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Posted by admin in Islamic History, ISLAMOPHOBIA, MUSLIMS, Muslims in World Armies, Trump War on Muslims, Trump-Israel-S.Arabia Allaince, Uncategorized, US March Toward Trump's Fascism on June 24th, 2025
Karoline Leavitt Tells Traoré “Sit Down, Boy” — His Reply Leaves America Speechless
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One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told: A Salute to Capt. Traoré, the finest humanity can produce. Listen and Weep
The flag of Burkina Faso is a horizontal bicolour of red and green, with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre. The red stripe is on top, and the green stripe is on the bottom. The flag was adopted on August 4, 1984.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
The flag of Burkina Faso is a horizontal bicolour of red and green, with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre. The red stripe is on top, and the green stripe is on the bottom. The flag was adopted on August 4, 1984.
Burkina Faso is a landlocked African country surrounded by Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana in the south, Cote d’Ivoire to the southwest, and Mali to the north.
Burkina is a rapidly growing country with an estimated 2024 population of 23,409,000. million, which makes Burkina that 62th most populous country in the world. The country has a surface area of 274,200 square kilometres. On August 4, 1984, the country changed its name from the Republic of Upper Volta. Burkina Faso’s people are known as Burkinabe.
Hunter-gatherers populated the area between 14,000 and 5,000 BC. Farming settlements appeared between 3600 and 2600 BC. Mossi kingdoms were present in the central part of the nation. In 1896, Burkina Faso became a French protectorate. After its independence in 1960, several governmental changes occurred until the country took its present semi-presidential republic form. Blaise Compaore is the current president.
Ouagadougou is the capital. The African Union, Community of Sahel-Saharan States, La Francophonie, Organization of the Islamic Conference and Economic Community of West African States list Burkina Faso as a member.
Between 14,000 and 5000 BC, hunter-gatherers began populating the country’s northwest. Simon Nijjar discovered their tools in 1973. Farmer’s settlements began to appear between 3600 and 2600 BC. Evidence shows these were permanent settlements. Iron, ceramics, and stone were used beginning between 1500 and 1000 BC. Burial remains indicate spiritual practices began around this time as well.
The Dogon left relics in the north and northwest parts of the country. The Dogon left the area between the 15th and 16th centuries to settle in the Bandiagara cliffs. There are also remains of walls in Burkina Faso’s southwest, but their builders is unknown.
Mossi kingdoms existed in the central area. The most powerful of these was the Wagadogo and Yatenga. They likely emerged in the 16th century, but their origins are obscured and subject to legends.
The English and French waged a major rivalry in the area through military and civilian expeditions. The French defeated the Mossi Ouagadougou kingdom and the area became a French colony in 1896. The western and eastern regions came under French control in 1897 after a standoff with the powerful ruler Samori Ture. Some small parts of the region were not under control, but by 1989 most of the modern day nation had been conquered.
On June 14, 1898, the English and French drew the borders between their colonies, ending the confrontations. The French continued wars of conquest against local areas and powers for an additional five years. As part of the reorganization of the French empire in 1904, the Volta basin territories merged with the Upper Senegal and Niger colony in French West Africa. The colony’s capital was in Bamako.
The territories draftees, known as the Senegal rifles, fought in World War I in Europe. The Volta-Bani War, an important armed opposition to the colonial government, took place from 1915 to 1916 in western Burkina Faso and eastern Mali. After suffering defeats, the French gathered its largest colonial expedition force and eventually defeated the movement. Around that time, Tuaregs and allied groups also rebelled in the Sahelian north.
On March 1, 1919, the French established French Upper Volta, partly due to fears of uprising, economic considerations, and to bolster its administration. The move separated the present Burkina Faso territory from Niger and Upper Senegal. Charles Alexis Edouard became the first governor of the newly formed colony called Haute Volta. Colonial revenue stagnated after a coercive cotton policy failed. On September 5, 1932, the colony was dismantled and split between French Sudan, Niger, and Cote d’Ivoire, which received the largest share.
After World War II, colonial agitation led this dismantling to be reversed. The colony was revived as part of the French Union on September 4, 1947 with its prior borders. It earned self-government and became the Republic of Volta on December 11, 1958. It also became a member of the Franco-African community at that time.
The French revised their territorial organization with the Basic Law’s passage on July 23, 1956. Other measures were passed in 1957 to give territories more self-government. After self-government in 1958, Upper Volta became its own republic in 1960 and was independent from France.
On December 11, 1958, the Republic of the Upper Volta was established. The Volta River has three parts: the White Volta, the Black Volta, and the Red Volta. The national flag’s colours correspond to the Volta River’s parts.
It was part of the French Union and French Upper Volta before independence. Maurice Yameogo was the first president and leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union (UDV). The national assembly and president are to be elected every five years through universal suffrage according to the 1960 constitution. Yameogo banned all political parties but the UDV after coming to power. In 1966, after massed demonstrations and strikes, the military intervened.
Yameogo was deposed by the coup, which also suspended the constitution and dissolved the National Assembly. Lt. Col. Sangoule Lamizana became the head of the military officers governing the nation. On June 14, 1970, after four years of army rule, the country ratified a new constitution that set a four year transition back to civilian rule. Lamizana remained in power through the 1970s. Conflicts led to a new constitution in 1977. Lamizana was reelected in 1978.
The country’s trade unions were a problem for Lamizana’s government. On November 25, 1980, Lamizana was overthrown in a bloodless coup by Col. Saye Zerbo. Zerbo’s Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress became the governmental authority.
Trade unions again resisted and Zerbo was overthrown after two years by Maj. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo on November 7, 1982. His Council of Popular Salvation (CSP) promised transition to civilian rule but banned political organizations. CSP infighting led to Capt. Thomas Sankara being appointed prime minister in January, 1983. Sankara’s leftist positions and internal conflict led to his arrest and, later, efforts by Capt. Blaise Compaore to release him. Another coup occurred on August 4, 1983.
After this coup, Sankara established the National Council for the Revolution (CNR) again with himself as the president. He also formed Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR) to organise the people and implement revolutionary programs. Two small Marxist-Leninist groups were part of the CNR’s secret membership. As a result of Sankara’s efforts, the country’s name was finally changed to Burkina Faso on August 4, 1984.
An armed gang killed Sankara in 1987. His former partner and the country’s current president, Blasé Compaore, organized this coup.
On June 2, 1991, a new constitution established a semi-presidential system with a parliament. The President of the Republic has the power to dissolve the parliament. The president is elected every seven years, but this was later amended to every five years. A legal ruling allowed Compaore, the current president to run again in 2005. Divided political opposition resulted in his 2005 victory.
The National Assembly is the single chamber of parliament. It has 111 seats with five year terms for its members. A constitutional chamber also exists which has ten members. An economic and social council is purely advisory.
Burkina Faso: Administrative Division
Burkina Faso has 13 regions, 45 provinces, and 301 departments. The regions are Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades, Centre, Centre-Est, Centre-Nord, Centre-Ouest, Centre-Sud, Est, Hauts-Bassins, Nord, Plateau-Central, Sahel, and Sud-Ouest.
Burkina Faso: Military and Security
France served as the model for the security and police forces. France supports and trains Burkina Faso’s police. Police services are delivered at the brigade level by the Gendarmerie Nationale. The Minister of Defense has authority over the Gendarmerie, whose members are deployed along the border and in rural areas.
Identity checks are common for travellers, and all foreigners are required to carry identification.
The army has 6,000 volunteers. The People’s Militia supports the army and is composed of civilians between 25 and 35 years old. Burkina Faso’s army has some armoured vehicles but is considered poorly equipped.
By African standards, the army is well funded but generally undermanned. The elite Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) is better funded and equipped. There is no navy but an air force has 19 operational aircraft. Military expenses are 1.2 percent of the country’s GDP.
Southwestern Burkina Faso has a sandstone massif with a highest peak of 749 meters. Sheer cliffs up to 150 meters high border this area. The country is mostly covered by a peneplain with few isolated hills. Burkina Faso’s average altitude is 400 meters, making it a relatively flat country.
The Black, White, and Red Volta Rivers cross the country. The Black Volta flows year-round. The Niger River basin drains 27 percent of the country’s area.
The Beli, Gorouol, Goudebo and Dargol, Niger tributaries, are only seasonal streams. They can cause flooding. Numerous lakes do exist, including the Tingrela, Bam, and Dem. Water shortages, particularly in the north, are a problem.
The country’s climate is primarily tropical with two seasons, the rainy and dry. The rainy season, lasting four months, brings 600 to 900 millimeters of rainfall. There are three climatic zones, the Sudan-Guinea, Sudan-Sahel, and Sahel.
The Sahel is a dry tropical savannah. It extends from the Horn of Africa to the Atlantic Ocean and borders the Sudan to the south and the Sahara to the north. The Sudan-Sahel is a transitional zone. The southern Sudan-Guinea zone has cooler temperatures and receives 900 millimetres of rain.
Burkina Faso has limestone, marble, manganese, pumice, phosphates, salt and small gold deposits as resources. Two national parks exist.
With one of the world’s lowest per capita GDP figures of $1,200, Burkina Faso is a very poor country. Agriculture is 32 percent of GDP and 80 percent of the population works in that sector. Livestock is mostly produced but sorghum, pearl millet, corn, peanuts, rice and cotton are grown.
Emigration results from high unemployment. 3,000,000 citizens live in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire. The migrants send money back to the country each year, provoking regional tensions.
International aid funds a large portion of the economic activity.
The CFA Franc is the currency.
Copper, manganese, iron, and gold are mined, providing employment, aid, and even hospitals.
One of Africa’s most important handicraft fairs, Le Salon International de I’Artisanat de Ouagadougou, is hosted in Burkina Faso.
Most of the country’s population belong to the Voltaic and Mande groups. The Voltaic Mossi members are one half the population. The Mogho Naba lead the Mossi kingdom from their court in Ouagadougou. They believe they descend from warriors who migrated to the area from Ghana.
Ethnically integrated and secular, most of the country’s people are concentrated in the country’s center and south. Migrants travel to neighbouring countries for seasonal agricultural work. Political events in these countries, such as the 2002 coup attempt in Côte d’Ivoire, led to migrants returning.
Burkina Faso’s government states that 61 percent of the population practices Islam, most of which are in the Sunni branch. 19 percent are Roman Catholic and 4 percent Protestant, 15 percent follow some form of traditional indigenous beliefs. Atheism is not shown to exist.
Many in the country practice multiple religions. Even among Muslims and Christians, ancient traditions are observed.
The median age is 16.7 with a growth rate of 3.109 percent. The government spent 3 percent on healthcare as of 2001. A doctor shortage exists as there are 6 physicians per 100,000 citizens. Similarly, there are only 13 midwives and 41 nurses per 100,000. Estimates have shown 72.5 percent of the country’s girls have suffered female genital mutilation.
Burkina Faso’s oral traditions remain important. Dim-Dolobsom Ouedraogo published his Maximes in 1934 during French occupation which recorded the Mossi people’s oral history. Writers such as Nazi Boni and Roger Nikiema were influenced by the oral history. The number of playwrights grew in the 1960s. Literature developed in the 1970s.
Traditional ethnic ceremonies involve dancing with masks. During colonial times, western theatre became popular. After independence, a new theatre style emerged involving a forum theatre designed to educate the rural population.
As is typical in western Africa, the cuisine is based on sorghum, rice, millet, peanuts, beans, yams, and okra. Protein most often comes from chicken, eggs, and fresh water fish. Fermented palm sap, or Palm Wine, is a typical beverage. The town of Banfora is known for its Palm Wine.
The worst flood in the country’s history occurred on August 30, 2009. It left 8 people dead and over 150,000 homeless. Burkina Faso requested international aid and Japan, France, Ivory Coast, and the European Union responded.
Burkina Faso’s contribution to African film began with the FESPACO film festival in 1969. Many filmmakers are internationally known and have received awards. The Federation of Panafrican Filmmakers had a headquarters in the country for many years. The most well-known directors are Gaston Kabore, Idrissa Ouédraogo, and Dani Kouyate. Bobodijiouf is a popular television series.
Sports participation includes football, basketball, cycling, Rugby union, handball, tennis, boxing, and martial arts. Played formally and informally, football is very popular. Nicknamed “Les Etalons” in reference to Princess Yennenga’s legendary horse, Burkina Faso’s national team is ranked 48 in FIFA World Rankings.
The system is comprised of primary, secondary, and higher education. Attending schools costs about $97 USD per year, outside the reach of most families. Girls have far lower literacy rates than boys. The government has made school cheaper for girls and granted them more scholarships, leading to an increase in their schooling. National exams must be passed to move between levels. The University of Ouagadougou, the Polytechnic University in Bobo-Dioulasso, and the University of Koudougou are higher education institutes. Private colleges exist, but only a small percentage can afford them.
The International School of Ouagadougou is an American-based private school in Ouagadougou.
The state-sponsored television and radio service, Radiodissusion-Television Burkina (RTB) is the main outlet. It broadcasts on several FM and two AM frequencies. There are also several privately owned stations. RTB also produces a short wave new broadcast in French.
Attempts to bring independent press and media have been inconsistent. In 1998, journalist Norbert Zongo, his brother Ernest, his driver, and another man were assassinated. An independent commission of inquiry determined they were killed for political reasons because of Zongo’s investigative work.
Since Zongo’s death, protests during the investigations have been dispersed by police. International organisations have written to the government requesting investigations into death threats to journalists and radio commentators.
The tribal area of Pakistan’s North Waziristan, along the border of Afghanistan, has been strictly forbidden for foreigners, until now. NBC’s Amna Nawaz gets an exclusive look into ground zero of Pakistan’s fight against terror.
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — It’s been called the most dangerous place in the most dangerous region on the planet.
A rugged swathe of tribal territory nestled between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Waziristan is ground zero for some of the region’s most notorious militant groups and warlords, including the Pakistani Taliban and Haqqani network.
North and South Waziristan are hit by more U.S. drone attacks than anywhere else in the world.
NBC News obtained rare access to South Waziristan and last week became the first foreign team of journalists to report from North Waziristan.
Long-ignored by the rest of the country, Waziristan is one of the least developed and least educated sections of Pakistan. Literacy rates for women in some areas are in the single digits. With little infrastructure, funding, or investment, many make their living by engaging in criminal activity, cross-border smuggling, or signing up to join militant groups.
The Taliban is believed to pay 10,000 – 12,000 Pakistan rupees a month (roughly $100 – $120) to foot soldiers, with bonuses for carrying out ambushes, killing a soldier, or even members of military families.
Confronting the violence, the Pakistan military is diversifying its campaign in the “war on terror,” no longer just fighting in the region, but also beginning to rebuild it.
“There are only less than half a percent of people who are fighting as terrorists. What about the more than 99.5 percent of people?” asks Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, who commanded the army division in South Waziristan in 2010 before becoming official military spokesman.
Pakistani Army Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa discusses the impact the “war on terror” has had on Waziristan. “The motto we adopted was ‘build better than before,'” he told NBC News.
In the wake of a major operation in 2009, the Pakistan Army has largely succeeded in pushing back the militant threat from South Waziristan. The area is now considered secure and tribal communities that fled the fighting are starting to return.
Bajwa realized that if the tribal communities weren’t given something to replace their previous way of life, they might again become willing to help or harbor terrorists.
“Looking at it in a larger security context, you can’t really separate development from security,” said Bajwa. “So we’re doing this to serve the larger purpose as well. “
In the village of Chagh Malai, the army constructed a marketplace, complete with dozens of individual shops carrying everything from cloth to medicine to household supplies. Tribal communities here previously maintained individual shops in their homes or in roadside stalls. The marketplace, army commanders said, gives them a sense of community and a central commercial gathering place. They have plans to build 30 complexes like it across the area.
Tribal elder Akhlas Khan excitedly toured the market last week, introducing store owners and showing off inventory.
“Previously, I’d have to travel four or five hours to get these,” he said, gesturing to a small shop carrying electrical goods. “Now, I only need to come here!”
Pakistan Army commanders on the frontlines of the battle for Waziristan talk about the challenges they face and how important it is to develop this isolated part of the world. NBC News’ Amna Nawaz reports.
TALIBAN AND THEIR PUBLIC FLOGGINGS AND EXECUTIONS
In Sararogha, South Waziristan, an 88-shop market complex now stands at the same site the Taliban — once headquartered here — used to use for public floggings and executions.
“These communities, the vast majority of them, have seen the worst kind of atrocities known to the human race,” said Maj. Gen. Ahmed Mahmood Hayat, commander of the Pakistan Army’s 40th Division in South Waziristan.
“They’ve been subjected to coercion — mental and physical — by the terrorists in order to acquiesce them to support,” he added. “They’ve seen their loved ones being butchered in front of their own eyes. So that is the kind of trauma this society has seen. And therefore the greater the challenge to bring back the confidence of these people into the state machinery.”
Trading routes and schools
At the heart of the army’s plans to rebuild the area is a 370-mile road — funded in large part byUSAID money. The road, half of which is complete, will connect the isolated and insular tribal communities to each other, as well as the rest of mainstream Pakistan and to trading routes across the border in Afghanistan.
When finished, the roadway will offer a third link from Pakistan to Afghanistan, and the army hopes, will encourage business development along its path through Waziristan.
In addition to the road project, the army has taken on development projects far outside its traditional roles.
Waj S. Khan / NBC News
A tribesman waits in line at a ‘Distribution Camp’ set up on the side the newly constructed Tank-Makeen road in South Waziristan. Radios and mattresses are the items of choice popular among locals, who belong to one of the most impoverished communities in Pakistan.
Along with the markets, two military schools, known here as Cadet Colleges, were built in South Waziristan to offer young men a rigorous education and boarding-school environment, unlike any educational opportunity available in the region before.
Col. Zahid Naseem Akbar, principal of the Cadet College, Spinkai, said he hopes the school will gives boys in the area the same opportunities as those elsewhere in the country.
“They have the same potential as any other citizen of this country has,” Akbar said. “And I think we owe it to them that we provide them the opportunity to join the mainstream.”
The army is overseeing the rebuilding to schools demolished by the Taliban and building schools for the first time in some areas, including for girls. The military established the Waziristan Institute for Technical Education — a vocational school to train young men who missed their early education during Taliban rule.
And the army is restoring water supplies and electrical systems and funding what they call “livelihood projects,” training and empowering local small businesses in everything from honey bee farming and fruit orchards, to auto repair and transport services.
“The strategy that the Pakistan army has adopted is a people-centric strategy,” Hayat said. “So the more areas you’ve able to clear, the more infrastructure you’re able to build, the more people you are able to bring back and sustain. Provide them economic opportunities. That is the measure of success.”
Ideal habitat for Taliban
Frontline commanders all say the battle for Waziristan will not be won with hearts and minds alone. Security operations continue, gradually increasing what they call their “elbow space” in the region.
Both North and South Waziristan feature snow-capped peaks, deep valleys, hidden caverns, and daunting mountain ranges which provide natural cover. It’s the ideal habitat for the Taliban and other groups seeking refuge and covert routes for travel between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Amna Nawaz / NBC News
A Pakistani soldier hikes toward an observation post near the border between North and South Waziristan. With little infrastructure, funding, or investment, many in the area make their living by engaging in criminal activity, cross-border smuggling, or signing up to join militant groups.
Atop a 6,000-foot high post in South Waziristan, Brig. Hassan Azhar Hayat said despite securing the area, the struggle to hold it against “pockets of resistance” is constant. His troops, he says, still carry out targeted operations on an almost daily basis.
“That’s why the military’s presence is so important here right now in this area, that we keep increasing our perimeter of security,” Hayat said. “This is guerrilla warfare. It cannot happen that you’re able to eliminate the complete Taliban in any form. So it is different warfare altogether.”
North Waziristan remains the only one of the seven tribal agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in which the Pakistan military has not launched a significant military operation.
Despite public pressure from the U.S. to act, Pakistani commanders there cite the complexity of the region, the politicized nature of the debate, as well as the increasing stakes of the approaching 2014 drawdown of troops across the border as critical to their operation’s timeline.
Mohsin Raza / Reuters
Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.
Maj. Gen. Ali Abbas, the commanding officer of the 7th Infantry Division of the Pakistan Army, currently stationed in North Waziristan, said his region must be considered separately because of the number of influences at play. However, 40,000 troops are stationed in North Waziristan, which shares a 113-mile border with Afghanistan,
“North Waziristan is not like any other agency in Pakistan,” Abbas said. “It’s very different. It’s very complex.”
Despite the territory won and economic investments made, there is concern within the local community about a backslide to the time of Taliban rule. Khan, the tribal elder, doesn’t want the army to leave until the entire area has been won and a civilian administration has taken over control. Army commanders say their commitment is clear.
“The army will stay here as long as the army is desired by the local people to stay here, and mandated by the government of Pakistan to stay here,” Hayat said. “We’re here for the long haul. This is our backyard. We cannot ignore it.”
Communities in South Waziristan have been slow to return to the region after the end of military operations. In some sections, crumbling homes and untended stretches of land dot the landscape. Small clusters of mud-walled homes sit empty. Army commanders hope as word of their development efforts spreads, more of those who fled the fighting will return. They are taking, they say, a very long view.
“If we really want to change this area, the approach is to do it over one generation,” Bajwa added. “Look at the next 10 years. If we put a child in the school now, and 10 years on, we bring him out of the school, we put him into a college, I think we have done our job.”
Reference:
Posted by admin in "Jihadi" Outfits of Terrorism, Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, Hypocrites in Islam, Islam: The Universal Message of Peace, MQM Terrorism, MUSLIMS, OUTRAGE AGAINST MUSLIM GENOCIDE, Pakistan Fights Terrorism, Pakistan-A Nation of Hope, SHIA +SUNNI = MUSLIMS=ISLAM=PEACE on March 21st, 2013
English: Hazara poet and journalist Kamran Mir Hazar (credit: Wikipedia)Who are the Hazara? Zaheerudding Babar refered to them as the “Hazarajat” (Persian, and Urdu word for Thousands)in his Tuzk e Babri. They are a Mongolian and Turkic people. Hazaras are probably the descendants of the Kushans.
There is a civil war going on in Afghanistan. Before the arrival of the US troops, the Pakhtuns were in power and the Hazaras were a depressed minority–disenfranchised and persecuted. Most of the Hazaras in Afghanistan were serf and servants. After the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Pakhtuns were persecuted and waged a decade long battle against the ISAF forces. The Hazaras were given positions of power. The Hazaras in Afghanistan, once in power took revenge on the Pakhtun Afghans which inflamed the Afghan Pakhtuns.
Quetta and surrounding areas now have over 4 million Afghans living there. There is tension between the Afghans and the Pakistanis Hazara. The Hazara present a soft target for the Afghans who want to take revenge for the Hazara cruelty in Afghanistan. The Afghans in Quetta are drug runners and wealthy. The Hazaras are poor live in certain areas and are easy targets for the revenge for happening in Afghanistan.
Hazaras (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Despite repeated attempts at targeting Shias and Sunnis,Baloch, and Non-Baloch, and so on and so forth, the fact remains that despite random targeted killings, there is no massive Anti-Shia movement in Pakistan. Even after the horrendous act of sabotage this week, Pakistanis have held together.
So the obvious beneficiary are those that want to get to Balochistan, and those who oppose he Iran-Pakistan pipeline, and who do not like the fact that Gwader has been handed over to the Chinese.
A concerted campaign is being waged to create tension between and among the communities in Pakistan.
It will not end till the invasion of Afghanistan comes to an end.
English: Siraj al-Tawarikh, a book on the history of Afghanistan by Faiz Mohammad Katib Hazara. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
While many blame the “Lashkar e Jhangvi” for the mass murder of Hazaras, the evidence does not support that libel. While targeted killing of Shia and Sunni leaders in Karachi and Lahore can be blamed (not tolerated, accepted, or indemnified) on the respective Shia and Sunni organizations, this sort of mass terror against the Hazara in Balochistan has the tell tale signs foreign interference.
In any case if the “Laskhar e Jhangvi” or any other organization is involved, strict action must be taken against them. US is also promoting terrorism in Pakistan through its proxies Israel, India, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and so called Pakistani Taliban.
Religious differences aside, the Shias are patriotic Pakistani citizens and this sort of horror is unacceptable. Some, mainly the sceular and those who ascribe to Anti-Arabism say that “Pakistan is also the proxy battlefield between Iran and some Arab countries. This has been going on since the Islamic Revolution and its aftermath.”
Rupee News holds that the terror attack on the heals of the decision on Gwader, and the finalization of the IP pipeline–gives us the real reasons for the terror in Pakistan.
Pipeline (Photo credit: martnpro)
According to press reports, the Pakistan Federal Minister forPetroleum and Natural Resources has said that the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline project would be competed by 2014-2015.
English: Faiz Mohammad Katib Hazara written the book Siraj-ul-Tavarikh, which is a famous book about the History of Afghanistan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Iran has apparently completed the pipeline on its side of the border. It is also fun
ding the Pakistani side of the pipeline with $250 million. Iran is also ready to setup an oil refinery at the Gwader port terminal.
Addressing ‘Fuelling Pakistan’ conference at Expo Center here, he said the present government issued more-than-expected licenses to oil and gas companies and this cooperation towards the business community would continue.
Hazara Terror fails to create Anti-Shiaism, rift with Iran, kill IP pipeline, or stop Chinese takeover of Gwader
It is complex and not simple. No single explanation can describe the issues. It is a combination of factors that is fueling the targeting of the Hazara. This article has attempted to list a few of those.
MOIN ANSARI, Rupee News:
Courtesy: Pakistan Patriot
Please Visit: http://www.pakistanpatriot.com
Posted by admin in Pakistan Security and Defence: Enemy & Threats (Internal & External), SHIA +SUNNI = MUSLIMS=ISLAM=PEACE, THE NEOCON STRATEGY IN PROCESS on March 1st, 2013
Pakistan is a nation born on the 27th of Ramazan.
It’s birth and survival is miracle and its safety is under Allah’s protection.
From time to time Shaitan’s in human shape spread rumours to frighten and throw doubt unto believers, so the best approach is to know
wherein lies the source of such news.
And they planned and Allah (also) planned, and Allah is the best of planners. Surah Âl ‘Imran (3:54)
In an article titled ‘A mutiny Grows in the Punjab’, Anatol Lieven (author of Pakistan: A Hard Country) wrote the following: Division of Punjab is part of plan for disintegration of Pakistan.”
These articles are coming in torrents (so they should be taken with a grain of salt), since Pakistan and Iran signed a the gas pipeline agreement and transfer of Gwadar Port Operations to a Chinese Company.
In an article titled ‘A mutiny Grows in the Punjab’, Anatol Lieven (author of Pakistan: A Hard Country) wrote the following:
“The U.S. strategy toward Pakistan has been focused on trying to get Islamabad to give serious help to Washington’s campaign against the Afghan Taliban. There are two rather large problems with this approach. The first is that it is never going to happen because Pakistani strategic calculations and the feelings of the country’s population make it impossible…. except in return for U.S. help against India—which Washington also cannot deliver.
“The second problem is that it gets America’s real priorities in the region back to front. The war in Afghanistan is a temporary U.S. interest, in which the chief concern is not the reality of victory or defeat as such (if only because neither can be clearly defined) but preserving some appearance of success in order to avoid the damage to American military prestige that would result from obvious failure. By contrast, preserving the Pakistani state and containing the terrorist threat to the West from Pakistan is a permanent vital interest not only of the U.S. military and political establishments but of every American citizen.
“While the prospects for any real success in Afghanistan look gloomy, but if saving Pakistan is the real priority, then things do not look so desperate. This is because while getting large numbers of Pakistanis to help America is virtually impossible, getting enough Pakistanis to preserve their existing state is much easier. To a great extent, this is for negative reasons: the elites and indeed the masses have an acute sense of the horror from the country’s collapse. However, a degree of positive loyalty is also present in one key institution and in one key province: namely the military and the Punjab. If Pakistan is to be broken as a state, it will be on the streets of Lahore and other great Punjabi cities, not in the Pashtun mountains.”
Unlike US think tanks and most American writers, who subjectively project Indo-Zionist interests in the region, Anatol Lieven is British, and objective. His article was published nearly two years ago in ‘National Interest’ of March-April 2011, A lot has changed since; Britain has assumed a central role in resolving the Afghan imbroglio and it is the view of Anal Lieven that appears to have prevailed. Disintegration of Pakistan is still on the agenda but it is hoped it will follow rather than precede heightened Civil War in Afghanistan that is likely to result from NATO/US withdrawal.
Pakistan has been ruled by a four party coalition for five years – Zardari League, MQM, ANP and JUI(F) – all of who have a history of opposition to Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari is the head of the PPP although his spoilt son – Bilawal – is formally the chairman of the Party. The father of Asif Zardari – Hakim Ali – was the President of ANP in Sindh after he was expelled from the PPP allegedly for trying to blackmail late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB). No one has revealed why was ZAB being blackmailed but it is well known that he was so angry with Hakim Ali that he sold all his assets and moved to the UK only to return after the execution of ZAB.
The relationship Asif Zardari with his wife Benazir was characterized by the Hollywood film ‘sleeping with the enemy’. But my point here is not their marital relationship; my point is that Asif Zardari has strong nerves; he has lived a life with dangerous briefs. For securing US sponsorship of the NRO, every one has wondered: “what is the quid pro quo that the USA wants from Asif Zardari?” It appears that Asif Zardari signed up to disintegration of Pakistan. He has been tasked to destroy the two institutions that hold Pakistan together: 1) the armed forces and 2) the Punjab.
The Memo written by Pakistan’s Ambassador Hussain Haqqani at the behest of President Zardari to the US Government revealed how AZ intended to undermine the command structure of the armed forces on the pretext of ‘civilian control’. Now he has launched a scheme for the division of the Punjab only weeks before the installation of a ‘care-taker administration’. The constitutional amendment proposed by his press secretary – Senator Farhatullah Babar is unlikely to be passed but it indicates the array of forces being assembled to secure the nefarious ends.
In not understanding the nature of enemy schemes and being so inadequate in articulating viable popular opposition the PML(N) and TIP share equal blame. India has for decades funded opposition to Kalabagh Dam and promoting Seraiki province. Disintegration of Pakistan has been at the top of Indian agenda since 1947. There should have been no doubt left after the invasion and separation of East Pakistan in 1971.
But the very same political parties that are in the ruling coalition today were at the helm in West Pakistan in 1971. Their leaders readily embraced the Indian propaganda that East Pakistan separated because of ‘maltreatment’ by the Punjabis. Ever since, the Punjab has been the favourite whipping boy – blamed for every real or imagined grievance. But the leaders of Punjab have never flinched from making a sacrifice in any inter-provincial deal – the recent finance award as well as the Water Accord of 19991. But the Indian propaganda continues to be mouthed by President Zardari and his coalition partners.
Not content with the Punjab giving in to every demand of cut in its legitimate share, the Zardari Administration is now embarked on Sheikh Mujib style campaign of subversion supplemented by direct attacks on the military and the integrity of the Punjab province.
The 2008 announcement of cancellation of the Kalabagh Dam, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, and now the Freudian Slip, attempt to separate the BJP (Bahawalpur Janubi Punjab) from the Punjab, are all a part of the same plan.
Mian Nawaz Sharif does not appear to understand how diabolical the scheme is. His party came up with a proposal to carve out three provinces instead of two. PML(N) get no votes – just ridicule and disgust. The people and politicians of Sindh have been wiser in understanding that the real reason for the new Local Bodies Ordinance is to give Indian protégés – the MQM – perpetual control over not just Karachi but all the urban centres of Sindh. Are the Punjabis so dim that they cannot understand the real intent behind the proposed division of the Punjab?
In Pakistan, land has always belonged to the provinces but river water is owned by the federation. This is a sensible division that has stood the test of time. Large reservoirs of water in dams have been built and operated by the federal government but the barrages and the canals have been owned and operated by the provincial governments. Kalabagh Dam is an exception because it is a dam as well as a barrage. Its right bank canal would irrigate DIK area of South KPK, and the left Bank canal would irrigate the area between Rivers Indus and Jhelum. The reservoir would serve the interest of South Punjab and Sindh Province as Sindh gets 37% of the water of any reservoir built on River Indus. Tarbela Dam, built in the KPK has increased supply of irrigation water at Sukhar as well Kotri barrages. Kalabagh Dam would be even more beneficial to Sindh because it would conserve huge amount of extra water from all the tributaries of River Indus down stream of Tarbela and hill torrents that have caused death and destruction in South Punjab.
Kalabagh Dam is so detested by India because it would link all the provinces of Pakistan into a nationwide irrigation system.
Farhatullah Babar included the Districts of Mianwali and Bhakkar in BJP in his proposal. The people of the two districts understood his intent and protested. Thy understood that it would imply that the only dam in the Punjab – the Kalabagh Dam – would be located outside the province.
Farhatullah Babar proposal undermines the link canals and the entire irrigation system of the Punjab but the real reason is more sinister. The BJP locked into disputes with Punjab in perpetuity would be sight for sore hostile eyes. The fiendish scheme has escaped the attention of Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif but that may not be ignored by the farmers and irrigation experts. However, India and its protégés in Pakistan have good reasons for hope; if the benefits of Kalabagh Dam to Sindh can be sold as damaging because the Dam would also benefit the Punjab, why the damage to Multan and Bahawalpur be sold as beneficial merely because the rest of the Punjab disapproves of the division of the Punjab.
The reason why the Indo-Zionist lobby wants the division of the Punjab is the one given by Anatol Lieven:
“If Pakistan is to be broken as a state, it will be on the streets of Lahore and other great Punjabi cities, not in the Pashtun mountains.”
East Pakistan was the largest province of Pakistan until 1971 but its people were not able to see the benefits in the union. It split from Pakistan and is forever reduced to the status of a vassal state of India.
The Punjabis are 60% of the Pakistani nation now. As noted by Anatol Lieven, they see the vital need for maintaining the union and the Army is willing and able to defend every part of Pakistan.
The only way Pakistan may not succeed in maintaining the integrity of the federation is that the political process brings a Boris Yeltsin to power and the armed forces are too discredited or demonised to resists threats to national integrity.
Pakistan has had a Boris Yeltsin in the shape of Asif Zardari in power for five years but the military has maintained national cohesion despite him.
“The U.S. strategy toward Pakistan has been focused on trying to get Islamabad to give serious help to Washington’s campaign against the Afghan Taliban. There are two rather large problems with this approach. The first is that it is never going to happen because Pakistani strategic calculations and the feelings of the country’s population make it impossible…. except in return for U.S. help against India—which Washington also cannot deliver.
“The second problem is that it gets America’s real priorities in the region back to front. The war in Afghanistan is a temporary U.S. interest, in which the chief concern is not the reality of victory or defeat as such (if only because neither can be clearly defined) but preserving some appearance of success in order to avoid the damage to American military prestige that would result from obvious failure. By contrast, preserving the Pakistani state and containing the terrorist threat to the West from Pakistan is a permanent vital interest not only of the U.S. military and political establishments but of every American citizen.
“While the prospects for any real success in Afghanistan look gloomy, but if saving Pakistan is the real priority, then things do not look so desperate. This is because while getting large numbers of Pakistanis to help America is virtually impossible, getting enough Pakistanis to preserve their existing state is much easier. To a great extent, this is for negative reasons: the elites and indeed the masses have an acute sense of the horror from the country’s collapse. However, a degree of positive loyalty is also present in one key institution and in one key province: namely the military and the Punjab. If Pakistan is to be broken as a state, it will be on the streets of Lahore and other great Punjabi cities, not in the Pashtun mountains.”
Unlike US think tanks and most American writers, who subjectively project Indo-Zionist interests in the region, Anatol Lieven is British, and objective. His article was published nearly two years ago in ‘National Interest’ of March-April 2011, A lot has changed since; Britain has assumed a central role in resolving the Afghan imbroglio and it is the view of Anal Lieven that appears to have prevailed. Disintegration of Pakistan is still on the agenda but it is hoped it will follow rather than precede heightened Civil War in Afghanistan that is likely to result from NATO/US withdrawal.
Pakistan has been ruled by a four party coalition for five years – Zardari League, MQM, ANP and JUI(F) – all of who have a history of opposition to Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari is the head of the PPP although his spoilt son – Bilawal – is formally the chairman of the Party. The father of Asif Zardari – Hakim Ali – was the President of ANP in Sindh after he was expelled from the PPP allegedly for trying to blackmail late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB). No one has revealed why was ZAB being blackmailed but it is well known that he was so angry with Hakim Ali that he sold all his assets and moved to the UK only to return after the execution of ZAB.
The relationship Asif Zardari with his wife Benazir was characterized by the Hollywood film ‘sleeping with the enemy’. But my point here is not their marital relationship; my point is that Asif Zardari has strong nerves; he has lived a life with dangerous briefs. For securing US sponsorship of the NRO, every one has wondered: “what is the quid pro quo that the USA wants from Asif Zardari?” It appears that Asif Zardari signed up to disintegration of Pakistan. He has been tasked to destroy the two institutions that hold Pakistan together: 1) the armed forces and 2) the Punjab.
The Memo written by Pakistan’s Ambassador Hussain Haqqani at the behest of President Zardari to the US Government revealed how AZ intended to undermine the command structure of the armed forces on the pretext of ‘civilian control’. Now he has launched a scheme for the division of the Punjab only weeks before the installation of a ‘care-taker administration’. The constitutional amendment proposed by his press secretary – Senator Farhatullah Babar is unlikely to be passed but it indicates the array of forces being assembled to secure the nefarious ends.
In not understanding the nature of enemy schemes and being so inadequate in articulating viable popular opposition the PML(N) and TIP share equal blame. India has for decades funded opposition to Kalabagh Dam and promoting Seraiki province. Disintegration of Pakistan has been at the top of Indian agenda since 1947. There should have been no doubt left after the invasion and separation of East Pakistan in 1971.
But the very same political parties that are in the ruling coalition today were at the helm in West Pakistan in 1971. Their leaders readily embraced the Indian propaganda that East Pakistan separated because of ‘maltreatment’ by the Punjabis. Ever since, the Punjab has been the favourite whipping boy – blamed for every real or imagined grievance. But the leaders of Punjab have never flinched from making a sacrifice in any inter-provincial deal – the recent finance award as well as the Water Accord of 19991. But the Indian propaganda continues to be mouthed by President Zardari and his coalition partners.
Not content with the Punjab giving in to every demand of cut in its legitimate share, the Zardari Administration is now embarked on Sheikh Mujib style campaign of subversion supplemented by direct attacks on the military and the integrity of the Punjab province.
The 2008 announcement of cancellation of the Kalabagh Dam, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, and now the Freudian Slip, attempt to separate the BJP (Bahawalpur Janubi Punjab) from the Punjab, are all a part of the same plan.
Mian Nawaz Sharif does not appear to understand how diabolical the scheme is. His party came up with a proposal to carve out three provinces instead of two. PML(N) get no votes – just ridicule and disgust. The people and politicians of Sindh have been wiser in understanding that the real reason for the new Local Bodies Ordinance is to give Indian protégés – the MQM – perpetual control over not just Karachi but all the urban centres of Sindh. Are the Punjabis so dim that they cannot understand the real intent behind the proposed division of the Punjab?
In Pakistan, land has always belonged to the provinces but river water is owned by the federation. This is a sensible division that has stood the test of time. Large reservoirs of water in dams have been built and operated by the federal government but the barrages and the canals have been owned and operated by the provincial governments. Kalabagh Dam is an exception because it is a dam as well as a barrage. Its right bank canal would irrigate DIK area of South KPK, and the left Bank canal would irrigate the area between Rivers Indus and Jhelum. The reservoir would serve the interest of South Punjab and Sindh Province as Sindh gets 37% of the water of any reservoir built on River Indus. Tarbela Dam, built in the KPK has increased supply of irrigation water at Sukhar as well Kotri barrages. Kalabagh Dam would be even more beneficial to Sindh because it would conserve huge amount of extra water from all the tributaries of River Indus down stream of Tarbela and hill torrents that have caused death and destruction in South Punjab.
Kalabagh Dam is so detested by India because it would link all the provinces of Pakistan into a nationwide irrigation system.
Farhatullah Babar included the Districts of Mianwali and Bhakkar in BJP in his proposal. The people of the two districts understood his intent and protested. Thy understood that it would imply that the only dam in the Punjab – the Kalabagh Dam – would be located outside the province.
Farhatullah Babar proposal undermines the link canals and the entire irrigation system of the Punjab but the real reason is more sinister. The BJP locked into disputes with Punjab in perpetuity would be sight for sore hostile eyes. The fiendish scheme has escaped the attention of Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif but that may not be ignored by the farmers and irrigation experts. However, India and its protégés in Pakistan have good reasons for hope; if the benefits of Kalabagh Dam to Sindh can be sold as damaging because the Dam would also benefit the Punjab, why the damage to Multan and Bahawalpur be sold as beneficial merely because the rest of the Punjab disapproves of the division of the Punjab.
The reason why the Indo-Zionist lobby wants the division of the Punjab is the one given by Anatol Lieven:
“If Pakistan is to be broken as a state, it will be on the streets of Lahore and other great Punjabi cities, not in the Pashtun mountains.”
East Pakistan was the largest province of Pakistan until 1971 but its people were not able to see the benefits in the union. It split from Pakistan and is forever reduced to the status of a vassal state of India.
The Punjabis are 60% of the Pakistani nation now. As noted by Anatol Lieven, they see the vital need for maintaining the union and the Army is willing and able to defend every part of Pakistan.
The only way Pakistan may not succeed in maintaining the integrity of the federation is that the political process brings a Boris Yeltsin to power and the armed forces are too discredited or demonised to resists threats to national integrity.
Pakistan has had a Boris Yeltsin in the shape of Asif Zardari in power for five years but the military has maintained national cohesion despite him.
But that would not last forever. Our enemies hope that Mian Nawaz Sharif would play the role of blunderbuss Boris even better. Pakistan is not out of the woods yet. ++
Washington’s intent goes beyond the narrow objective of “regime change”. The thrust of US foreign policy consists in weakening the central government and fracturing the country.
The ongoing US drone attacks under the banner of the “Global War on Terrorism” are part of that process.
This article first published five years ago in December 2007 focuses on the historical process of collapse of Pakistan as a nation state following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Washington has been planning a scenario of disintegration and civil war in Pakistan for more than five years. According to a 2005 report by the US National Intelligence Council and the CIA, Pakistan is slated to become a “failed state” by 2015, “as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons”.
Since the outset of the Soviet Afghan war, US intelligence using Pakistan’s ISI as a go-between has supported Al Qaeda and its various affiliated organizations.
“Talibanisation” is the direct result of US-led covert operations.
What is not mentioned in the NIC-CIA report is that the destabilization process– including covert support of terrorists groups as well the ongoing drone attacks– is part of a longstanding US led intelligence operation.
The US course consists in fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan. This course of action is also dictated by US war plans in relation to both Afghanistan and Iran.
Michel Chossudovsky, December 27, 2012
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Global Research, 30 December 2007
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has created conditions which contribute to the ongoing destabilization and fragmentation of Pakistan as a Nation.
The process of US sponsored “regime change”, which normally consists in the re-formation of a fresh proxy government under new leaders has been broken. Discredited in the eyes of Pakistani public opinion, General Pervez Musharaf cannot remain in the seat of political power. But at the same time, the fake elections supported by the “international community” scheduled for January 2008, even if they were to be carried out, would not be accepted as legitimate, thereby creating a political impasse.
There are indications that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was anticipated by US officials:
“It has been known for months that the Bush-Cheney administration and its allies have been maneuvering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the “war on terrorism” across the region.
Various American destabilization plans, known for months by officials and analysts, proposed the toppling of Pakistan’s military…
The assassination of Bhutto appears to have been anticipated. There were even reports of “chatter” among US officials about the possible assassinations of either Pervez Musharraf or Benazir Bhutto, well before the actual attempts took place. (Larry Chin, Global Research, 29 December 2007)
Political Impasse
“Regime change” with a view to ensuring continuity under military rule is no longer the main thrust of US foreign policy. The regime of Pervez Musharraf cannot prevail. Washington’s foreign policy course is to actively promote the political fragmentation and balkanization of Pakistan as a nation.
A new political leadership is anticipated but in all likelihood it will take on a very different shape, in relation to previous US sponsored regimes. One can expect that Washington will push for a compliant political leadership, with no commitment to the national interest, a leadership which will serve US imperial interests, while concurrently contributing under the disguise of “decentralization”, to the weakening of the central government and the fracture of Pakistan’s fragile federal structure.
The political impasse is deliberate. It is part of an evolving US foreign policy agenda, which favors disruption and disarray in the structures of the Pakistani State. Indirect rule by the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus is to be replaced by more direct forms of US interference, including an expanded US military presence inside Pakistan.
This expanded military presence is also dictated by the Middle East-Central Asia geopolitical situation and Washington’s ongoing plans to extend the Middle East war to a much broader area.
The US has several military bases in Pakistan. It controls the country’s air space. According to a recent report: “U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units” (William Arkin, Washington Post, December 2007).
The official justification and pretext for an increased military presence in Pakistan is to extend the “war on terrorism”. Concurrently, to justify its counterrorism program, Washington is also beefing up its covert support to the “terrorists.”
The Balkanization of Pakistan
Already in 2005, a report by the US National Intelligence Council and the CIA forecast a “Yugoslav-like fate” for Pakistan “in a decade with the country riven by civil war, bloodshed and inter-provincial rivalries, as seen recently in Balochistan.” (Energy Compass, 2 March 2005). According to the NIC-CIA, Pakistan is slated to become a “failed state” by 2015, “as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons”. (Quoted by former Pakistan High Commissioner to UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Times of India, 13 February 2005):
“Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the Central government’s control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi,” the former diplomat quoted the NIC-CIA report as saying.
Expressing apprehension, Hasan asked, “are our military rulers working on a similar agenda or something that has been laid out for them in the various assessment reports over the years by the National Intelligence Council in joint collaboration with CIA?” (Ibid)
Continuity, characterized by the dominant role of the Pakistani military and intelligence has been scrapped in favor of political breakup and balkanization.
According to the NIC-CIA scenario, which Washington intends to carry out: “Pakistan will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive policies, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction,” (Ibid) .
The US course consists in fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan. This course of action is also dictated by US war plans in relation to both Afghanistan and Iran.
This US agenda for Pakistan is similar to that applied throughout the broader Middle East Central Asian region. US strategy, supported by covert intelligence operations, consists in triggering ethnic and religious strife, abetting and financing secessionist movements while also weakening the institutions of the central government.
The broader objective is to fracture the Nation State and redraw the borders of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Oil and Gas reserves
Pakistan’s extensive oil and gas reserves, largely located in Balochistan province, as well as its pipeline corridors are considered strategic by the Anglo-American alliance, requiring the concurrent militarization of Pakistani territory.
Balochistan comprises more than 40 percent of Pakistan’s land mass, possesses important reserves of oil and natural gas as well as extensive mineral resources.
The Iran-India pipeline corridor is slated to transit through Balochistan. Balochistan also possesses a deap sea port largely financed by China located at Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea, not far from the Straits of Hormuz where 30 % of the world’s daily oil supply moves by ship or pipeline. (Asia News.it, 29 December 2007)
Pakistan has an estimated 25.1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves of which 19 trillion are located in Balochistan. Among foreign oil and gas contractors in Balochistan are BP, Italy’s ENI, Austria’s OMV, and Australia’s BHP. It is worth noting that Pakistan’s State oil and gas companies, including PPL which has the largest stake in the Sui oil fields of Balochistan are up for privatization under IMF-World Bank supervision.
According to the Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Pakistan had proven oil reserves of 300 million barrels, most of which are located in Balochistan. Other estimates place Balochistan oil reserves at an estimated six trillion barrels of oil reserves both on-shore and off-shore (Environment News Service, 27 October 2006) .
Covert Support to Balochistan Separatists
Balochistan’s strategic energy reserves have a bearing on the separatist agenda. Following a familiar pattern, there are indications that the Baloch insurgency is being supported and abetted by Britain and the US.
The Baloch national resistance movement dates back to the late 1940s, when Balochistan was invaded by Pakistan. In the current geopolitical context, the separatist movement is in the process of being hijacked by foreign powers.
British intelligence is allegedly providing covert support to Balochistan separatists (which from the outset have been repressed by Pakistan’s military). In June 2006, Pakistan’s Senate Committee on Defence accused British intelligence of “abetting the insurgency in the province bordering Iran” [Balochistan]..(Press Trust of India, 9 August 2006). Ten British MPs were involved in a closed door session of the Senate Committee on Defence regarding the alleged support of Britain’s Secret Service to Baloch separatists (Ibid). Also of relevance are reports of CIA and Mossad support to Baloch rebels in Iran and Southern Afghanistan.
It would appear that Britain and the US are supporting both sides. The US is providing American F-16 jets to the Pakistani military, which are being used to bomb Baloch villages in Balochistan. Meanwhile, British alleged covert support to the separatist movement (according to the Pakistani Senate Committee) contributes to weakening the central government.
The stated purpose of US counter-terrorism is to provide covert support as well as as training to “Liberation Armies” ultimately with a view to destabilizing sovereign governments. In Kosovo, the training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the 1990s had been entrusted to a private mercenary company, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), on contract to the Pentagon.
The BLA bears a canny resemblance to Kosovo’s KLA, which was financed by the drug trade and supported by the CIA and Germany’s Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND).
The BLA emerged shortly after the 1999 military coup. It has no tangible links to the Baloch resistance movement, which developed since the late 1940s. An aura of mystery surrounds the leadership of the BLA.
Baloch population in Pink: In Iran, Pakistan and Southern Afghanistan
Washington favors the creation of a “Greater Balochistan” which would integrate the Baloch areas of Pakistan with those of Iran and possibly the Southern tip of Afghanistan (See Map above), thereby leading to a process of political fracturing in both Iran and Pakistan.
“The US is using Balochi nationalism for staging an insurgency inside Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province. The ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan gives a useful political backdrop for the ascendancy of Balochi militancy” (See Global Research, 6 March 2007).
Military scholar Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters writing in the June 2006 issue of The Armed Forces Journal, suggests, in no uncertain terms that Pakistan should be broken up, leading to the formation of a separate country: “Greater Balochistan” or “Free Balochistan” (see Map below). The latter would incorporate the Pakistani and Iranian Baloch provinces into a single political entity.
In turn, according to Peters, Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) should be incorporated into Afghanistan “because of its linguistic and ethnic affinity”. This proposed fragmentation, which broadly reflects US foreign policy, would reduce Pakistani territory to approximately 50 percent of its present land area. (See map). Pakistan would also loose a large part of its coastline on the Arabian Sea.
Although the map does not officially reflect Pentagon doctrine, it has been used in a training program at NATO’s Defense College for senior military officers. This map, as well as other similar maps, have most probably been used at the National War Academy as well as in military planning circles. (See Mahdi D. Nazemroaya, Global Research, 18 November 2006)
“Lieutenant-Colonel Peters was last posted, before he retired to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, within the U.S. Defence Department, and has been one of the Pentagon’s foremost authors with numerous essays on strategy for military journals and U.S. foreign policy.” (Ibid)
It is worth noting that secessionist tendencies are not limited to Balochistan. There are separatist groups in Sindh province, which are largely based on opposition to the Punjabi-dominated military regime of General Pervez Musharraf (For Further details see Selig Harrisson, Le Monde diplomatique, October 2006)
“Strong Economic Medicine”: Weakening Pakistan’s Central Government
Pakistan has a federal structure based on federal provincial transfers. Under a federal fiscal structure, the central government transfers financial resources to the provinces, with a view to supporting provincial based programs. When these transfers are frozen as occurred in Yugoslavia in January 1990, on orders of the IMF, the federal fiscal structure collapses:
“State revenues that should have gone as transfer payments to the republics [of the Yugoslav federation] went instead to service Belgrade’s debt … . The republics were largely left to their own devices. … The budget cuts requiring the redirection of federal revenues towards debt servicing, were conducive to the suspension of transfer payments by Belgrade to the governments of the Republics and Autonomous Provinces.
In one fell swoop, the reformers had engineered the final collapse of Yugoslavia’s federal fiscal structure and mortally wounded its federal political institutions. By cutting the financial arteries between Belgrade and the republics, the reforms fueled secessionist tendencies that fed on economic factors as well as ethnic divisions, virtually ensuring the de facto secession of the republics. (Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Second Edition, Global Research, Montreal, 2003, Chapter 17.)
It is by no means accidental that the 2005 National Intelligence Council- CIA report had predicted a “Yugoslav-like fate” for Pakistan pointing to the impacts of “economic mismanagement” as one of the causes of political break-up and balkanization.
“Economic mismanagement” is a term used by the Washington based international financial institutions to describe the chaos which results from not fully abiding by the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program. In actual fact, the “economic mismanagement” and chaos is the outcome of IMF-World Bank prescriptions, which invariably trigger hyperinflation and precipitate indebted countries into extreme poverty.
Pakistan has been subjected to the same deadly IMF “economic medicine” as Yugoslavia: In 1999, in the immediate wake of the coup d’Etat which brought General Pervez Musharaf to the helm of the military government, an IMF economic package, which included currency devaluation and drastic austerity measures, was imposed on Pakistan. Pakistan’s external debt is of the order of US$40 billion. The IMF’s “debt reduction” under the package was conditional upon the sell-off to foreign capital of the most profitable State owned enterprises (including the oil and gas facilities in Balochistan) at rockbottom prices .
Musharaf’s Finance Minister was chosen by Wall Street, which is not an unusual practice. The military rulers appointed at Wall Street’s behest, a vice-president of Citigroup, Shaukat Aziz, who at the time was head of CitiGroup’s Global Private Banking. (See WSWS.org, 30 October 1999). CitiGroup is among the largest commercial foreign banking institutions in Pakistan.
There are obvious similarities in the nature of US covert intelligence operations applied in country after country in different parts of the so-called “developing World”. These covert operation, including the organisation of military coups, are often synchronized with the imposition of IMF-World Bank macro-economic reforms. In this regard, Yugoslavia’s federal fiscal structure collapsed in 1990 leading to mass poverty and heightened ethnic and social divisions. The US and NATO sponsored “civil war” launched in mid-1991 consisted in coveting Islamic groups as well as channeling covert support to separatist paramilitary armies in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
A similar “civil war” scenario has been envisaged for Pakistan by the National Intelligence Council and the CIA: From the point of view of US intelligence, which has a longstanding experience in abetting separatist “liberation armies”, “Greater Albania” is to Kosovo what “Greater Balochistan” is to Pakistan’s Southeastern Balochistan province. Similarly, the KLA is Washington’s chosen model, to be replicated in Balochistan province.
The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, no ordinary city. Rawalpindi is a military city host to the headquarters of the Pakistani Armed Forces and Military Intelligence (ISI). Ironically Bhutto was assassinated in an urban area tightly controlled and guarded by the military police and the country’s elite forces. Rawalpindi is swarming with ISI intelligence officials, which invariably infiltrate political rallies. Her assassination was not a haphazard event.
Without evidence, quoting Pakistan government sources, the Western media in chorus has highlighted the role of Al-Qaeda, while also focusing on the the possible involvement of the ISI.
What these interpretations do not mention is that the ISI continues to play a key role in overseeing Al Qaeda on behalf of US intelligence. The press reports fail to mention two important and well documented facts:
1) the ISI maintains close ties to the CIA. The ISI is virtually an appendage of the CIA.
2) Al Qaeda is a creation of the CIA. The ISI provides covert support to Al Qaeda, acting on behalf of US intelligence.
The alleged involvement of either Al Qaeda and/or the ISI would suggest that US intelligence was cognizant and/or implicated in the assassination plot.
[Part Two: Pakistan and the “Global War on Terrorism” at
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7746]
Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international bestseller America’s “War on Terrorism” Global Research, 2005. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization.
– See more at: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-destabilization-of-pakistan/7705#sthash.0pEuRMZC.dpuf
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