mortality. There’s a profound desire to change the subject.
These figures represented the war state down to the middle of 2016. Today, in 2018, when the war continues to drag on into its 17th year, the situation is even worse. Bill Roggio, editor of FDD’s Long War Journal, confirmed in the US congressional testimony in April 2017 that “The Taliban … today holds more ground in the country since the US ousted the jihadists in early 2002”. With all the stated data and the bitter ground realities, an announcement by President Trump declaring further escalation in the war came as a total surprise for all the interest groups in the Afghan war.
The US has Resumed Drones Strikes in Pakistan Killing Two Innocent Civilians. The Militants Escaped Un-Scathed
The Long War journal map assessment argues that presently Taliban controls or contests 45% of the Afghan districts. Their assessment also highlights Taliban’s rural control, a key source of insurgent strength that the US military underestimates. With all the grim statistics and unsuccessful strategies applied in the battleground, Michael Kugelman also notices that President Trump is now actually short of available options in Afghanistan. “This much is clear — there are no good options in Afghanistan,” he wrote. Regrettably, out of all the ‘no good options’, the president opted for the poorest one. He forced the bulk of his failures to Pakistan, gradually increasing the stress with toxic hate campaigns.
To serve the purpose, a systematic propaganda was initiated at the international level to accentuate Pakistan in context of harbouring terrorist and terror outfits. In line with the trump-devised policy, the two highly controversial US Congressmen, Dana Rohrabacher and Brad Sherman held up their anti-Pakistan rhetoric during the meeting of House of Representatives held in October. Brad Sherman (a staunch Jew and an active member of the Jewish lobby in the USA) purported about some fabled HR violations in Sindh, while Dana Rohrabacher (famous for working on behalf of certain Indian and Hindutva lobbies in the past also) oddly enough linked the creation of Bangladesh with the life of Muhajir community in Karachi. Quite ridiculous it was, as the creation of Bangladesh was a planned conspiracy of India which they brag about quite often. Contrariwise, the meeting of Dana Rohrabacher with Altaf Hussain and Khan of Qalat in support of Baluch separatists should be seen rather sceptically as it bears upon another conspiracy in the offing.
Toeing the line further was a US army retired colonel turned writer Lawrence Sellin who while admitting that completion of CPEC will seriously hurt the US interests, wished for an independent and secular Baluchistan which in case if not possible then at least a Baluchistan with Iranian infiltration and military action. His views are more of a conspiracy theory but can be taken for the policy thinking of military-related academia of US.
To further pressurize Pakistan, a deliberate propaganda campaign against the safety of her nuclear weapons was launched thereafter. Larry Pressler, an ex-Republican politician, is seen conforming to Hussain Haqqani declaring Pakistan a state sponsoring terrorism. Likewise, the US president dubbing Pakistan the way he did in his recent tweets was another irony of the first order.
In this transpiring war, Pakistan has rendered unique sacrifices both in terms of lives and finances while overcoming the spate of orchestrated terrorism. The country has thus far suffered more than 62,000 fatalities and a loss of over USD 123 Billion. No rhyme or reason, but with such sacrifices this kind of behaviour will not subjugate Pakistan rather make it even more resilient and objective.
George Friedman very aptly puts the US quagmire into words. “At this point, the United States is looking for an endgame in Afghanistan. It has spent 16 years fighting a war but has not yet achieved its goals. The US will no longer devote large numbers of troops because large numbers of troops failed before… The more tactical the approach, the more the US needs Pakistani cooperation”. But the question is why Pakistan should comply with US undue pressure since a US departure would leave Pakistan facing strong hostile forces across its border especially in the case where the US has already backed Indian presence in Afghanistan.
It’s time to realize that President’s Trump new policy has yielded rather negative results. Taliban are more aggressive than ever before and the area under control of Afghan National unity Government is ever decreasing. Reasons for US failures in her longest war in the history are hidden elsewhere. The US has actually failed to understand her enemy. In recent past, American Forces dropping blasphemous pamphlets in Afghanistan desecrating Kalama-e-Tayyaba is a classic example of US incompetency to understand Taliban sentiment. Also, US policies are known to be oblivious to the ground realities. Afghan official forces are suffering daily defeats and are likely to wipe out if foreign support is denied to them. Present regime’s rampant corruption, increased causalities among forces, mounting civilian causalities and the resurgence of Taliban / ISIS along with the battering relations between the two non-NATO allies is continuously keeping the Afghan situation uncertain. Believe it or not, the arrogance of President Trump is simply not allowing him to put an end to America’s longest war.
Posted by Sandrab in Nawaz Sharif & Shehbaz Sharif Pornography Business, Scams & Frauds Under Crooked Govts on January 25th, 2018
Posted by Dr. Salman in India A Nuclear Danger to Humanity, INEPT, INEPT INDIAN NAVY, Shining India on January 20th, 2018
Indian nuclear scientists haven’t had an easy time of it over the past decade. Not only has the scientific community been plagued by “suicides,” unexplained deaths, and sabotage, but those incidents have gone mostly underreported in the country—diluting public interest and leaving the cases quickly cast off by police.
Last month, two high-ranking engineers—KK Josh and Abhish Shivam—on India’s first nuclear-powered submarine were found on railway tracks by workers. They were pulled from the line before a train could crush them but were already dead. No marks were found on the bodies, so it was clear they hadn’t been hit by a moving train, and reports allege they were poisoned elsewhere before being placed on the tracks to make the deaths look either accidental or like a suicide. The media and the Ministry of Defence, however, described the incident as a routine accident and didn’t investigate any further.
This is the latest in a long list of suspicious deaths. When nuclear scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam’s body turned up in June of 2009, it was palmed off as a suicide and largely ignored by the Indian media. However, Pakistani outlets, perhaps unsurprisingly, given relations between the two countries, kept the story going, noting how quick authorities were to label the death a suicide considering no note was left.
Five years earlier, in the same forest where Mahalingam’s body was eventually discovered, an armed group with sophisticated weaponry allegedly tried to abduct an official from India’s Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC). He, however, managed to escape. Another NPC employee, Ravi Mule, had been murdered weeks before, with police failing to “make any headway” into his case and effectively leaving his family to investigate the crime. A couple of years later, in April of 2011, when the body of former scientist Uma Rao was found, investigators ruled the death as a suicide, but family members contested the verdict, saying there had been no signs that Rao was suicidal.
This seems to be a recurring theme with deaths in the community. Madhav Nalapat, one of the few journalists in India giving the cases any real attention, has been in close contact with the families of the recently deceased scientists left on the train tracks. “There was absolutely no kind of depression or any family problems that would lead to suicide,” he told me over the phone.
If the deaths of those in the community aren’t classed as suicide, they’re generally labelled as “unexplained.” A good example is the case of M Iyer, who was found with internal haemorrhaging to his skull—possibly the result of a “kinky experiment,” according to a police officer. After a preliminary look-in, the police couldn’t work out how Iyer had suffered internal injuries while not displaying any cuts or bruises, and investigations fizzled out.
This label is essentially an admission of defeat on the police force’s part. Once the “unexplained” rubber stamp has been approved, government bodies don’t tend to task the authorities with investigating further. This may be a necessity due to the stark lack of evidence available at the scene of the deaths—a feature that some suggest could indicate the work of professional killers—but if this is the case, why not bring in better-trained detectives to investigate the cases? A spate of deaths in the nuclear scientific community would create a media storm and highly publicised police investigation in other countries, so why not India?
This inertia has led to great public dissatisfaction with the Indian police. “[The police] say it’s an unsolved murder, that’s all. Why doesn’t it go higher? Perhaps to a specialist investigations unit?” Madhav asked. “These people were working on the submarine program, creating a reactor, and have either ‘committed suicide’ or been murdered. It’s astonishing that this hasn’t been seen as suspicious.”
Perhaps, I suggested, this series of deaths is just the latest chapter in a long campaign aiming to derail India’s nuclear and technological capabilities. Madhav agreed, “There is a clear pattern of this type of activity going on,” he said.
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INS Sindhurakshak (Photo via)
The explosions that sunk INS Sindhurakshak – a submarine docked in Mumbai – in August of this year could have been deliberate, according to unnamed intelligence sources. And some have alleged that the CIA was behind the sabotage of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Of course, the deaths have caused fear and tension among those currently working on India’s various nuclear projects. “[Whistleblowers] are getting scared of being involved in the nuclear industry in India,” Madhav relayed to me. Their “families are getting very nervous about this” and “many of them leave for foreign countries and get other jobs.”
There are parallels here with the numerous attacks on the Iranian nuclear scientist community. Five people associated with the country’s nuclear programme have been targeted in the same way: men on motorcycles sticking magnetic bombs on to their cars and detonating them as they drive off. However, the Iranian government are incredibly vocal in condemning these acts—blaming the US and Israel—and at least give the appearance that they are actively investigating.
The same cannot be said for the Indian government. “India is not making any noise about the whole thing,” Madhav explained. “People have just accepted the police version, [which describes these incidents] as normal kinds of death.”
If the deaths do, in fact, turn out to be premeditated murders, deciding who’s responsible is pure speculation at this point. Two authors have alleged that the US has dabbled in sabotaging the country’s technological efforts in the past; China is in a constant soft-power battle with India, and the volatile relationship with Pakistan makes the country a prime suspect. “It could be any of them,” Madhav said.
But the most pressing issue isn’t who might be behind the murders, but that the Indian government’s apathy is potentially putting their high-value staff at even greater risk. Currently, these scientists, who are crucial to the development of India’s nuclear programmes, whether for energy or security, have “absolutely no protection at all. Nothing, zero,” Madhav told me. “Which is amazing for people who are in a such a sensitive program.”
Posted by Muhammad Yar in ISI-IMPREGNABLE PAKISTANS WALL, ISI-THE BEST INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IN THE WORLD, ISI-UNSUNG HEROES & HEROINES OF PAKISTAN on January 20th, 2018
Must the ISI sit down peacefully and observe silently the notorious activities of the forces hostile to Pakistan. What do the CIA, the MI6 and other intelligence agencies of different countries do when their country is in some trouble or facing some internal or external threat? Certainly, silence becomes a crime when action is required; so this is what the ISI is doing; it is taking action to save its motherland from the cruel hands of intriguers, intruders and conspirators. ISI is not a state within the state as some of our ‘well-wishers’ have been blaming since long, it in itself is a state and the name of this state is Pakistan. ISI does what it thinks is better in the larger interest of Pakistan. Its working is simply based on very sacred passions of love and of sacrifice. It is because of these passions that we always find the name of this intelligence agency among the list of the best intelligence agencies all over the world. Even the enemies of Pakistan admit the supremacy of ISI regarding professional perfection. S. Dulat is the commonly known name of Amarjit Singh Dulat. He is a former special director of the Intelligence Bureau and former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing. He served as the Head of Research and Analysis Wing from 1999 to 2000. After retirement, he was appointed as advisor on Kashmir in the Prime Minister’s Office and served there from January 2001 to May 2004. He is considered the brain and heart of the RA&W. Last year someone asked him which the most powerful intelligence agency is in his opinion. He abruptly replied, “The most powerful intelligence agency is either KGB which no more exists or the ISI because they are very anonymous.” Certainly, A.S. Dulat is a true professional and his comments about the supremacy of the ISI count a lot but for most of the countries, it seems difficult to accept the supremacy pointed out by A.S. Dulat. It may be a sense of fear or a feeling of insecurity of the forces hostile to Pakistan that this most powerful intelligence agency always remains under their criticism. Targeting the ISI and looking at it with suspicious eyes is nothing new; it is an old tradition of our friends all around us particularly in the USA. It is not only the desire of US, India and Israel, there are so many others including Afghanistan who wish that a ban must be imposed on the ISI because they feel this organization is a threat and a challenge to their hegemonic and notorious designs against Pakistan. Almost seven years back in 2010, the Reuters published a report by Michael Georgy with the title, ‘Pakistan’s ISI, a hidden, frustrating power for U.S.’ The report said, “Top U.S. defense officials are concerned that some elements of Pakistan’s main spy agency may be interacting improperly with the Taliban and other insurgent groups. ISI is the most powerful intelligence agency in Pakistan, a country the United States sees as indispensable to its efforts to tame a raging Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.” The report further said, “The shadowy military intelligence agency has evolved into what some describe as a state within a state. It is believed to have a hidden role in many of the nuclear-armed nation’s policies, including in Afghanistan. The ISI is seen as the Pakistani equivalent of the U.S. Central Agency (CIA) — with which it has had a symbiotic but sometimes strained relationship — and Israel’s Mossad.” Another report published by Wikipedia highlighted ISI’s activities in the US said, “The Inter-Services Intelligence has been alleged or previously documented by various authors of running an active military intelligence program in the United States, as well as operational activities related to America outside the country. The ISI has reportedly been suspicious about CIA’s attempted penetration of Pakistani nuclear assets, and CIA’s alleged intelligence gathering in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Afghan border. Based on these suspicions, it was speculated that the ISI was pursuing counter-intelligence against CIA operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.” In short everyone including the US admits that the ISI has always been doing all best possible in the larger interest of Pakistan, and certainly it is the job and duty of the ISI to keep an eye on the activities of the forces hostile to Pakistan and to counter every effort that may be harmful to Pakistan.
Why the world is so much worried about the working of the ISI, I could never understand. Every intelligence agency works for the safety and security of the country it belongs to. It must be appreciated that the ISI is performing its duty honestly and successfully same as the CIA, FBI, MI6, Mossad and other intelligence agencies do for their respective countries. As far as the allegation of being a state within the state is concerned, this allegation has been ‘awarded’ to almost all intelligence agencies of the world. In this particular reference, the term of Deep State is getting very much popular in the US nowadays. This term describes ‘a form of an alleged cabal that coordinates efforts by government employees and others to influence state policy without regard for democratically elected leadership’. Alfred W. McCoy, a Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison states that the increase in the power of the U.S. intelligence community since the September 11 attacks has built a fourth branch of the U.S. government that is in many ways autonomous from the executive, and increasingly so. An important point to be noticed here is that in the USA, which is no doubt a country considered as the very center of democratic trends and traditions, where there is a lot of resources and which has no threat from any side and anyone, the intelligence agencies are playing a role stronger than the government; they are running there a state within the state but it is very ironical that our friends in America expect from Pakistani intelligence agencies a role which is totally inactive rather passive.
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