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Posted by admin in OPINION LEADER, Riaz Haq on January 2nd, 2021
“India’s “Firehose of Falsehood” Propaganda Model Targets Pakistan”
India with its massive disinformation campaign against Pakistan, as recently revealed by EU Disinfo Lab, appears to be following what a US think tank RAND calls “Firehose of Falsehood” propaganda model. It has over 750 fake media outlets covering 119 countries. There are over 750 domain names, some in the name of dead people and others using stolen identities.
Pakistani policymakers charged with countering the Indian propaganda should read the RAND report “Firehose of Falsehoods” for its 5 specific recommendations to the US government to effectively respond to the Russian disinformation campaign. In particular they should heed its key advice: “All other things being equal, messages received in greater volume and from more sources will be more persuasive…….Don’t expect to counter Russia’s firehose of falsehood with the squirt gun of truth. Instead, put raincoats on those at whom the firehose is aimed”
Posted by admin in OPINION, OPINION LEADER on December 18th, 2020
The people of the United States, and her elected representatives, need to take seriously our responsibility to the global community, and for the multitude of problems, the planet and her inhabitants face. We can be a force for good, or we can pursue the path of rogue nation. I believe that if we choose the latter the path will be short for the U.S. and for the Earth. Therefore, the Biden administration has a big job in front of it. The first being convincing the American people of the need to follow a new path together rather than a (comfortable) failed path that has brought us to the brink of disaster.
Mahboob Khawaja, PhD
“We have let the government’s evil-doing, its abuses, power grabs, brutality, meanness, inhumanity, immorality, greed, corruption, debauchery and tyranny go on for too long. We are approaching a reckoning. This is the point, as the poet W. B. Yeats warned, when things fall apart and anarchy is loosed upon the world.” John W. Whitehead “Monsters with Human Faces: The Tyranny of the Police State Disguised as Law-and-Order.” Information Clearing House: 7/25/2019 (Quoted by Mahboob A. Khawaja, “Democracy of Inhumanity and We, the People of Global Consciousness”. Information Clearing House: 1/01/2020).
Trump’s Absolutism and the Clash of Democracy
President Trump embarked on deceitful triumphalism after a fair and free outcome of the 2020 Presidential election. While denying the facts and enlarging the scope of hype, false rhetoric and wickedness to claim a political win utterly divorced from the prevalent facts on America’s – We, the People landscape. Enticing questionable stance on the results of the election and constantly blaming the Democratic Party and Joe Bidden –President-Elect– as the unlawful and fraudulent winner of the election. President Trump’s domestic spoilers are few and those 126 GOP House Republicans supporting the Texas lawsuit to nullify the results of four US states’ elections, brought a slap to their expectations today when the suit was rejected by the Supreme Court.
President Trump failed miserably to understand the vitality of an effective leader to console the masses in situations of unusual crises, to know his own strengths and weaknesses, and to analyze the wisdom of people around him conducting the governing circle. Intelligent and conscientious leaders unite the masses in crisis but Trump is focused on dividing and driving the American people to violence and unpredictable political chaos. It is this type of insane egoism that brought the downfall of so many leaders in human history. This author recently observed (“American Presidential Election and Democracy Look for Change, Moral and Intellectual Leadership.” UncommonThought:11/19/2020.)
Wickedness and piety cannot be combined in one human character. Trump inflicted disharmony and racial discrimination against the population of color. There is always inconsistency in a delusional mind and so it is with Trump’s paranoia and vengefulness. He has incapacitated the inborn moral and intellectual faculties of Americans and besieged the nation in its conduct of the basic tenets of liberty, justice, and democracy. This was not accidental but a planned scheme – despite being unknown in its short-long terms consequences over the nation’s ability to cope with the change phenomenon for a sustainable future. America under Trump became insane – a victim of its own obsession with power and fearful of its future.
To glance ahead, America and its claim to a working democracy will haunt future generations with suspicion and extended discard. Trump and his coercive puppies could not think of America as part of the global community except as conforming to their own fantasies, phobias, prejudices, policies, practices and preferences, favoring Israel and Netanyahu and nothing else for the pandemic entrenched people of America. History will tell of this time when Trump plagued the body politic with the deliberate misinterpretation of the election and outrageous futuristic hypotheses leading nowhere in a civilized society. The sudden and inexplicable democratic plunge into self-geared wickedness must be catastrophic for future generations. What happens in America affects the global culture of human thoughts, freedom and justice. President Trump lacking the capacity of wisdom cannot control his feelings and is a of being a misfit to hold that office. The American masses are caught in a storm of ugly confrontational democracy as they appear unenlightened and unprepared to cope with its aftermath. Time is critical for American short- and long terms political culpability to sort out a sustainable political future. The logic of reason shall call for a smooth transfer of power to Joe Bidden-President Elect on January 20, 2021. But American pride and prejudice could change many events into defying assertions of working democracy.
In Search of Vaccine and Cure for the COVID-19 Pandemic
The US media highlights the COVID-19 Pandemic surge – more than 16 million cases of infection, and more than 300K deaths now more than 3K daily. This is pandemic carnage that could have largely been averted if there was a responsible federal administration thoughtful of – We, the People. Could there be a revulsion against the capitalist democracy in-waiting to take its shape and form once Trump and his supporters submit to the will of the people? Apparently, the vaccine against Covid-19 is ready to be distributed but one must be cautious not to imagine a magic cure in days or weeks or if the vaccine will do the job as it is claimed to be by the manufacturers both in American and Germany. Covid-19 is a global pandemic and its remedial approach should have organized global sharing and pooling of knowledge-based scientific resources all across the world. We are One Humanity – natural disasters and fatalities know not any borders, flags, or nationalities but surge like wildfire as is being witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Not so, Americans and the EU still buried in the past would not consider the Russian Covid-19 vaccine already prepared and administered or the Chinese vaccine because they are manufactured by the politically opposing entities. Again political absolutism heightens animosity and hatred rather than human understanding and cooperation for a precious cause of saving the lives on Earth. To save the life of one human being is to safeguard the whole of humanity. We are all born equal: One Humanity:- the Divine Message of Al-Qur’an states it clearly:
“Proclaim in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created,
Created man (human being) out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood,
Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful, He Who taught (the use of) the Pen,
Taught man (human being) that which he knew not.”
It is sheer ignorance and a human tragedy to highlight the political differences when mankind is in urgent need of a viable cure for the Covid-19 pandemic. Politicians are not the medical experts to authoritatively speak for scientific reasoning. Most often medical practitioners prescribe medication on experimental basis, often not certain about the ultimate impact. The masses across the globe are fearful and losing faith on political leaders leading medical propagation of various vaccines for human consumption. It seems illogical to expect sober, judicious and reasonable undertaking when politicians are indulged in abusing truth and honesty in their behavior. If human life can be deceived and cheapened in America and across the globe, one wonders how to evaluate the importance of human rights, freedom and justice in any viable context. Joe Bidden and some of his colleagues appear to be rational, enlightened and self-disciplined folks to assume the next governance of world’s powerful Government. He promised to vaccinate 100M Americans during the first 100 days of his presidency – a planned and rational optimism for change and to restore normalcy for the future. Destiny and future-making are always timeless and constantly moving phenomenon as we look beyond the obvious critical horizon of human anxiety and sufferings to come.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012. His forthcoming book is entitled: One Humanity and The Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution
Posted by admin in Col.Riaz Jafri (Retd), OPINION LEADER on August 2nd, 2020
The crescent controversy has once again erupted in the country and unfortunately this time it has pitched the science against the scripture. The clergy wants its supremacy over everything else, where as the Minister for Science and Technology maintains that science confirms, augments and serves the religious thought in a more conclusive manner. The science showed the moon on the horizon in its laboratories on the 21st July where as the Ruet-e Hilal Committee (RHC) saw it through the naked eyes of its witnesses across the country on the 22nd July, that is a day later. Who is to be believed or not is the question. I think there is a very simple way to find out who is correct – the clergy or the Minister. Let’s wait till the 14th of the moon, when its disc will be a perfect circle and decisively visible to all. If the 14th of the moon falls on the 3rd of August the Minister would be right and if it ! falls on the 4th of August then the Mufti Sahib. Further more, who so ever happens to be right should be entrusted as the final authority with the task of all future moon sightings in Pakistan. If it is the RHC, it should continue functioning as heretofore. But should the Minister happen to be right then the Meteorological department be given this responsibility and the RHC done away with.
The naked eye witnessing (ainee shahadat) was necessary when no optical aids were available, not even an ordinary pair of eye glasses. In the present day scenario if one has to sight the moon wearing spectacles, eye lenses and seeing through powerful telescopes, what forbids one seeing the new moon through laser scopes penetrating through the clouds and spotting the moon or with the help of scores of orbiting navigational satellites or with the arithmetical accuracy of astronomy ?!
Col. Syed Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
Tel: (051) 5158033
E.mail: [email protected]
Posted by admin in OPINION LEADER, Sajjad Shaukat on June 25th, 2020
Pakistan’s civil and military leaders are repeatedly pointing out that India is planning another false flag operation against Pakistan in order to divert attention from its internal issues and failure of external policy.
In this regard, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on June 23, this year: “India is hiding its face after facing humiliation defeat by China…the officials of Indian High Commission in Islamabad should be readied to leave the country if Pakistani diplomatic staff are expelled by New Delhi…Indian authorities levelled baseless allegations against the officials of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and the country was finding excuses to stage a false flag operation…the foreign ministry has categorically rejected the allegations levelled by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and termed it as an attempt to divert attention from its state terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir…The world is witnessing the Islamophobia in India besides observing the discriminatory actions against Muslims and minorities. BJP had grabbed electoral victory by propagating against Pakistan. The ruling political party in India had faced defeat in five states before staging a drama in the name of Pulwama attack…Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact rejected the illegal moves of India in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, whereas, and the international community has also considered New Delhi as a risk to the regional peace… the Indian government will get the same response from Pakistan”.
It is notable that, on May 5, this year, drastic tensions arose between India and China, taking both the countries to the edge of war.
In response to India’s construction of roads and airstrips adjacent to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which will improve connectivity and enable easier mobility for Indian troops in the area, thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops moved into the regions along the eastern Ladakh border, setting up tents and stationing vehicles and heavy machinery.
Reports confirmed that the Indian army has moved several battalions from an infantry division usually based in the Ladakh city of Leh to “operational alert areas” along the border.
In this respect, Chinese official newspaper Global Times wrote: “The latest border friction was a planned move by New Delhi…India in recent days has illegally constructed defence facilities across the border into Chinese territory in the Galwan Valley region, leaving Chinese border defence troops no other options but making necessary moves in response, and mounting the risk of escalating standoffs and conflicts between the two sides.”
In this connection, a storm sparked in India by the contradictory statement, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on JUNE 19, 2020 that nobody had intruded across the Indian frontier in eastern Ladakh continued to swirl on June 20, with a clarification issued by his office leading to more questioning by the Opposition—at the meeting Modi had said: “Neither has anyone intruded into our frontier, nor is anyone present there, nor are any of our posts under someone else’s occupation.”
The Congress said that the government has failed in clarifying, if Chinese troops were present on Indian territories.
India and China held military-level talks on June 6, 2020 to resolve the current border issue in eastern Ladakh peacefully. But, a Colonel-rank officer and 20 soldiers of the Indian Army were killed and almost 76 injured in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley area of Ladakh on June 15, this year. More than 90 Indian soldiers are missing. India also concealed this news and afterwards admitted when Beijing disclosed the incident.
In this context, on June 19, 2020, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian released a statement that gave Beijing’s “step by step” version of the events which led to the Galwan valley scuffle. Besides Indian casualties in the physical hand-to-hand fight with Chinese troops on June 8, the statement added: “China Won’t allow any unilateral change of Line of Actual Control…India is violating the understanding reached on June 6…India had even demolished its facilities, but they again returned on June 15 leading to the clash”.
For face-saving, New Delhi also contacted Russia to play its mediatory role to settle the India-China border tensions. In this respect, a trilateral meeting was held among the foreign ministers of India, China and Russia on June 23, 2020 through video conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar stated that recognising the “legitimate interests of partners”, along with respecting international law, is key to building a durable world order.
In a press release, Chinese foreign ministry stated that the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that “China, Russia and India, as large countries that adhere to strategic autonomy, should grasp the overall cooperative situation of the three countries…starting from the common interests of helping the three countries to develop and revitalise and safeguard world peace, correctly treat and properly handle the sensitive factors existing in bilateral relations and safeguard the overall situation of mutual relations”.
Speaking to the media, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ruled out the possibility of Moscow acting as a mediator between India and China by elaborating: “I see no reason that Russia or anyone else would be imposing their services on India and China in order to solve their own problems…They can solve them on their own”.
In fact, as part of anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim policies, PM Modi, the ruling party BJP-led, RSS and VHP are acting upon the ideology of Hindutva ((Hindu Nationalism). Their various malicious moves such as abrogation of the special status of the Jummu and Kashmir to turn Muslim majority into minority, continued lockdown in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), martyrdom of thousands of the Kashmiris there, introduction of new domicile law against the majority of Kashmiris to completely end any sort of dialogue with Islamabad to settle the Kashmir issue, persecution of religious minorities especially Muslims, anti-Muslim laws-CAA/NRC, assaults on Muslims by the fanatic Hindus, blaming Indian Muslims and Pakistan for spreading coronavirus etc., and intermittent shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir in relation to the Line of Control (LoC) are notable.
It is mentionable that implementing the August 5 announcement of 2019, Indian central government had issued a map on October 31, 2019. In accordance with it, Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and identifies Pakistani side of Azad Kashmir as well as certain areas of Gilgit-Baltistan as an Indian territory.
Both Islamabad and Beijing had rejected this political map regarding the disputed territories.
Besides, India has escalated tensions with Islamabad particularly in the aftermath of the false flag terror attack at Pulwama-IOK. In this respect, on February 27, last year, in response to the Indian so-called pre-emptive air strike near the town of Balakot, close to the border with Pakistan’s sector of Kashmir, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets and launched aerial strikes at six targets in the IOK.
Meanwhile, in the recent past, India’s Home Minister Shri Amit Shah threatened of conducting air and surgical strikes inside Pakistani territory.
Reacting to Amit Shah’s statement, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi stated: “Let me make it clear to Amit Shah that if India made the mistake, we will give a befitting response…Amit Shah should tell…Why does India not launch a surgical strike on Laddakh?…India has reached the extreme in committing atrocities in Kashmir…India wants to sabotage the Afghan peace process…New Delhi is threatening Pakistan to divert attention from its internal situation”.
Earlier, during an interview with a renowned TV channel on June 3, 2020, DG of ISPR) Maj-General Babar stated, “Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa warned India…[saying] We will respond any aggression with full might…Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army have said that India was planning false flag operation…Pulwama-II…India faced great humiliation in the recent military standoff with China…faced embarrassment in map issues with Nepal as well…India is facing many internal challenges especially after the emergence of coronavirus…many issues have emerged in India after the August 5, 2019 move, which revoked the special status of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir…There is an emergence of Islamophobia in India. Now they [India] think the best way is to divert the attention towards Pakistan…The situation on the LoC…1229 ceasefire violations by India have been committed since start of this year…while their quadcopters have also violated airspace [of Pakistan] on different occasions”.
However, in order to divert attention from internal crises, New Delhi can arrange another Pulwama-like false flag terror attack in the Indian Held Kashmir to justify military adventure against Pakistan.
It is of particular attention that India’s preplanned drama has been proved even by Indian media on January 12, this year. In this regard, Indian media disclosed that “Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Davinder Singh was caught along with two militants, Jammu Kashmir Police (JKP) on Sunday [January 12, 2020]…Davinder Singh was alleged to have been ferrying the militants from the Shopian area of the Valley. Five grenades and three AK-47 rifles were also recovered from the cop’s residence…DSP was under surveillance for the past two months over suspicious activities”.
But, Indian intelligence and investigating agencies were hiding the reality about Davinder Singh and other two militants, which indicated that India may be setting a stage for new drama to associate the Police Officer with Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. Hence, a New Delhi court on June 19, this year granted bail to suspended DSP Davinder Singh.
Nevertheless, Pakistan’s civil and military leadership has repeatedly informed the international community about India’s another Pulwama-type false flag operation-Pulwama-II to involve Islamabad and to conduct another military adventure in the Pakistani side of Kashmir. And Pakistan’s response will result into a conventional war between the two countries, which may culminate into nuclear war, enveloping the entire region. Same is the case between India and China in Ladakh, as the border issue has not still been resolved.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: [email protected]