China military spotlighted in national day parade

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – China's biggest military parade in a decade will show off an army bristling with formidable new capabilities and deliver a potent message to the U.S. and others not to underestimate Beijing's determination to defend its interests at home and abroad.

The military display is expected to be the centerpiece of a grandiose parade through Beijing on Oct. 1 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. A preview rumbled through the Chinese capital a week ago, giving an excited citizenry and foreign military analysts a first-time glimpse at some cutting-edge weaponry.

Upgraded intercontinental DF-31 nuclear missiles capable of striking Washington rolled on long-bed trucks along with advanced short-range DF-11 and DF-15 missiles, sea-skimming YJ-83 anti-ship missiles and DH-10 long-range cruise missiles — intended to strike targets in rival Taiwan and deter the U.S. Navy from coming to the island's defense. Not seen in the preview but expected to appear in a fly-over above Tiananmen Square are domestically produced J-10 jet fighters.

The advanced equipment is the fruit of a 20-year military buildup fueled by annual double-digit percentage increases in defense spending and buoyed by rapid economic growth that has enabled the government to spend lavishly.

The Communist leadership's willingness to put so much equipment on public display reflects its growing faith in the People's Liberation Army's capabilities and its belief that the defense muscle will translate into new strength for Beijing internationally.

"The exercise is aimed at not only showing the Chinese people some of the symbols of China's new great power status, but also showing foreigners that policies based on the presumption of Chinese weakness must be changed," said Denny Roy, an expert on the Chinese military at Hawaii's East-West Center.

Chief among Beijing's targets is U.S. support for Taiwan, the self-governing island that China considers its own territory, and the American military's continued naval and airborne surveillance missions off the Chinese coast, Roy said. Japan, Vietnam and other nations with territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China and East China Seas are also likely audiences for the display of Chinese military might.

Officially, Beijing says the parade is nothing more than a move to boost patriotism and showcase the PLA's modernization drive — an explanation that fits with the oft-repeated government line that the Chinese military buildup poses no threat to others. Chinese defense spending officially reached $71 billion this year, though analysts believe the actual figure is much higher. The spending is second to the U.S. but a fraction of American defense spending.

The parade will "demonstrate the positive image of China as a country seeking peaceful development," Senior Col. Guo Zhigang, a deputy commander of the event's training camp, was quoted as saying by the official China Daily newspaper.

Aside from armaments, the parade will feature thousands of goose-stepping troops from the PLA and the People's Armed Police, a paramilitary force whose mission is to quell domestic unrest, as they did in Tibet last year and Xinjiang this summer. President Hu Jintao is expected to review the assembled marchers, standing in an open-top Red Flag limousine as his predecessors have.

Still, the event marks a profound change from past decades when China shrouded its relative military weakness in secrecy. Despite being the world's largest standing military with 2.3 million members, the PLA was long derided as under-equipped and underfunded. For decades, its plans to invade Taiwan, when Beijing had little air or naval power, were mocked as the "million-man swim."

The paraded armaments will further feed into an ongoing reassessment of Chinese military capabilities in Washington and other capitals, which began noticing the more muscular PLA earlier this decade. Aside from the hundreds of tanks, armored personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery featured in last week's rehearsal, the plethora of missiles on display represented some of Beijing's most advanced and potent weaponry, analysts said.

The anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles are capable of striking U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and bases in the Pacific, said Russell Smith, a former Australian defense attache in Beijing and an analyst with Jane's.

Among the less flashy but significant equipment likely to appear are those that give the PLA the ability to operate far from home, something it has never had before. Expected in the fly-over are Kongjing airborne warning and control planes that gather and send intelligence to forces and Hong-6 bombers and tankers that would allow Chinese fighters to refuel while in flight for longer-range missions.

"Obviously, Taiwan and Japan are going to feel this, and perhaps even U.S. forces in Guam, Okinawa, and perhaps even Hawaii," said Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at Singapore's Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Foreign nations need not be unduly alarmed by these new capabilities, but should "at least be very, very watchful," Bitzinger said.

Son of late Israeli astronaut dies in plane crash

By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – The son of an Israeli astronaut who died in the space shuttle Columbia disaster six years ago was killed Sunday when his F-16 warplane crashed on a routine training flight, the Israeli military said.

The military identified the dead pilot as Lt. Asaf Ramon, son of Ilan Ramon, Israel's first and only astronaut. Ilan Ramon was one of the seven crew members killed when the Columbia exploded as it re-entered the atmosphere after a mission in space.

A former fighter pilot who took part in Israel's bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, Ilan Ramon had been the payload specialist on the 2003 space flight. He is seen in Israel as a national hero, and Israeli radio and TV stations broke into their broadcasts Sunday to report the news of his son's death.

The military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, arrived at the family's home along with the air force commander shortly after the news was made public.

Ramon's fighter jet crashed south of the West Bank city of Hebron. A Palestinian eyewitness told Channel 2 TV that the plane flew over the southern West Bank at low altitude before crashing.

"There was a huge fire," the unidentified witness said.

The air force commander, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, called an official inquiry and halted training in Israel's F-16 squadrons "until further notice," the military said in a statement.

Lt. Ramon, 21, was the eldest of Ilan Ramon's four children. He excelled in his pilot training and in June received a presidential honor and was given his pilot's wings by President Shimon Peres.

Ramon was 15 when his father died aboard the Columbia.

Algeria Cuts Off AQIM Communications

CAIRO [MENL] -- Algeria has hampered the communications network of Al Qaida.

Security sources said the Algerian intelligence community has succeeded in severing the communications network of the Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. They said Algerian specialists have blocked communications of AQIM commanders in the North African state to neighboring countries.

The Burial Ground of U.S. Imperialism: Afghanistan

by Dennis Rahkonen

September 7th, 2009

When the former Soviet Union’s mighty Red Army defeated Nazi forces in the pivotal WWII battle of Stalingrad, not only was Hitler’s mad dream of a Thousand Year Reich crushed, a concomitant assurance was achieved that the Stars and Stripes, not the Swastika, would be flying from our schoolyard flagpoles today.

Yes, the Normandy invasion and the great sacrifice of our own troops was important, but Stalingrad had already sealed Germany’s fate. Thank Russian soldiers for Americans not speaking German, and for U.S. death camps never having been built to "cleanse" our own country of Jews, our racial minorities, plus other "undesirables".

But that same, seemingly invincible military that saved the whole world some seven decades ago would later be humiliatingly defeated in Afghanistan, repeating Britain’s tragic folly there much earlier.

Afghanistan is the historical death place of overreaching foreign ambition, a reality that stamps a figurative skull and crossbones squarely on whatever vaguely-defined, wishful hope Barack Obama’s Afghan policy possesses.

Put starkly, if we stay in Afghanistan, we, too, are going to catastrophically lose. Think Vietnam, but on an even more disastrous scale of debacle.

Afghanistan combines a just-right amalgam of geographic, religious, and patriotic factors — manifested in the Afghan people’s steely determination to resist conquest, in an ideal defensive setting — to make their land a veritable black hole of doom for foreigners having grand notions of imposing their outside will on a dusty, desolate, yet passionately loved homeland.

Add to that an Afghan continuity stretching back to the beginnings of human habitation on this planet, and it’s reasonable to expect that there will still be an essential Afghanistan long after the USA has morphed, or crumbled, into something pathetically different than its current incarnation.

In fact, attempting to futilely impose arrogant Yankee will on Afghanistan would prove to be a key facilitator of our descent into an American future absent the power and influence, whether real or already largely imagined, that we wield now.

But what of al Qaeda and the Taliban? Are they not scourges that we’re obligated to battle to the bitter end?

Not if the way in which we fight — as alien aggressors in their native midst — provides them additional determination (i.e., a powerful sense of just cause), and our abiding foolishness gives them more recruits than we can ever hope to kill.

How blindly foolish we are in thinking that continued Predator attacks on innocent goat herders and wedding parties can bring us victory.

It’s the same illogic that produced the "it became necessary to destroy the village to save it" madness in Vietnam, and the depraved insanity of believing that constantly kicking down residential doors in Baghdad made us the "good guys" in Iraq.

We have to face facts, distressing though they assuredly are.

The world doesn’t want our religion, politics, economics, or cultural "values" forced upon it, anymore than we’d tolerate some surpassingly hubristic country from half a planet away trying to violently do the same to us.

Twin towers would still be proudly gleaming on the New York City skyline if we had established a prior record of being a true friend and benefactor to humankind, instead of a world-cop bully serving greedily rapacious corporate and financial interests that see Earth’s inhabitants as nothing more than something to be profitably used and abused, or "converted" to what our profoundly problem-ridden society gives us absolutely no valid reason to think anyone else would gladly embrace.

Furthermore, if we scratched just beneath the official story regarding supposedly gratuitous animosity directed against us by so many around the planet, we’d quickly discover that they’re not "enemies" in the diabolical abstract, but people with painful grievances against the U.S. who would have never become such… had we treated them right in the first place.

If we’d only stop getting up in other people’s faces, and quit trying to control their affairs, no one would then stab us in the back when we weren’t looking.

I suspect, however, that we’re too haughty and pious to ever appreciate that truth.

We’ll just self-destructively hurl a monkey wrench into the sputtering engine of our failing order, putting a complete halt to all possibilities for the USA to remain a major power and decisive player in global relations as the 21st Century wears on.

HK journalists protest abuse of reporters in China

By DIKKY SINN, Associated Press Writer

HONG KONG – Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists, lawmakers and residents marched Sunday to protest the alleged police beatings of three reporters covering recent unrest in western China, and demanded a government investigation.

Demonstrators wearing black rallied outside a police station before marching to local offices of China's central government. Organizers and police estimated the crowd at 650 to 700 people.

"This time the authorities are over the line," Mak Yin-ting, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, told the gathering. "They did not only beat reporters, but blamed them for inciting the public disorder."

The TV journalists were covering the aftermath of a mass protest by the majority Han Chinese in the troubled city of Urumqi earlier this month after a series of needle attacks that China's government blames on Muslim separatists.

The three journalists, who worked for TVB and Now TV news outlets in Hong Kong, said they were kicked, punched and shoved to the ground by police before being detained for about three hours.

However, Xinjiang authorities who investigated the matter have said security personnel repeatedly asked the reporters to leave before they were detained and faulted the reporters for "instigating" the unrest — allegations the reporters' companies say are false.

"We condemn the cruel treatment in no uncertain terms," said Tom Mitchell, president of The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong.

Attempts to reach central government representatives in Hong Kong were unsuccessful, and phone calls to the information office of the regional government in Xinjiang rang unanswered.

Unlike mainland China, the former British colony is promised Western-style civil liberties and is home to a vibrant press known for its aggressive, uncensored coverage of the rest of China.

Hong Kong lawmakers, including members of the territory's pro-Beijing party, have also criticized Xinjiang authorities and made public pleas for Beijing's intervention.

Iraqi shoe thrower Muntazer al-Zaidi inundated with offers and gifts

Martin Chulov in Baghdad and Rory McCarthy in Nablus
September 9, 2009

As his size 10s spun through the air towards George W Bush, Muntazer al-Zaidi – the man the world now knows as the shoe-thrower – was bracing for an American bullet.

"He thought the secret service was going to shoot him," says Zaidi's younger brother, Maitham. "He expected that, and he was not afraid to die."

Zaidi's actions during the former US president's swansong visit to Iraq last December have not stopped reverberating in the nine months since.

Next Monday, when the journalist walks out of prison, his 10 raging seconds, which came to define his country's last six miserable years, are set to take on a new life even more dramatic than the opening act.

Across Iraq and in every corner of the Arab world, Zaidi is being feted. The 20 words or so he spat at Bush – "This is your farewell kiss, you dog. This is for the widows and orphans of Iraq" – have been immortalized, and in many cases memorized.

Pictures of the president ducking have been etched onto walls across Baghdad, made into T-shirts in Egypt, and appeared in children's games in Turkey.

Zaidi has won the adulation of millions, who believe his act of defiance did what their leaders had been too cowed to do.

Iraq has been short of heroes since the dark days of Saddam Hussein, and many civilians are bestowing greatness on the figure that finally took the fight to an overlord.

"He is a David and Goliath figure," said Salah al-Janabi, a white goods salesman in downtown Baghdad. "When the history books are written, they will look back on this episode with great acclaim. Al-Zaidi's shoes were his slingshot."

From his prison cell, Zaidi has a sense of the gathering fuss, but not the full extent of the benefactors and patrons preparing for his release.

A new four-bedroom home has been built by his former boss. A new car – and the promise of many more – awaits.

Pledges of harems, money and healthcare are pouring in to his employers, the al-Baghdadia television channel.

"One Iraqi who lived in Morocco called to offer to send his daughter to be Muntazer's wife," said editor Abdul Hamid al-Saij.

"Another called from Saudi offering $10m for his shoes, and another called from Morocco offering a gold-saddled horse.

"After the event, we had callers from Palestine and many women asking to marry him, but we didn't take their names. Many of their reactions were emotional. We will see what happens when he is freed."

From the West Bank town of Nablus, Ahmed Jouda saw the incident on television news and felt so moved that he called together his relatives for a meeting in a nearby reception hall.

Jouda, 75, a farmer and head of a large extended family, convinced his relatives to contribute tens of thousands of dollars to support Zaidi's legal case.

Jouda himself decided to sell half his herd of goats; another man asked if he might offer a young woman from his family as a bride. Jouda said he would, if Zaidi was interested.

"I said we are willing to present him with a bride loaded with gold," said Jouda. "We are people of our word. If he decided to marry one of our daughters we would respect what we said.

"We are compassionate and supportive to the Iraqi people for what they have gone through.

"We are people who have tasted the bitterness, sorrow and agony of occupation too. What he did, he did for all the Arabs, not just the Iraqis, because Bush was the reason behind the problems of all the Arab world."

Zaidi's brother insists that no one put Muntazer up to such an act. But he revealed that Muntazer had told him he had pre-scripted at least one line ahead of the fateful press conference.

From the roof of his brother's new home, Maitham al-Zaidi said: "He always thought he would die as a martyr, either by al-Qaida or the Americans. More than once he was kidnapped by insurgents. He was surprised that Bush's guards didn't shoot him on the spot."

Muntazer al-Zaidi has told Maitham, and another brother, Vergam, that he is planning to open an orphanage when he leaves prison and will not work again as a journalist.

"He doesn't want his work to be a circus," said Vergam. "Every time he asked someone a difficult question they would have responded by asking whether he was going to throw his shoes at them."

Muntazer has alleged that after his actions he was tortured by government officials. Medical reports say he has lost at least one tooth and has two broken ribs and a broken foot that have not healed properly.

"He will stay in Iraq, but first he has to leave the country to get his health fixed," said Vergam.

In the run-up to his release, Maitham has a sense of the reception awaiting his brother.

"I feel like Michael Jackson at the moment. Everywhere I go, people are taking pictures of me and asking for my photo. If they do that for me, what will they do for Muntazer himself?"

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=57778&s2=10.

Findings of the Investigation Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on the Gruesome Event of Kunduz and Names of Victims

Afghan Resistance Statement

Findings of the Investigation Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on the Gruesome Event of Kunduz and Names of Victims

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Ramadan 18, 1430 A.H, September 9, 2009

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

As reported in the media, Kunduz a northern province of Afghanistan, borne the brunt of a horrendous event. Jet fighters of foreign invaders on Friday night bombed a congestion of people who had gathered to take fuel from tankers left by the enemy. More than one hundred persons from various villages of Char Dara and Ali Abad districts were killed as a result. People who witnessed the place of the event and some media reporters who visited the scene say all the victims are civilians but NATO and Kabul regime’s spokesmen and other authorities brazenly claim the victims are armed Taliban.

On the following day of this horrific event, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan constituted an investigation team to find facts about the event and submit them in the shape of a separate report. The aim was to present facts before our country men and the people of the world for their judgment. This report has been prepared under the sole moral, religious and patriotic Afghan obligation. It is neither a politically motivated report nor a propaganda-oriented. The facts contained in the report are solely those told by local people and the victims relatives. Therefore, it is a credible report of the event.

1. How the Event Occurred: Mujahideen ambushed fuel tanker on high way in Ali Abad district on Thursday September 3, 2009. The fuel tankers were carrying fuel for military vehicles from central Asian countries. Mujahideen usually carry out such attacks but this time the NATO forces left two fuel tankers intact in the scene of fighting. Mujahideen tried to drive the tankers to Char Dara district but one fuel tanker trapped in mud in a river between Ali Abad and Char Dara district,. The Mujahideen tried to empty the fuel of the tanker.

However, witnessing the tankers, the local people of the surrounding villages who were still awake because of Ramadan, approached the Mujahideen and requested them to allow them to take the gushing fuel home. Mujahideen allowed them to take the fuel but upon seeing the enemy reconnaissance planes in the air, Mujahideen told people to stop taking the fuel. But now the gathering of the people had reached hundreds of persons. Every one wanted to take the fuel home. Mujahideen could not prevent all the people from taking the fuel. However, they stopped some of them but many others came once again to take fuel. The Mujahideen who were present on the site say, we tried hard to tell people to go home but could not force them to do so. Exactly, at 1:45 AM in the night, jet fighters bombed the fuel tankers.

2. All the Victims are Civilians: At the time of the bombardment, some Mujahideen and local people had left the site but still there were people on the site. Residents of Haji Abdur Rahman village of Ali Abad district, Haji Essa khan village, Haji Aman village, Haji Rustam village, and Yaqub bai village, Essa khel of Char Dara district and of other villages say the victims are their sons and brothers and are common villagers. Many of them are miserable youth and students. The people categorically rejected statements by spokesmen of USA, the Kabul regime and some other vested-interest circles who claim the victims were armed Mujahideen. Similarly, tens of the injured are villagers as well.

3. White Phosphorus were used in the Attack: Contrarily to the claims that the victims have been burnt up in the flames of the fuels of the tankers or as a result of bomb explosions, in fact, the victims have been burnt in the flames of the bombs and other explosives. The witness says they saw flaming fire from the jets descending to the ground which in two cases scorched a ground of 100 square meters. They say the tankers were not hit directly from the planes but the fuel tankers caught fire from the flames of the bombs thrown from the jet fighters. The ground has been baked with flames.

There is no cavity or crater to show the impact of the bombs strike. The victims say a bad smelling matter glued to their bodies which they felt to be burning all their flesh down to bones. A father of two sons, who died after the air raid, said his sons had lost mental balance before dying. These are the same symptoms seen in victims of Bala Blok, Farah province. Later, doctors in Bala Blok said the symptoms of the victims were the result of the use of white phosphorus.

This unfolds veil from an unforgivable crime. The white phosphorus is a poisonous matter which is banned to be used according to all laws governing wars. But the invaders are brazenly using them. Ironically, the United Nations and other human rights advocacy entities have remained deaf and blind about this serious issue. The Kabul government was not allowing the victims to be taken to Kabul for the treatment. It is clear that they did not want the world to know about the use of the white phosphorous in Kunduz.

The exact number of the victims is still unknown because the victims of this horrendous event are hailing from villages sparsely situated in the area. To collect information about the exact number of those killed in the air raid will take time. Many of the corpses were burnt to ashes while others burnt beyond recognition.

Some dead bodies were carried away by water of the river. Some injured persons have been taken to hospitals. There are families who still do not know whether their members are martyred or injured or not. The local people and eye-witness estimate that up to 120 people may have died in the bloody event but the exact number of the victims could not be confirmed.

The following is the list of the victims along with their names and identity who have been buried up by their families. However, this is in no way the final account of the victims.

No.: Name - Father’s Name - Village -Age - Job

1: A. Rahim - Haji Bashir - H.A. Rahman - 34 - Driver

2: Ibrahim - Haji Bashir - H.A. Rahma - 20 - farmer

3: Sami ullah - Haji Bashir - H.A. Rahman - 17 - Student

4: Zakir ullah - Abdul Dayan - H.A. Rahman - 13 - Student

5: Ahmad Gul - Gul Raiz - H.A. Rahman - 15 - Student

6: Muhammada Gul - Gul Raiz - H.A. Rahman - 13 - Student

7: Mullah Noor - Abdul Raof - H.A. Rahman - 16 - Student

8: Arif khan - Abdul Rahman - H.A. Rahman - 12 - Student

9: Abdul Dayan - Abdul Hanan - H.A. Rahman - 14 - Student

10: Abdul Samad - Abdul Hanan - H.A. Rahman - 11 - Student

11: Mohammad Sadiq - Gulo Bai - H.A. Rahman - 35 - farmer

12: Momin - Aziz khan - H.A. Rahman - 22 - Driver

13: Abdul Hameed - Abdulallah Khan - H.A. Rahman - 34 - farmer

14: Qudrat ullah - Aman ullah - H.A. Rahman - 40 - Shopkeeper

15: Abdul Ghoyor - Sahar Gul - H.A. Rahman - 25 - Labor

16: Najmudin - Gulanudin - H.A. Rahman - 35 - farmer

17: Muhammad Wali - Tor - Char Dara migrant - 35 - farmer

18: Ayaz - Muhammad Wali - Char Dara migrant - 8 - Student

19: Gul Douz - Ajab khan - Char Dara migrant - 50 - farmer

20: Muhammad - Gul Douz - Char Dara migrant - 14 - Student

21: Hakamudin - Haji Musa - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 31 - Driver

22: Allah Noor - Haji Musa - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 25 - farmer

23: Gul Din - Haji Musa - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 27 - Shopkeeper

24: Ahmad Noor - Laludin - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 15 - farmer

25: Abdul Khaliq - Suliman - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 24 - Labor

26: Hasan - Muhammad Omer - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 60 - Wrestler

27: Fazal - Wrestler Hasan - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 15 - Labor

28: Mullah Qadam Shah - Abdul Mansor - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 40 - Labor

29: Muhammad din - Abdullah Jan - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 25 - farmer

30: Nadar khan - Akhtar Muhammad - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 15 - farmer

31: Arif - Nadar khan - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 15 - farmer

32: Alaf din - Akhtar Muhammad - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 16 - farmer

33: Daoud - Ibrahim - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 15 - Student

34: Aman ullah - Abdul Salam - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 30 - farmer

35: Qodrat ullah - Abdul Dayan - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 20 - farmer

36: Khodai dad - Abdul Wahab - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 19 - farmer

37: Hafeez ullah - Abdul Wahab - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 17 - Student

38: Jan Muhammad - Juma bai - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 20 - Driver

39: Noor ullah - Juma bai - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 9 - Student

40: Salam - Abdul Wadoud - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 14 - Student

41: Alaf din - Haji Gul din - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 25 - farmer

42: Wazir - Haji Gul din - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 22 - Driver

43: Bashir - Haji Gul - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 17 - farmer

44: Zikrullah - Alaf udin - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 12 - Student

45: Ajmal - Abdul Hanan - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 15 - Student

46: Muhammad Ali - Noor Muhammad - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar Dara - 35 - Driver

47: Rahmat ullah - Muhammad Ali - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 14 - Student

48: Ibrahim Noor Muhammad - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 20 - farmer

49: Saed Muhammad - Haji Jalat - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 33 - Mill owner

50: Juma Gul - Haji Jalat - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 27 - farmer

51: Asad ullah - Haji Jalat - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 22 - Shopkeeper

52: Aman ulllah - Feroz - Yaqob bai village, District Char Dar - 16 - Shopkeeper

53: Hafeez ullah - Haji Nor ahmad - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 28 - Boat worker

54: Masjidi - Mir Rahman - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 24 - farmer

55: Sahamsudin - Mir Rahman - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 17 - Student

56: Ihsan ullah - Saed Muhammad - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 19 - Labor

57: Nasrat ullah - Muhammad ulllah - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 25 - farmer

58: Gulbadin - Jamaludin - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 22 - Labor

59: Din Muhammad - Juma khan - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 45 - Labor

60: Abdul Rahim - Mir Akbar - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 17 - Student

61: Asad ullah - Wali Jan - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 19 - Hotel worker

62: Faiz Muhammad - Jan Muhammad - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 18 - Shopkeeper

63: Ahmad Shah - Muhammad Dauod - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 10 - Student

64: Fazal Rahman - Mullah Abdul Rahman - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 19 - Labor

65: Muhammad Musa - Ghaeb ullah - Haji Amanullah village, District Char Dara - 33 - farmer

66: Abdul qayom - Haji Mida - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 26 - farmer

67: Ali Muhammad - Jan Muhammad - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 30 - farmer

68: Ahmad din - Saed Aleem - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 14 - Student

69: Noor Alam - Salamat khan - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 25 - Shopkeeper

70: Saed Rahim - Samandar - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 28 - farmer

71: Aziz ullah - Saed Ahmad din - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 24 - farmer

72: Bashir Ahmad - Ghami - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 32 - farmer

73: Abdul Rahim - Ghulam - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 22 - farmer

74: Amir Gul - Karim - Essa khel village, District Char Dara - 30

75: Shah Wali - Mullah Akhtar - Haji Rustum village, District Char Dara - 40

76: Juma khan - Haji Shalo - Haji Rustum village, District Char Dara - 35 - Driver

77: Ajab khan - Haji Shalo - Haji Rustum village, District Char Dara - 32 - Shopkeeper

78: Ikram udin - Adam khan - Haji Rustum village, District Char Dara - 21 - Labor

79: Jamal udin - Naeem udin - Haji Rustum village, District Char Dara - 21 -farmer

4. Conclusion: The above report substantiates that a most deplorable act of crime and atrocity has taken place in Kunduz province in which Afghan civilians have been targeted. The Charter of the United Nation, principles of the Amnesty International and the Geneva Conventions clearly oppose such crimes. If the United Nation, the Amnesty International and other human rights entities, the Islamic Conference and finally the so-called civilized world respect the value of the blood of a human being, their sincerity and commitment will be put to test following this horrendous event.

If the judges sitting in the Hague tribunal do not summon the perpetrators of this event to question them, or at least do not show reaction in the shape of condemnation against this event, then what face will they have to raise the voice of prosecuting perpetrators of crimes of humanity.

Ostensibly, they issue summons time and again to bring to book those who are involved in crimes of humanity. The event in Kunduz will prove that whether the world entities of human rights are sincerely working for the protections of human rights or they only raise empty slogans.

To end, we express our sympathy with the people of Kunduz for this atrocious event and suffice to remind them of the following divine message in order to deliver them from the violence of colonialism "Do not think Allah is unaware of the deed the wrongdoers do but He only postpones it until the Day when their eyes will be blurred. (True is the Word of Allah)

Toward an independent Islamic system in the country.

Fact-find Commission on Kunduz Event

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Bloggers Report Beatings, Death

Two leading bloggers in China report elements of the ethnic strife in Urumqi that haven’t appeared in state-run media.

HONG KONG—Two prominent voices on China’s Internet have called for balance in reporting on recent ethnic violence in the northwestern city of Urumqi.

“I think there are some things which should be made open, and I don’t think that the news should all be one-sided,” UyghurBiz.com Web site manager and ethnic Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti said.

“It needs to be a bit more even-handed,” said Tohti, who was himself detained briefly after writing about the reasons behind deadly ethnic strife that erupted in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in July.

Mass protests were sparked in the regional capital last week after reports that hundreds of people had been stabbed with syringes in the city, with a demonstration Thursday leaving at least four dead.

Beijing blames Muslim separatist groups among ethnic Uyghurs for the syringe attacks, which came after deadly ethnic violence killed nearly 200 people in early July.

In a bid to publicize nongovernment accounts of the violence, Tohti’s Web site posted a report from Urumqi detailing the beating by a Han Chinese mob of well-known calligrapher and journalist Kaynam Jappar as he left his home in the regional capital.

The Web site said the incident occurred between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sept. 3 outside the Sun, Moon, and Starlight Restaurant near his home.

“He was set upon by six or seven Han Chinese men, and shouted for help,” the report said.

“Two security guards from the restaurant saved him ... He had two black eyes and impaired vision and seven stitches in his forehead. He had a fractured kneecap,” it added.

Singer’s death reported

Also in Beijing, Tibetan writer and blogger Woeser said she had posted an account in Chinese of the beating death of Uyghur singer Mirzat Alim.

Woeser reported that Alim, 43, died Sept. 2 after being set upon by an armed mob of Han Chinese near his Urumqi home.

“I think that any death of any person from any race, be it Han Chinese or Uyghur, is very sad,” said Woeser, whose post also mentioned the beating of Kaynam Jappar in an attempt to bring more balance to coverage online in China.

“I called for interracial understanding on my blog. We haven’t seen the deaths of ... Uyghurs reported anywhere inside China.”

Commenters to the blog post said it was being circulated among some prominent Chinese bloggers via the micro-blogging service Twitter.

“I have also explained that we are unable to hear Uyghur voices in China because of a huge amount of suppression and fear,” she added.

“That is why I tried to report the news [of Alim’s death] on my blog.”

Ilham Tohti said that Alim was a friend of his, but that he had been unable to contact his family for news and that friends had said the singer’s body was discovered with both eyes gouged out.

Little sympathy

In the report on Kaynam Jappar’s beating, UyghurBiz.com said the journalist had also seen 14 other Uyghurs in the Autonomous Region No. 2 Hospital who had been injured by Han Chinese mobs, including two children. One person had died of injuries.

Experts say there is scant sympathy in the official Chinese media for the idea that Uyghurs might have legitimate grievances.

A lack of details in state-sponsored reporting has led to a lack of trust in the government’s version of events, and has fueled rumors that spur greater ethnic tension.

More than 500 people have sought treatment for syringe stabbings in recent days, though only about 100 showed signs of having been stabbed, official media said.

Source: Radio Free Asia (RFA).
Link: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/online-09082009133813.html.

Somalia: Army Commander Says Insurgents Have Taken Beletwein

9 September 2009

Beletwein — Gen. Muktar Hussein Afrah, who commanded Somali government forces in Beletwein, capital of Hiran region, told reporters Wednesday that the town is under the control of Al Shabaab and Sheikh Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma'ow, Hiran's Islamist governor who recently withdrew support to the Somali government.

"The governor [Ma'ow] has joined Al Shabaab and we have left the town," Gen. Afrah said.

Currently, Al Shabaab insurgents control the western neighborhoods of Beletwein while the town's eastern section is empty of soldiers or insurgents.

The army commander defended the decision to withdraw government forces from Beletwein, saying that he listened to the advice of community leaders and aims to protect the public from continued violence.

"We want to show the public that Sheikh Abdirahman [Ibrahim Ma'ow] is a man who wants instability in Hiran region," Gen. Afrah added.

Beletwein is located near the international boundary between Somalia and Ethiopia. Last month, after Ethiopian troops briefly seized control of Beletwein, Sheikh Ma'ow declared that he will no longer support the Somali interim government.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909090907.html.

Ahmadinejad plans NY trip in 'mid-September'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to travel to New York and deliver a speech at the 64th annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The visit, which will be President Ahmadinejad's first trip to the West since he took office for a second term after the presidential election in June, will begin next Tuesday, September 15.

President Ahmadinejad is expected to address the assembly on 'establishment of global peace, a world without nuclear weapons, a secure Middle East, and a campaign to resist arrogant powers as well as urging state members to adopt a stance on Israel's war crimes, the Iranian Labor News Agency.

Since his 2005, the Iranian president has regularly attended UN summits at the United Nations headquarters in New York and delivered controversial speeches.

The visit will also coincide with a September deadline set by the United States for Iran to respond to an offer of negotiations to resolve the country's nuclear dispute.

The Obama administration on Friday announced its readiness to meet face-to-face with Iranian officials, the New York Times reported.

This comes as Iran faces pressure to halt its nuclear enrichment, as world powers believe its program is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.

Tehran, however, has denied seeking nuclear weapons and called for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction across the globe.

Scientists Discover New Coral Species In Galapagos Waters

Scientists have discovered three new coral species - and one that was thought to be extinct - in an extensive survey of reefs around the Galapagos Islands, raising hopes that reefs may be more resilient to rising seas temperatures than previously thought.

Honeycomb coral (Gardineroseris planulata) had apparently been wiped out in in 1997-98 by the last big El Nino event. This natural periodic event affects weather globally and another is expected this year. But the study around the relatively unexplored areas of the coasts of Wolf and Darwin islands to the north-west of the main archipelago turned up several separate colonies.

Warmer sea temperatures caused by climate change and periodic El Nino events have caused large areas of coral to be wiped out in so-called "bleaching" events. Many scientists, as reported in the Guardian last week, fear that concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are already high enough to ensure a mass extinction of coral in the coming decades.

Professor Terry Dawson of Southampton University carried out the marine survey along with scientists from the University of Miami, covering an area that had not been studied extensively by marine biologists since the 1970s. The three new coral species are from the genera Hydrozoanthus, Parazoanthus and Antipathozoanthus. They also found a fourth possible new species and other corals that were thought not to inhabit the waters around the Galapagos.

Coral reefs are formed by deposits of calcium carbonate left by successive generations of tiny polyps which feed off plankton. They also receive nutrients from symbiotic algae known as zooxanthellae which also give coral their bright glowing colors. As temperatures rise, the algae dies or is ejected by the polyps, which leads to coral bleaching. In 1982-“83 an El Nino event killed off around 95% of the coral in the Galapagos and caused severe disruption to the marine ecosystem there. In 1997-“98 ocean warming caused a second bout of bleaching.

Dawson, who published his team's findings in the peer-reviewed journal Galapagos Research last month, said that it appeared the algae might be adapting to warmer ocean temperatures. Sea temperatures in the Galapagos vary between 23C and 29C in normal years, but can rise to 30C in El Nino years.

"Our study might suggest that species are more resilient than we thought. Nature is quite capable of looking after itself," he said. "Humans have such short timescales in looking at things. A lot of coral dies off after an El Nino event. But we don't give species enough time to do what it needs to do. We worry about rapid climate change and its effects but some species can adapt to climate change quite quickly too."

Dawson plans to return to the Galapagos after finding evidence of a migratory corridor from the Ecuadorian archipelago, up to Panama and Costa Rica, for whale sharks(the world's largest fish), hammerhead sharks and a number of other marine animals.

Andrew Baker, assistant professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami who led the research into the so-called algal symbionts, said he had found some evidence to suggest thermal tolerance since he started collecting data in 1998.

"Many people describe the Galapagos as nature's laboratory and that is true of its reefs too. We can look at the reef in the Galapagos and use it as a model of the system to see what reefs around the world might look like in 30-50 years," said Baker.

UK troubled by anti-Islam rallies, counterprotests

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON – Violent clashes between anti-Islam demonstrators and Muslim counter-protesters in English cities are worrying the government, with one British minister comparing the disturbances to 1930s-era fascist incitement.

The violence that has hit Luton, Birmingham and London in the last few months has involved a loose collection of far-right groups — such as the previously unknown English Defense League — on one side and anti-fascist organizations and Muslim youth on the other.

In an interview published Saturday, Communities Minister John Denham accused the anti-Islam protesters of deliberately stirring up trouble.

"The tactic of trying to provoke a response in the hope of causing wider violence and mayhem is long established on the far-right and among extremist groups," Denham was quoted as saying by The Guardian newspaper. "You could go back to the 1930s if you wanted to — Cable Street."

Denham was referring to a 1936 confrontation sparked by British fascist leader Oswald Mosley's decision to march through the then-heavily Jewish East End of London. Mosley's pro-Nazi followers were met at Cable Street by Jews, communists and anarchists, and a pitched battle ensued.

The English Defense League rejects the fascist label, arguing that it only opposes militant Islam. On its Web site, the group claims that the violence at its rallies has been provoked by Muslims and far-left groups.

The group did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.

Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said the League's stated opposition to militant Islam was just "a fig leaf" to hide the group's true anti-Muslim mission.

"These are not people who support community cohesion," he said.

Bunglawala added that Muslim Council, an umbrella group for British Muslim organizations, had seen a spike in anti-Muslim incidents — including arson attacks on mosques — in the past few months.

"These are extremely worrying developments," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.

British media have traced the origins of the League to Luton, an ethnically mixed town north of London which in March was the site of a small but widely covered protest against the British Army. Bearded Islamists picketed a homecoming parade for British soldiers returning from Iraq, holding up signs accusing the men of being "butchers" and "baby-killers."

Tensions boiled over in May, when a demonstration by a far-right group calling itself United People of Luton led to South Asian businesses being attacked and cars being smashed.

In August the group's successor, the English Defense League, tried to mount a protest in Birmingham, where they clashed with anti-fascist demonstrators. This month, the League's second attempt at a Birmingham protest quickly descended into violence, with some 200 people — many of them of South Asian descent — seen fighting, throwing projectiles and running from riot police. Police made 90 arrests.

On Friday, an openly Islamophobic group, Stop Islamification of Europe, promised an evening protest outside a northwest London mosque to coincide with the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11 and with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

Only a handful of demonstrators showed up — and they were vastly outnumbered by Muslims coming to defend the mosque.

Police hustled the protesters away from the angry crowd. But television footage showed Muslim youths racing through the streets shouting "Allahu Akbar!", waving Islamic banners and throwing projectiles at riot police. Scotland Yard reported 10 arrests.

"They gave the fascists and far-right what they wanted, and I think that's a shame," lawmaker Tony McNulty told Sky News television.

The far-right League, meanwhile, has promised more protests in London, Luton, Manchester and Leeds over the next few weeks.

Jordan Moving On Nuke Plant Plans

Jordan says it is moving ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power plant, inking a $12 million deal with a Belgian firm to study environmental concerns.

Khaled Toukan, head of Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission, Saturday signed an agreement in Amman with Tractebel Engineering. The Belgian company will conduct a two-year environmental impact study to determine whether a desert area near the Saudi border about 15 miles south of the Red Sea port of Aqaba is the best location, Ynetnews.com reported.

Jordanian King Abdullah II had announced in January 2007 the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation's intention to forge ahead with a non-military nuclear program that has U.S. approval.

Jordan's goal is to have 30 percent of its energy come from nuclear power plants by 2030.

Abbas sacks Hamas mayor in West Bank, citing debt

QALQILYA, West Bank, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government sacked a West Bank town's Hamas mayor on Saturday charging financial mismanagement, a move seen as complicating efforts to end a factional feud.

Khaled al-Qawasmeh, the Palestinian minister of local government, told Reuters the mayor of Qalqilya, Wajih Qawas, and his 15-member council had been replaced by a loyalist of Abbas' secular Fatah faction until new local elections could be held.

Qawasmeh charged the town's debt had more than quadrupled since Qawas was elected in 2005, from 17 million shekels to a current 75 million shekels ($4.5 million to $20 million).

"The municipality did not respond to our repeated warnings to rectify their financial condition. The decision was based on administrative grounds," Qawasmeh said.

Qawas, of Islamist Hamas, charged he had been fired by Abbas' Western-backed government for political reasons as he had also made improvements in the Palestinian city that borders on central Israel.

"We are elected by the people and we should stay until a new election is held," Qawas told Reuters by telephone.

Hamas has controlled about 60 Palestinian local authorities in the occupied West Bank, since a municipal election in 2005, but Qalqilya was the scene of a deadly gunbattle that left six dead in fighting between Abbas' police and Hamas gunmen in May.

New local elections have been delayed in part because of a feud between Fatah and Hamas that flared after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, a year after the Islamists trounced long-dominant Fatah in a parliamentary election.

Egypt has mediated a series of talks aimed at healing a rift seen as threatening to weaken a Palestinian bid for statehood, with the Palestinians politically split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and Hamas refusing to recognize Israel.

Palestinian officials said on Thursday that Egypt had lately proposed a new delay in presidential and legislative elections meant to have been held in January, to allow more time for reconciliation talks.

Nine dead as floods hit Algeria

ALGIERS (AFP) – Eight people were swept away by flash floods and a ninth was killed by lightning as more thunderstorms lashed southwestern Algeria, the civil defense agency told the state news service APS Saturday.

Four people drowned at El Bayadh, some 700 kilometers (450 miles) southwest of Algiers late Friday, the agency said.

A woman, her daughter and two male relatives also died when their vehicle was caught by a flash flood in a river bed in the district of Naama, 600 kilometers southwest of the capital.

Another person had been struck by lightning shortly beforehand in the same area.

The latest deaths brought the toll to nine since Tuesday, including three children swept away at El Bayadh on Wednesday and a regional official drowned in the Laghouat district, 400 kilometers south of the capital, on Thursday.

The storms have also affected neighboring Morocco, where five people have been reported killed.

Worlds apart

September 11, 2009

While Cairo issues its ultimatum for inter-Palestinian reconciliation, Ismail Haniyeh speaks to Saleh Al-Naami in Gaza about the role of Hamas in the upcoming elections

"A recipe for separation." These were the words Ismail Haniyeh used to describe the plan to hold Palestinian legislative and presidential elections on 25 January. Earlier, Mahmoud Abbas said that the elections would go ahead even if Hamas refused to take part. Al-Ahram Weekly met Haniyeh in Gaza last week and heard that elections should be a two-way street.

"Although elections are the only way to rotate power, we believe that certain guarantees should be met in order for elections to go ahead in a healthy manner. A minimum of requisites should be met in order to avert a repetition of the recent elections, when everyone made a point of punishing the Palestinian people for their democratic choice." There is no guarantee that fair elections can be held under the present circumstances, Haniyeh stated.

"What kind of elections are they talking about at a time when the leaders and activists of Hamas are being detained by the security forces of [Prime Minister] Fayyad and Israel? How can elections be held under repression and fear?" he asked.

Haniyeh warned of holding the elections in the West Bank alone, describing the move as a "national crime". Certain people, some of them Palestinians, are acting with "no regard" for the national interests of the people, he remarked. However, he admitted that certain leaders in Fatah, as well as some Arab governments, are trying to dissuade the PA from going solo with the elections.

"There are some people who are trying to use the sessions of [inter-Palestinian] dialogue to trick the Palestinians... They think that they can outsmart the Palestinian people and their leaders. They think they can do things to harm the Palestinian national cause. But they are quite mistaken," Haniyeh stated.

The Gaza-based prime minister lashed out at what he called the "selectiveness and double standards" of those who want to hold legislative and presidential elections without the consent of Hamas. "Fatah and Hamas, as well as the rest of Palestinian factions, have agreed to restructure the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] on a sound basis. We have agreed to hold new elections for the Palestinian National Council. We have agreed to re-elect the leaders of the PLO. Why are they not interested in holding the National Council elections?" Haniyeh said that the holding of elections for the National Council was a "primary condition" for rehabilitating the PLO.

Haniyeh, who has a reputation of being a level-headed man who shuns wild impulses, told the Weekly that the urge to hold presidential and legislative elections in January is related to the initiative US President Barack Obama intends to launch during UN General Assembly meetings this month. According to Haniyeh, the plan Obama is likely to propose subscribes fully to the Israeli point of view.

Haniyeh called on the Obama administration to distance itself from the Israeli vision of a solution. He said that the Obama administration must "through deeds and not just words introduce the changes it had promised in international relations. No US initiative to settle the conflict can succeed if it were based on Zionist views and guided by Israel's compass." Washington's belief that a temporary halt of settlement building should be rewarded by normalization is unfortunate, he adds. Indeed, it is a sign that the Obama administration is not serious about resolving the conflict in an objective manner.

Haniyeh said that the restoration of domestic Palestinian unity is essential in the face of Israeli measures in Jerusalem. He added that Jerusalem is coming under brutal attempts to move settlers into it and "Judaise" it. The Hamas leader said that his government would not approve of any arrangement that squanders Palestinian national rights on Jerusalem. Hamas will not endorse any political solution that excludes Jerusalem.

With regards to Gaza, Haniyeh said that the ongoing blockade aims at forcing his government to its knees to make it turn a blind eye to flawed political settlements. "We intend to disappoint all those who want to force us, through blockade, to make political concessions. This is why my government places reconstruction at the top of its agenda, for we have to repair the destruction caused by the [Israeli] aggression."

Haniyeh said that the conference held lately in Istanbul to discuss the means of reconstructing Gaza has managed to collect $0.5 billion, which is now held in a special fund in Turkey. Haniyeh said he called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and asked him to intercede with Turkey's friends, including Israel, to make sure that the funds reach Gaza.

Finding money is not the main problem, Haniyeh said. The biggest obstacle to reconstruction is the continued closure of crossing points. Haniyeh said that Israel is not interested in rehabilitating Gaza. In fact, it is trying to use the destruction it caused as leverage through which to blackmail his government and the resistance into making political concessions.

Meanwhile, a key figure of the PLO has voiced support for Hamas on the matter of elections. Asaad Abdel-Rahman, member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that the PLO would not be "complete" without representatives of both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad joining its ranks.

Abdel-Rahman wants the Palestinian National Council to be re-elected through proportional representation. Voting for the council should take place not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but outside Palestine as well. The signing of the Oslo Accords was the seed from which Palestinian dissent has grown, he said. Since signing, the Oslo Accords have served to divide the Palestinians and stunt their representative institutions.

At the moment, Abdel-Rahman admitted, both the PLO Executive Committee and the Palestinian National Council are of questionable legitimacy. "We need to reform both institutions in order to restore legitimacy and unity."

The Weekly has learned that representatives of the Egyptian government are currently drafting proposals to address all unresolved issues involving Hamas and Fatah, such as elections and political detentions. According to well-informed Palestinian sources, the Egyptian government intends to invite all Palestinian factions to a dialogue after Eid Al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Egyptian officials have told both Abbas and Khaled Mashaal, chief of the Hamas political bureau, that the next meeting should be decisive. If it fails, all attempts at mediation would be abandoned.

Hamas and several Palestinian factions have previously rejected proposals made by Egypt, some accusing Cairo of taking sides with Abbas. For now, all signs indicate that Hamas and Fatah are on a collision course. Abbas and his supporters are hoping that Hamas will crumble under the weight of the siege. And Hamas is hoping that Fatah will become popularly discredited. As things stand, the gap between the two biggest Palestinian groups appears unbridgeable.

Afghanistan Victims' families tell their stories following Nato airstrike in Afghanistan

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Kunduz

September 11, 2009

'I took some flesh home and called it my son.' The Guardian interviews 11 villagers

At first light last Friday, in the Chardarah district of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, the villagers gathered around the twisted wreckage of two fuel tankers that had been hit by a Nato airstrike. They picked their way through a heap of almost a hundred charred bodies and mangled limbs which were mixed with ash, mud and the melted plastic of jerry cans, looking for their brothers, sons and cousins. They called out their names but received no answers. By this time, everyone was dead.

What followed is one of the more macabre scenes of this or any war. The grief-stricken relatives began to argue and fight over the remains of the men and boys who a few hours earlier had greedily sought the tanker's fuel. Poor people in one of the world's poorest countries, they had been trying to hoard as much as they could for the coming winter.

"We didn't recognize any of the dead when we arrived," said Omar Khan, the turbaned village chief of Eissa Khail. "It was like a chemical bomb had gone off, everything was burned. The bodies were like this," he brought his two hands together, his fingers curling like claws. "There were like burned tree logs, like charcoal.

"The villagers were fighting over the corpses. People were saying this is my brother, this is my cousin, and no one could identify anyone."

So the elders stepped in. They collected all the bodies they could and asked the people to tell them how many relatives each family had lost.

A queue formed. One by one the bereaved gave the names of missing brothers, cousins, sons and nephews, and each in turn received their quota of corpses. It didn't matter who was who, everyone was mangled beyond recognition anyway. All that mattered was that they had a body to bury and perform prayers upon.

"A man comes and says, 'I lost my brother and cousin', so we gave him two bodies," said Omar Khan. "Another says I lost five relatives, so we gave him five bodies to take home and bury. When we had run out of bodies we started giving them limbs, legs, arms, torsos." In the end only five families went away without anything. "Their sons are still missing."

Omar Khan's small eyes narrowed and his mouth formed a disgusted circle. "The smell was so bad. For three days I smelled of burned meat and fuel."

Omar Khan was one of 11 villagers the Guardian interviewed about the airstrike. We arrived in the region early this week with the intention of visiting the site of the attack, but the kidnapping of a New York Times journalist and the firefight that preceded his rescue, leaving four people dead, meant the journey there was too difficult. Instead the villagers came into the city to tell us their stories.

We sat around a table in the basement of a hotel, and one by one their accounts of the airstrike – which killed 70-100 people, making it one of the most devastating of the war – spilled out. The villagers said the Taliban had hijacked the fuel tankers at 7pm on Thursday evening and driven them off the main road to Kabul, through Ali Abad district, into their stronghold of Chardarah, to the south-west of Kunduz.

To reach Chardarah they had to ford a shallow river to avoid a bridge garrisoned by the Afghan army. But when they drove the trucks into the water they became stuck, so the Taliban summoned the people in the nearby villages to help.

Jamaludin, a 45-year-old farmer, had been praying in the mosque when he heard the sound of a tractor. "I went home and found that three of my brothers and my nephew had left with my tractor," he said. "I called my brother to ask him where they had gone. He said the Taliban had asked him to bring the tractor and help them pull a tanker." Jamaluddin was alarmed. "I asked him what tanker? It wasn't our business, let the Taliban bring their own tractors. I called him back an hour later. He said they couldn't get the trucks out and the Taiban wouldn't let him leave, so I went back to sleep."

Realising the tankers were stuck, the Taliban decided to siphon off the fuel and asked people to come and help themselves to the ghanima, the spoils of war. There would be free fuel for everyone.

Assadullah, a thin 19-year-old with a wisp of black hair falling on his forehead, got a call from a friend who said the Taliban were distributing free fuel.

"I took two fuel cans with me, I called my brother and a friend and we went. There was a full moon and we could see very clearly. There were a lot of people already there. They were pushing and shoving, trying to reach the tap to fill their jerry cans. We are poor people, and we all wanted to get some fuel for the winter.

"I filled my cans and moved away while my brother was pushing to fill his. I walked for a hundred, maybe two hundred metres."

It was about 1am on Friday that the aircraft attacked and incinerated the stolen fuel tankers. "There was a big light in the sky and then an explosion," Assadullah said. "I fell on my face. When I came to, there was thick smoke and I couldn't see anything. I called, I shouted for my brother but he didn't answer. I couldn't see him. There was fire everywhere and silence and bodies were burning."

He pulled up his long shirt to show me four small shrapnel bruises and two burns on his neck.

Jamaludin woke up at about 1am to start making food. It was Ramadan, and he had to prepare Sehur, the last meal before sunrise. "I called my brother again and told him I could hear lots of airplanes in the sky, why wasn't he back? He said he was bringing some fuel and would be home soon. I hung up and went into the courtyard, and then there was a big fire, like a big lamp in the middle of the sky. I called my brother again and his phone was off. I left home and ran towards the river. The smell of smoke was coming from there.

"When I got there I couldn't see my brother.I shouted for him. I saw some people carrying injured on their shoulders, then I went back home to pray and wait for the light."

Jan Mohammad, an old man with a white beard and green eyes, said angrily: "I ran, I ran to find my son because nobody would give me a lift. I couldn't find him."

He dropped his head on his palm that was resting on the table, and started banging his head against his white mottled hand. When he raised his head his eyes were red and tears were rolling down his cheek: "I couldn't find my son, so I took a piece of flesh with me home and I called it my son. I told my wife we had him, but I didn't let his children or anyone see. We buried the flesh as it if was my son."

He broke off, then shouted at the young Assadullah, who had knocked at the old man's house and told his son to come with them there was free fuel for everyone, "You destroyed my home", Assadu-llah turned his head and looked at the wall. "You destroyed my home," he shouted again. Jan Mohammad dropped his head again on his palm and rolled it left and right, his big gray turban moving like a huge pendulum, "Taouba [forgiveness]," he hissed. "People lost their fathers and sons for a little bit of fuel. Forgiveness."

Omar Khan, the village chief, was crying now and looking at the ceiling.

Fazel Muhamad a 48-year-old farmer with seven deep lines creasing his forehead and a white prayers cap, threw two color passport pictures in front of me, one of a thickly bearded man and the other a young boy. "My cousin and his son," he said. "Around 10pm, my cousin told me the Taliban were distributing fuel to the people and he was going to get some for the winter. I asked him to stay and not go, there were planes and it was dangerous at night, but he went anyway.

"At one or two in the morning we heard a big explosion and I saw fire coming form the sky. My cousin's wife came running, she said go look for your cousin, but I waited until I had finished my dawn prayers, no one could eat anything.

"I arrived there and I saw dead bodies, some were in the middle of the river, I walked around looking for him and his son but I couldn't find him. I went back home and his wife asked me did you see him, is he dead, where is he? I said I couldn't find him. She was wailing and crying.

"I went again looking for him. There was light now, I picked through the bodies, the Arbabs [village elders] were distributing the flesh, but I didn't go there. I looked through the ground and I could only see his two feet and his son's feet. I recognized them because he and his son had henna on their toes."

Islamu-ldin, a 20-year-old from Issa khail village with tufts of hair sprouting from his cheek, took his turn to speak. He said he ran for three hours to get to the riverbed to look for his brother.

"Our village is far from the river, I searched a lot through the dead, and I found my brother. I recognized him from his clothes. But we only found his upper body, maybe someone took the legs, maybe it just burned to ashes."

Omar Khan was weeping openly now. A few other men resisted, but their eyes were as red as those of Jan Muhamad, who was babbling and shouting at the young Assadullah again and again.

Saleh Muhamad, a 25-year-old man with thick beard, wanted to get some fuel but no one would give him a lift. His brother and brother-in-law went and he went to sleep, then he heard the explosion. "I waited till darkness ended, then went there. I didn't find anyone I knew, so I waited for the elders. They gave me two bodies, they looked like my relatives and I came back with them."

Another village elder said that at least a dozen of the dead were from the Taliban. Although most of them had already left when the explosion happened, the rest stayed trying to keep some order while the villagers shoved and pushed.

"At midnight my brother and nephew went to get fuel. I also wanted to go but I didn't have a car," said Saleh Muhamad.

"At one in the morning I went to bed. When I heard the explosion I called my brother but his phone was off … when I arrived at 3am there were dead everywhere I was searching for my brother and nephew but I couldn't find anyone.

"I had a torch with me and I could see well, but I still couldn't recognize anyone." His eyes looked straight through me as he said: "I found one body and took it home and we buried it. It was a full body, with arms and legs. We buried it well."

German Troops in Afghanistan

September 10, 2009

The Left party trumps with anti-war card in election campaign

The only party calling for an end to Germany's engagement in Afghanistan has moved up in recent polls. After a German-ordered airstrike killed scores in Kunduz last week, the Left's view is becoming more popular.

The campaign signs for Germany's Left party send a clear message: "Out of Afghanistan!" It's a sentiment widely held by many Germans and has increased since a German commander in Afghanistan ordered an airstrike on two fuel tankers, hijacked by the Taliban last week, that left scores of people dead, including civilians.

While the future of the 4,200 German troops currently deployed in Afghanistan is a political issue, politicians from Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) and their coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), say last week's attack will not change government policy on Afghanistan. With the exception of the Left party, the rest of Germany's major parties are in favor of continuing the country's mission in Afghanistan.

But the latest weekly election polls, released on Wednesday, suggest that the attack may be influencing voters. A survey by the Forsa-Institut shows an increase of four percentage points for the Left party, to 14 percent, while an IfD Allensbach poll gave the party a 2 percent increase over last week, to 11.5 percent.

Back in 2002, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder campaigned against the US-led Iraq war and won re-election by the narrowest of margins, picking up many votes with his anti-war rhetoric.

Lone voice for Afghanistan withdrawal

The Left is the only party in Germany that's taken a clear stance against the deployment of German soldiers in Afghanistan. In a meeting of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, about the attacks on Tuesday, Left party co-leader Oskar Lafontaine reiterated his party's stance.

"We want German troops out of Afghanistan because we are firmly convinced that the mission does nothing for international security, nothing for peace and is not the way to counter international terrorism," said Lafontaine.

The former SPD leader and finance minister under Chancellor Schroeder dismissed any talk of forming a coalition with the Social Democrats and Green party.

"The Social Democrats and the Greens still support our troops staying in Afghanistan and we want to bring them home immediately. So long as interests are diametrically opposed nobody needs to speculate about any coalition with the SPD and Greens after the Sept. 27 election," Lafontaine said.

Supporters of the Left party made their voices heard at a demonstration against the German involvement in Afghanistan held at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday.

"You can never stabilize Afghanistan with an army," one Left party campaigner told Deutsche Welle. "I understand that we have a huge problem in Afghanistan and the Taliban are not our friends - let that be clear! But in the past eight years it's only been about war and killing people and we haven't got anywhere."

Other parties slip in polls

While the far-left are riding higher in the polls, the ruling Christian Democrats and Social Democrats (SPD) have dipped slightly.

The CDU received 35 percent in both surveys, dipping by 0.5-1 percent. The CDU's preferred coalition partners, the Free Democrats, brought in 13-14 percent, which would leave the two parties just shy of the required 50 percent majority needed to form a coalition.

The Social Democrats slipped similarly, to 21-22.5 percent. Their preferred coalition partners, the Greens, polled 10-13 percent. Even if the Left were included in a coalition with the SPD and the Greens, the current surveys indicate they would not have the necessary majority to form a government.

Source: Global Research.
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15136.

A Fresh Approach in Afghanistan: An End to War?

September 10, 2009

by Ramzy Baroud

Left out of the options under consideration in "Obama's war" is the only one with any chance of success.

Despite assurances to the contrary in Washington and a major policy speech in London, one need not quibble with the obvious fact that the situation is deteriorating beyond repair in Afghanistan. Although international media is more concerned with what that means politically for United States President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, little attention is given to the browbeaten and war-weary people of that country.

One should know that public support for the war has greatly diminished, when conservative commentators like The Washington Post columnist George Will write: " US forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy. America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, air strikes and small, potent Special Forces units."

Okay, so his narrative is still ultimately violent, but the fact remains that the war mood is changing. After all, Will's 1 September article was entitled, "Time to Get Out of Afghanistan."

Dan Senor and Peter Wehner responded with a peculiar diatribe in the New York Times, accusing Will of allowing his party allegiance to influence his views on the war. The two authors, senior fellows at major US think tanks, offered a bloody rationale wrapped in deceptive wording. They argued that historically Democrats opposed Republican wars and Republicans have done the same, and that must change. It was implied that pretty much every major war in recent decades was a war that served US national security interests; therefore, "Republicans should resist the reflex that all opposition parties have, which is to oppose the stands of a president of the other party because he is a member of the other party." In other words, yes to war, whether by Democrats or Republicans.

The intellectual wrangling, of course, is not happening in a vacuum; it almost never does. Indeed, there is much politicking going on; intense deliberation in Washington, political debates in London; defensive French statements, and more. It seems that the war in Afghanistan is reaching a decisive point, militarily in Afghanistan itself, and politically in major Western capitals.

But why the sudden hoopla over Afghanistan? For after all, the bloody war has been grinding on for eight long years.

The Taliban and various groups opposing the Kabul government and their Western benefactors are gaining ground, not just in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan. Daring Taliban attacks are now taking place in the north as well, long seen as peaceful, thus requiring little attention. On 26 August a roadside bomb hit the car of the chief of the provincial Justice Department in the northern Kunduz province, killing him, and sending shock waves through Kabul. The bloody message was meant to echo as a political one: no one is safe, nowhere is safe. Another attack was reported in the province of Laghman, in the east, where 22 people, mostly civilians were killed. Among the dead were four Afghan officials including the deputy chief of the National Directorate of Security, Abdullah Laghmani. The irony is too obvious to state.

In Washington, London and Paris politicians wish us to believe that they are not unnerved by all of this. They exaggerated the significance of the recent Afghani elections, attempting to once again underscore that the "crucial" elections placed Afghanistan on a crossroads. Crossroads? What does that even mean, in any practical terms? George Will, although selective in his logic, was honest enough to mention that President Hamid Karzai's "vice-presidential running mate is a drug trafficker." Even US officials admit that the government they've created following the war is corrupt, to say the least.

Richard Holbrooke, among other foreign envoys "responsible for Afghanistan", told reporters in Paris on 2 September that US officials have no preference among the candidates, nor are they particularly interested in runoff elections, but they wished to see a government that appoints "more efficient, less corrupt ministers". It behooves those "responsible for Afghanistan" to remember that inefficiency and corruption were the outcome of the very policies they have so eagerly adopted in the country. No sympathy for Karzai here, but it's unfair to point the finger at a feeble leader whenever a Western strategy fumbles, as it has repeatedly.

Speaking of strategies, what is the plan ahead? French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner promised that foreign troops will stay put in Afghanistan unless the country's security was ensured, reported Xinhua. In practical terms, this means never, for how could security ever visit that region as long as the strategy is hostage to two equally destructive narratives -- the Senor/Wehner troop surges vs Will's "offshore" strategy?

Hubris aside, Washington and London are facing some difficult political and military decisions ahead. Top officials in both capitals are using grim and somber language. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, responding to a call by the top US general in Afghanistan for a fresh approach to the conflict, is considering yet another troop increase as part of Obama's new Afghan strategy.

The sense of urgency was invited by the detailed report of the newly appointed General Stanley McChrystal, who maintains that "success" was still possible, but a change of strategy is needed. The report resulted in intense deliberation in Washington, highlighted by grim press conferences involving the Pentagon's heavyweights, including Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, over what to do about "Obama's war".

Speaking at the Pentagon, Gates equivocated: "I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers. I absolutely do not think it is time to get out of Afghanistan (but there remains) limited time for us to show that this approach is working."

The details of the new Obama strategy are still not very clear, but the commitment to the war is still unquestionable, as expressed in a "major" 4 September speech by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "When the security of our country is at stake we cannot walk away," said Brown, according to the BBC.

As Brown was solemnly speaking about British security, NATO air strikes on a pair of fuel tankers killed up to 90 people, according to Afghan authorities.

Indeed, the situation in Afghanistan requires a fresh approach, although not the one George Will had in mind.

Source: Global Research.
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15143.

Escalation of the Afghan War? US-NATO Target Russia, China and Iran

September 10, 2009

by Rick Rozoff

The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are expanding their nearly eight-year war in Afghanistan both in scope, with deadly drone missile attacks inside Pakistan, and in intensity, with daily reports of more NATO states’ troops slated for deployment and calls for as many as 45,000 American troops in addition to the 68,000 already in the nation and scheduled to be there shortly.

The NATO bombing in Kunduz province on September 4 may well prove to be the worst atrocity yet perpetrated by Western forces against Afghan civilians and close to 20 U.S and NATO troops have been killed so far this month, with over 300 dead this year compared to 294 for all of 2008.

The scale and gravity of the conflict can no longer be denied even by Western media and government officials and the war in South Asia occupies the center stage of world attention for the first time in almost eight years.

The various rationales used by Washington and Brussels to launch, to continue and to escalate the war – short-lived and successive, forgotten and reinvented, transparently insincere and frequently mutually exclusive – have been exposed as fraudulent and none of the identified objectives have been achieved or are likely ever to be so. Osama bin Laden and Omar Mullah have not been captured or killed. Taliban is stronger than at any time since their overthrow eight years ago last month, even – though the name Taliban seems to mean fairly much whatever the West intends it to at any given moment – gaining hitherto unimagined control over the country’s northern provinces.

Opium cultivation and exports, virtually non-existent at the time of the 2001 invasion, are now at record levels, with Afghanistan the world’s largest narcotics producer and exporter.

The Afghan-Pakistani border has not been secured and NATO supply convoys are regularly seized and set on fire on the Pakistani side. Pakistani military offensives have killed hundreds if not thousands on the other side of the border and have displaced over two million civilians in the Swat District and adjoining areas of the North-West Frontier Province.

Yet far from acknowledging that the war, America’s longest since the debacle in Vietnam and NATO’s first ground war and first conflict in Asia, has been a signal failure, U.S. and NATO leaders are clamoring for more troops in addition to the 100,000 already on the ground in Afghanistan and are preparing the public in the fifty nations contributing to that number for a war that will last decades. And still without the guarantee of a successful resolution.

But the West’s South Asian war is a fiasco only if judged by what Washington and Brussels have claimed their objectives were and are. Viewed from a broader geopolitical and strategic military perspective matters may be otherwise.

On September 7 a Russian analyst, Sergey Mikheev, was quoted as saying that the major purpose of the Pentagon moving into Afghanistan and of NATO waging its first war outside of Europe was to exert influence on and domination over a vast region of South and Central Asia that has brought Western military forces – troops, warplanes, surveillance capabilities – to the borders of China, Iran and Russia.

Mikheev claims that “Afghanistan is a stage in the division of the world after the bipolar system failed” and the U.S. and NATO “wanted to consolidate their grip on Eurasia…and deployed a lot of troops there,” adding that as a pretext for doing so “The Taliban card was played, although nobody had been interested in the Taliban before.”

A compatriot of the writer, Andrei Konurov, earlier this month agreed with the contention that Taliban was and remains more excuse for than cause of the United States and its NATO allies deploying troops and taking over air and other bases in Afghanistan and the Central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In the case of Kyrgyzstan alone, there were estimates at the beginning of this year that as many as 200,000 U.S. and NATO troops have transited through the Manas air base en route to Afghanistan.

Konurov argued that “With Washington’s non-intervention if not downright encouragement, the Talibs are destabilizing Central Asia and the Uyghur regions of China as well as seeking inroads into Iran. This is the explanation behind the recent upheaval of Uyghur separatism and to an extent behind the activity of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.”

It must be kept in mind, however, that for the West the term of opprobrium Talib is elastic and can at will be applied to any ethnic Pushtun opponent of Western military occupation and, as was demonstrated with the NATO air strike massacre last Friday, after the fact to anyone killed by Western forces as in multi-ethnic Kunduz province.

The last-cited author also stated, again contrary to received opinion in the West, that “the best option for the US is Afghanistan having no serious central authority whatsoever and a government in Kabul totally dependent on Washington. The inability of such a government to control most of Afghanistan’s territory would not be regarded as a major problem by the US as in fact Washington would in certain ways be able to additionally take advantage of the situation.”

An Afghanistan that was at peace and stabilized would then be a decided disadvantage for plans to maintain and widen Western military positioning at the crossroads where Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Pakistani and Indian interests meet.

The Russian writer mentions that Washington and its NATO allies have employed the putative campaign against al-Qaeda – and now Taliban as well as the drug trade – to secure, seize and upgrade 19 military bases in Afghanistan and Central Asia, including what can become strategic air bases like former Soviet ones in Bagram, Shindand, Herat, Farah, Kandahar and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. The analyst pointed out that “The system of bases makes it possible for the US to exert military pressure on Russia, China, and Iran.”

It suffices to recall that during the 1980s current U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was the CIA official in charge of the agency’s largest-ever covert campaign, Operation Cyclone, to arm and train Afghan extremists in military camps in Pakistan for attacks inside Afghanistan. A “porous border” was not his concern at the time.

Konurov ended his article with an admonition:

“There is permanent consensus in the ranks of the US establishment that the US presence in Afghanistan must continue.

“Russia should not and evidently will not watch idly the developments at the southern periphery of post-Soviet space.”

Iran’s top military commander, Yahya Rahim-Safavi, was quoted in his nation’s media on September 7 offering a comparable analysis and issuing a similar warning. Saying that “The recent security pact between US and NATO and Afghanistan showed the United States has no plan to leave the region,” he observed that “Russia worries about the US presence in Central Asia and China has concerns about US interference in its two main Muslim provinces bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

To indicate that the range of the Western military threat extended beyond Central Asia and its borders with Russia and China, he also said the “presence of more than 200,000 foreign forces in the region particularly in South-West Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Middle East, the expansion of their bases, the sale of billions of dollars of military equipments to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and looting their oil resources are the root cause of insecurity in South-West Asia, the Persian Gulf region and Iran,” and noted that “US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf had been a cause for concern for Russia, China and Iran.”

The Iranian concern is hardly unwarranted. The August 31 edition of the Jerusalem Post revealed that “NATO’s interest in Iran has dramatically increased in recent months” and “In December 2006, Israeli Military Intelligence hosted the first of its kind international conference on global terrorism and intelligence, after which Israel and NATO established an intelligence-sharing mechanism.”

The same article quoted an unnamed senior Israeli official as adding, “NATO talks about Iran and the way it affects force structure and building.”

Six days earlier an American news agency released a report titled “Middle East arms buys top $100 billion” which said “Middle Eastern countries are expected to spend more than $100 billion over the next five years” the result of “unprecedented packages…unveiled by President George W. Bush in January 2008 to counter Iran….”

The major recipients of American arms will be three nations in the Persian Gulf – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq – as well as Israel.

Other Gulf states are among those to participate in this unparalleled arms buildup in Iran’s neighborhood. “The core of this arms-buying spree will undoubtedly be the $20 billion U.S. package of weapons systems over 10 years for the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. [United Arab Emirates], Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.”

A week ago Nicola de Santis, NATO’s head of the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Countries Section in the NATO Public Diplomacy Division, visited the United Arab Emirates and met with the nation’s foreign minister, Anwar Mohammed Gargash.

“Prospects of UAE-NATO cooperation” and “NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative” were the main topics of discussion.

The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative was formed at the NATO summit in Turkey in 2004 to upgrade the status of the Mediterranean Dialogue – the Alliance’s military partnerships with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania and Algeria – to that of the Partnership for Peace. The latter was used to prepare twelve nations for full NATO accession over the last ten years.

The second component of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative concerns formal and ongoing NATO military ties with the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council: The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain (where the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet is headquartered), Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

In May of this year France opened its first foreign military base in half a century in the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to U.S. and NATO military forces and bases in nations bordering Iran – Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan and increasingly Azerbaijan – the Persian Gulf is now becoming a Pentagon and NATO lake.

China is also being encroached upon from several directions simultaneously.

After the visit of the Pentagon’s Central Command chief General David Petraeus to the region in late August, Kyrgyzstan, which borders China, relented and agreed to the resumption of U.S. military transit for the Afghan war.

Tajikistan, which also abuts China, hosts French warplanes which are to be redeployed to Afghanistan this month.

Mongolia, resting between China and Russia, hosts regular Khaan Quest military exercises with the U.S. and has now pledged troops for NATO’s Afghan war.

Kazakhstan, with Russia to its north and China to its southeast, has offered the U.S. and NATO increased transit and other assistance for the Afghan war, with rumors of troop commitments also in the air, and is currently hosting NATO’s 20-nation Zhetysu 2009 exercise.

Late last month China appealed to Washington to halt military surveillance operations in its coastal waters, with its Defense Ministry saying “The constant US air and sea surveillance and survey operations in China’s exclusive economic zone is the root cause of problems between the navies and air forces of China and the US.”

A spokeswoman for the American embassy in Beijing responded by saying, “The United States exercises its freedom of navigation of the seas under international law….This policy has not changed.”

The war in Afghanistan was launched four months after Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security and economic alliance with a military component. Now the Pentagon and NATO have bases in the last three nations and military cooperation agreements with Kazakhstan.

In 2005 India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as observer states. Now all but Iran are being pulled into the U.S.-NATO orbit. No small part of the West’s plans in South and Central Asia is to neutralize and destroy the SCO as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), founded in 2002 by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Belarus.

Uzbekistan joined in 2006 but after General Petraeus’ visit to the country last month it appears ready to leave the organization. Belarus, Russia’s only buffer along its entire Western border, may not be far behind.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the U.S. and NATO immediately moved on Central Asia, and the war in Afghanistan has provided them with the opportunity to gain domination over all of South as well as Central Asia and to undermine and threaten the existence of the only regional security bodies – the SCO and CSTO – which could counteract the West’s drive for control of Eurasia.

Source: Global Research.
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15144.

Spanish judge resumes torture case against six senior Bush lawyers

by Andy Worthington

The Spanish newspaper Público reported exclusively on Saturday that Judge Baltasar Garzón is pressing ahead with a case against six senior Bush administration lawyers for implementing torture at Guantánamo.

Back in March, Judge Garzón announced that he was planning to investigate the six prime architects of the Bush administration’s torture policies — former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; John Yoo, a former lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, who played a major role in the preparation of the OLC’s notorious “torture memos”; Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense for policy; William J. Haynes II, the Defense Department’s former general counsel; Jay S. Bybee, Yoo’s superior in the OLC, who signed off on the August 2002 “torture memos”; and David Addington, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff.

In April, on the advice of the Spanish Attorney General Cándido Conde-Pumpido, who believes that an American tribunal should judge the case (or dismiss it) before a Spanish court even thinks about becoming involved, prosecutors recommended that Judge Garzón should drop his investigation. As CNN reported, Mr. Conde-Pumpido told reporters that Judge Garzón’s plans threatened to turn the court “into a toy in the hands of people who are trying to do a political action.”

On Saturday, however, Público reported that Judge Garzón had accepted a lawsuit presented by a number of Spanish organizations — the Asociación Pro Dignidad de los Presos y Presas de España (Organization for the Dignity of Spanish Prisoners), Asociación Libre de Abogados (Free Lawyers Association), the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de España (Association for Human Rights in Spain) and Izquierda Unida (a left-wing political party) — and three former Guantánamo prisoners (the British residents Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, and Sami El-Laithi, an Egyptian freed in 2005, who was paralyzed during an incident involving guards at Guantánamo).

The newspaper reported that all these groups and individuals would take part in any trial, which is somewhat ironic, as, although Judge Garzón has been involved in high-profile cases that have delighted human rights advocates — his pursuit of General Pinochet, for example — he has been severely criticized for his heavy-handed approach to terrorism-related cases in Spain (as in the cases of Mohammed Farsi and Farid Hilali, amongst others), and, in fact, aggressively pursued an extradition request for both Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes on their return from Guantánamo to the UK in December 2007, in connection with spurious and long-refuted claims about activities related to terrorism, which he was only persuaded to drop in March 2008.

It is, at present, uncertain whether another attempt to stifle Judge Garzón will derail him from his pursuit of the Bush administration’s lawyers, as he is not known for letting adversaries stand in his way. At the end of June, the Spanish Parliament pointedly passed legislation aimed at “ending the practice of letting its magistrates seek war-crime indictments against officials from any foreign country, including the United States,” on the basis that no Spanish Court should be able to judge officials of foreign countries except when the victims are Spanish or the crimes were committed in Spain.

However, on Sunday, when Público spoke to Philippe Sands, the British lawyer, and author of Torture Team, which provided much of the first-hand evidence for Garzón’s case, Sands explicitly stated that there was “no legal barrier” to prevent Judge Garzón’s prosecution from proceeding. He explained that he believed the recent decision by US Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special investigator to investigate cases of torture by the CIA is related to the Spanish lawsuit and the importance it has acquired because of its instigation by Judge Garzón. Sands told Público, “The recent decision by Eric Holder emphasizes how appropriate the Spanish investigation is. Many commentators believe that this decision has had a significant and direct impact in the United States, reminding people that there is an obligation to investigate torture.”

He added, “Judge Garzón’s actions have acted like a catalyst, and are supported by many people in the United States, including some members of Congress. He has reminded everybody that a blind eye cannot be turned to these actions and that there are people who are not going to let that happen.” He also explained that Eric Holder’s gesture is only a first step, “limited to cases in which interrogators may have exceeded the limits formally approved by lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel,” that the architects of the “legal decisions that purported to justify the use of torture are not in immediate danger in the United States,” and that there is, therefore, “no legal barrier to the continuation of the Spanish investigation.”

He concluded by stating that it was “important” that Judge Garzón proceeds with the case in Spain, because, although Eric Holder “has confirmed the importance of the Convention Against Torture, he has taken only a first step that “does not really address the actions of those who were truly responsible for its violation.”

Source: Global Research.
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15172.