Taliban not the enemy in Afghanistan: Polish aide

WARSAW (Reuters/AFP) - The United States has too often left allies to suffer the consequences of flawed policies in Afghanistan and must now negotiate peace with the resurgent Taliban, Poland's Defence Ministry Advisor said on Monday.

"We must limit military actions and fight against our real enemies exclusively. The Taliban are not our enemies," Roman Kuzniar, foreign policy professor and military advisor to Defence Minister Bogdan Klich, told Reuters in an interview.

"They have not attacked us. It's the terrorists. We must talk to the Taliban and to all of them - not only the moderate ones."

Kuzniar, whose country has 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is now reviewing its mission there, said the army were calling for "more troops, more troops" to win the war. "But it doesn't work that way," he said.

"The mission has been left to the army and we have lost political control over it. We cannot seek the victory there by more and more bloodshed." Kuzniar said. "Gen Stanley McChrystal's conclusions are what they are, but nobody knows what will Obama do about it. This is a time for diplomacy and politics, also for Poland," Kuzniar said.

"We must demand that all the allies' views are taken into account while discussing Afghanistan, not only the US one. Too many times the US has spilt milk and we had to clean it up."

Instead, Kuzniar said, Nato should seek to engage all powers in Afghanistan, as well as its neighbours, in dialogue about the country's future.

"The surveys are justified, the people see the mission is not going the right way. We have great losses on all sides - civilians, us, our enemies. We must take it back from army and regain political control over it. We need more brains there."

Meanwhile, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen reminded the US of allies' involvement in Afghanistan and the heavy price some of them are paying there, in a speech which was to be given on Monday.

"I know that there are many here in Washington who are frustrated," Rasmussen was quoted as saying in the speech to be delivered at the Atlantic Council in Washington, a copy of which was obtained by AFP in Brussels.

The former Danish prime minister pointed out that there are 35,000 non-US troops in Afghanistan, or about 40 of the total. He said despite conventional wisdom, allies were not running from the fight.

"I will not accept from anyone the argument that the Europeans and the Canadians are not paying the price for success in Afghanistan. They are.
"If they don't feel as if their efforts and sacrifices in Nato are recognised and valued, they will be less inclined to make those efforts and those sacrifices. That is not in anyone's interest."

"If we are to succeed in Afghanistan, it will only be if we do it together."

"Public support for this mission in troop-contributing countries is falling - because of rising casualties; because of concerns about the way the elections was held; but most of all, because of a sense among many people that, despite all the progress, we aren't getting anywhere."

"Nato will stay for as long as it takes to succeed. And I want to repeat that: as long as it takes. But that cannot mean forever.

Meanwhile, Britain's top general in Afghanistan has backed his US commander General Stanley McChrystal's call for more foreign troops to fight an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency, a newspaper said Monday.

Lt-Gen Jim Dutton, the deputy commander of Nato's International Security Assistance Force, told The Times newspaper that victory was a matter of "straightforward force ratios".

"If you want to achieve long-term stability, and therefore a lack of terrorism potential in an area, you need to be doing more than simply patrolling the skies," Dutton said.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/29-Sep-2009/Taliban-not-the-enemy-in-Afghanistan-Polish-aide/

India's damned generation: young go hungry despite economic boom

September 19, 2009

Jeremy Page in Delhi

As many as 3,000 children die every day in India as a result of malnutrition

India is condemning another generation to brain damage, poor education and early death by failing to meet its targets for tackling the malnutrition that affects almost half of its children, a study backed by the British Government concluded yesterday.

The country is an "economic powerhouse but a nutritional weakling", said the report by the British-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which incorporated papers by more than 20 India analysts. It said that despite India's recent economic boom, at least 46 per cent of children up to the age of 3 still suffer from malnutrition, making the country home to a third of the world's malnourished children. The UN defines malnutrition as a state in which an individual can no longer maintain natural bodily capacities such as growth, pregnancy, lactation, learning abilities, physical work and resisting and recovering from disease.

In 2001, India committed to the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving its number of hungry by 2015. China has already met its target. India, though, will not meet its goal until 2043, based on its current rate of progress, the IDS report concluded.

"It's the contrast between India's fantastic economic growth and its persistent malnutrition which is so shocking," Lawrence Haddad, director of the IDS, told The Times. He said that an average of 6,000 children died every day in India; 2,000-3,000 of them from malnutrition.

There was no immediate response from the Indian Government. The report highlights its failure to improve basic living standards for most Indians despite presiding over an unprecedented period of economic growth since coming to power in 2004.

The boom has enriched a consumer class of about 50 million people, but an estimated 880 million still live on less than $2 a day, many of them in conditions worse than those found in sub-Saharan Africa.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, described malnutrition as "a curse that we must remove" in an Independence Day speech last year. Since then his Government has quadrupled funding to tackle the problem — but the IDS report said that the money would be wasted unless steps were taken to improve governance at every level.

In most developing countries, malnutrition drops as GDP rises, because parents earn more money with which to buy more and better food for their children, according to the report. India's real GDP per capita grew by 3.95 per cent a year from 1980-2005, it said — yet the percentage of underweight children under 3 in India dropped only from 52 to 46 per cent between 1992 and 2006.

The report said one of the main problems was that millions of Indians were unable to hold government officials to account for delivering government feeding programmes, with bureaucrats frequently excluding large groups of individuals — including lower castes and women — from government initiatives.

Another problem not mentioned in the report is that India opposes the import of high-energy food supplements.

The report was part-funded by Britain's Department for International Development (DfID), which will spend £500 million on health and nutrition in India between 2008 and 2012.

"There is no shortage of ideas about what to do to tackle malnutrition," said Michael Anderson, the head of DfID in India. "But leadership from the top and joint action across government are needed to turn these ideas into practical solutions. The challenge is urgent: the lives of millions of children depend on it."

The ugly face of Hindu society

Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) got published his classic novel 'Untouchable' in 1935. The novel is based on the life of its untouchable hero, Bakha, showing the extent of Hindu society been stooped in its treatment of lower-caste people (over 220 million), the great majority of whom work in ignominious, polluting and unclean occupations.

The narrative boils down to the fact that Hindu society, like Talmudic society, is based on racism and caste sysyem, though in different ways. The upper-caste Hindus (Brahmins) too had their 'anti-Semitism' label (known as 'polluted"), which they applied to the Hindus of lower-caste and all the non-Hindus. The book, 'Untouchable' narrates the story of the mindset of Hindu pervert society which is full of fear from openess and forces its women folks, if not killed before or during childhood – to live in indignity when raped while the perpetrators roam free. According to the story, a temple priest tries to allure a girl Gulabo who is a sweeper in the temple to enter into sanctum- sanctorum of the temple where she is normally prohibited to enter and then tries to molest her. As soon as the girl retaliates and condemn him – the Brahmin priest shouts "polluted"… "polluted"….blaming the girl for polluting the temple by entering into sanctum- sanctorum.

Muslim rulers, due to their Islamic tolerance, did not interfere with the Brahmin (White) evil grip over the Hindu society. They established close relationship with the second and third caste people – Ksatriyas (Red) and Vaisyas (Brown) – by giving them higher administration and military posts and marrying among them. Mughal Emperor Akbar's Queen, Jodha Bai, was a Ksatriyas princess, who became the grandmother of all the Mughal kings who followed Emperor Akbar until the abolition of Mughal dynasty by the British East India Company in the middle on 17th century. Muslim rulers allowed several Hindu heinous rituals, such as Satti (burning of a widow alive on a pyre), which eventually was equated to a murder by the British colonialists. However, it's still practiced in some remote areas of India.

Muslim tolerance, though, paid in by the conversion of millions of non-Brahmin Hindus to Islam. During the British Raj, most of converts to Christianity were untouchables.

After the independence in August 1947 – the Brahmin minority asserted its old dictorial powers once again – though the discrimination became subtle in many cases. For example, Babu Jagjivan Ram (1908-1986), an untouchable from Bihar was president of the ruling Congress Party – but after Indira Gandhi's assassination, he was passed-over by the piss-drinking Brahmin, Morarji Desai, as prime minister of India (1977-79).

Though India has made great achievements in science and technology – the acute poverty among country's one billion population is increasing year by year. It's amazing that country which has four world's top billionaires – 81% of its population live on US$2 per day. Poverty in some sectors is so high that farmers are being forced to sell wives and daughters in order to pay debt to Brahmin loansharks.

Vidya Bushan Rawat in his July 22, 2009 article, titled Rape As An Instrument Of Politics, wrote:

"Rape will always be a powerful weapon in the armed struggles, communal disturbances, social upheavals as long as women's virginity and purity are the 'honor' in our society. As long as we consider them as a matter of our 'ijjat', it will be used as a tool to dishonor them. Whether some boy picks up quarrel with another one in the village, it is the sister who has to face the consequences. The villagers will moan, communities will fight but the girl would be destined to live a life in isolation and misery. She can not come out hence even if she receive hefty compensation, unless our families are properly counseled no rehabilitation can take place and the money would go to the parents who would then find out a person for her and she would be tied for marriages but the stigma of being raped would also be there. There are very few cases where the girl would live a life of honor as she will not be accepted by the larger society.

The problem is many times, to save them from an adverse verdict, the lawyers advice the alleged rapist to 'marry' the girl and withdraw charges of rape. Law has never been reformative and any person who is different from others, find it difficult to get a good lawyer to present her case. How can the court grant permission to alleged rapist to marry the girl. It is because of the social taboos. Fact is that India may not be officially a Hindu Rastra but the laws of Manu are very powerful in our society and they prevail over a secular constitution.

The only answer against such heinous crime is to fight against it and not feel guilty and humiliated. And one woman who challenged it and became an icon was Phoolan Devi. Educated upper castes called her 'dacoit', but none ever came forward to encourage her live a life of dignity after she was raped and molested by the Thakurs in rural Kanpur Dehat region. She did not accept the defeat. She did not lead a life in miseries. She decided to avenge it. Many people might not justify what she did and none can justify those violent acts yet Phoolan revolt against the brahmanical system is an example that rather then feeling shame of their misdeeds, it is time to pay back with interest. She did not ask for any brutality or rape. She denied being part of any murder of people in Behmai yet she lived like queen. Whether you call it larger then life image or not, but Phoolan never believed in submitting herself to the fancies of these upper caste thugs. She became a legend in her life time who lived life with dignity and self respect….."

The ugly face of Hindu society

Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) got published his classic novel 'Untouchable' in 1935. The novel is based on the life of its untouchable hero, Bakha, showing the extent of Hindu society been stooped in its treatment of lower-caste people (over 220 million), the great majority of whom work in ignominious, polluting and unclean occupations.

The narrative boils down to the fact that Hindu society, like Talmudic society, is based on racism and caste sysyem, though in different ways. The upper-caste Hindus (Brahmins) too had their 'anti-Semitism' label (known as 'polluted"), which they applied to the Hindus of lower-caste and all the non-Hindus. The book, 'Untouchable' narrates the story of the mindset of Hindu pervert society which is full of fear from openess and forces its women folks, if not killed before or during childhood – to live in indignity when raped while the perpetrators roam free. According to the story, a temple priest tries to allure a girl Gulabo who is a sweeper in the temple to enter into sanctum- sanctorum of the temple where she is normally prohibited to enter and then tries to molest her. As soon as the girl retaliates and condemn him – the Brahmin priest shouts "polluted"… "polluted"….blaming the girl for polluting the temple by entering into sanctum- sanctorum.

Muslim rulers, due to their Islamic tolerance, did not interfere with the Brahmin (White) evil grip over the Hindu society. They established close relationship with the second and third caste people – Ksatriyas (Red) and Vaisyas (Brown) – by giving them higher administration and military posts and marrying among them. Mughal Emperor Akbar's Queen, Jodha Bai, was a Ksatriyas princess, who became the grandmother of all the Mughal kings who followed Emperor Akbar until the abolition of Mughal dynasty by the British East India Company in the middle on 17th century. Muslim rulers allowed several Hindu heinous rituals, such as Satti (burning of a widow alive on a pyre), which eventually was equated to a murder by the British colonialists. However, it's still practiced in some remote areas of India.

Muslim tolerance, though, paid in by the conversion of millions of non-Brahmin Hindus to Islam. During the British Raj, most of converts to Christianity were untouchables.

After the independence in August 1947 – the Brahmin minority asserted its old dictorial powers once again – though the discrimination became subtle in many cases. For example, Babu Jagjivan Ram (1908-1986), an untouchable from Bihar was president of the ruling Congress Party – but after Indira Gandhi's assassination, he was passed-over by the piss-drinking Brahmin, Morarji Desai, as prime minister of India (1977-79).

Though India has made great achievements in science and technology – the acute poverty among country's one billion population is increasing year by year. It's amazing that country which has four world's top billionaires – 81% of its population live on US$2 per day. Poverty in some sectors is so high that farmers are being forced to sell wives and daughters in order to pay debt to Brahmin loansharks.

Vidya Bushan Rawat in his July 22, 2009 article, titled Rape As An Instrument Of Politics, wrote:

"Rape will always be a powerful weapon in the armed struggles, communal disturbances, social upheavals as long as women's virginity and purity are the 'honor' in our society. As long as we consider them as a matter of our 'ijjat', it will be used as a tool to dishonor them. Whether some boy picks up quarrel with another one in the village, it is the sister who has to face the consequences. The villagers will moan, communities will fight but the girl would be destined to live a life in isolation and misery. She can not come out hence even if she receive hefty compensation, unless our families are properly counseled no rehabilitation can take place and the money would go to the parents who would then find out a person for her and she would be tied for marriages but the stigma of being raped would also be there. There are very few cases where the girl would live a life of honor as she will not be accepted by the larger society.

The problem is many times, to save them from an adverse verdict, the lawyers advice the alleged rapist to 'marry' the girl and withdraw charges of rape. Law has never been reformative and any person who is different from others, find it difficult to get a good lawyer to present her case. How can the court grant permission to alleged rapist to marry the girl. It is because of the social taboos. Fact is that India may not be officially a Hindu Rastra but the laws of Manu are very powerful in our society and they prevail over a secular constitution.

The only answer against such heinous crime is to fight against it and not feel guilty and humiliated. And one woman who challenged it and became an icon was Phoolan Devi. Educated upper castes called her 'dacoit', but none ever came forward to encourage her live a life of dignity after she was raped and molested by the Thakurs in rural Kanpur Dehat region. She did not accept the defeat. She did not lead a life in miseries. She decided to avenge it. Many people might not justify what she did and none can justify those violent acts yet Phoolan revolt against the brahmanical system is an example that rather then feeling shame of their misdeeds, it is time to pay back with interest. She did not ask for any brutality or rape. She denied being part of any murder of people in Behmai yet she lived like queen. Whether you call it larger then life image or not, but Phoolan never believed in submitting herself to the fancies of these upper caste thugs. She became a legend in her life time who lived life with dignity and self respect….."

The Little ISRAEL in INDIA

It's interesting to note that while both India and Israel with the help of the US, of course, are bent on the break-up of Pakistan – Israelis with the help of its powerful Jewish Lobby in the US and Britain – are also on their way to establish a second little Zionist entity in India next to Muslim Bangladesh and Buddhist Burma. Of course, the later is not a hot topic in India or the West -thanks to the anti-Muslim partnership between Hindu and Jew extremists who own the mainstream media both in India and the West.

The Zionist rabbis (mostly European-Asian Khazars) have been recruiting "the lost Jewish brothers" around the world to replace the native Muslims and Christian Palestinians – in order to fulfil the Zionists' dream of a Jewish demographic western colony in the Muslim-majority Middle East. In the 1980s, Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, found some 9,000 lost Jewish souls in a very unexpected place – among the Chin-Kuku-Mizo tribe, which lives in Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, bordering Mayanmar where Buddhist rulers have been carrying out genocide of Muslim minority  (4 million) for decades. In March 2005, Israel's Chaief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, recognized these Indian tribesmen (Beni Menashe) as "the descendents of prophet Jusuf's (Joseph) son Menassah. Since then, 1700 of them have been brought to Israel and got them settled on the confiscated Palestinian lands.

In addition to Beni Menashe, the other "Jewish communities" Israelis found are – Beni Israel, Cochin (Malabar) Jews and European Jews who came with the British colonists. The British colonization of India was a Jewish Rothschild family project. Both the first governor of India under the British East India Company, Lord Clive and the last Governor General of the British India (also the first Governor General of India after independence), Lord Mountbatten (Queen's uncle) were known for their close links with the Rothschild family.

Christopher Jon Bjerknes in a recent article has claimed that Jewish elites collaborated with the British colonists during India's War of Independence (British call it a "Mutiny") in 1857 – which resulted in death of millions of Hindus and especially the ruling Muslims which ushered the end of the Mughal dynasty (1526-1857) and 1,000 year of Muslim rule in India.

On August 19, 2009 – John Kaminski co-authored with Arun Shrivastva an  article, titled Second Israeli state emerging in India, in which they wrote:

"Activities presaging the creation of a second Israeli state are well-known in India, but not elsewhere. Most everyone remembers how the first Israel popped onto the world scene in 1948 and has continued mass murdering its neighbors and hapless nations that fall under its sway ever since.

Precisely, political stealth moves over the last three decades and an aggressive outreach effort by "rabbis from Israel" to convert inhabitants of the three easternmost provinces of India to Judaism have been reported for years by Indian patriots in the Himalayan foothills who seek to return their country to its much longed for pre-British liberty.

By means of "a ritual bath," rabbis promise penniless Christian, Muslim and pagan converts a trip to Israel and preferred employment status, then buy votes of peasants, take over local boards and pass laws to legalize their manipulations, the same way they do everywhere else.

While the core issue in this geopolitical expansion of Rothschild-Rockefeller money empire that controls the world is proximity to the centuries old center of opium production run by the generals in Myanmar, the creation of a new Israeli state in the exact center of China, India and Southeast Asia augurs badly for the peoples of the region, as the current level of destabilization among Israel's neighbors in the Middle East clearly illustrates.

Bharat patriots in the Himalayan state of of Himachal Pradesh today describe the region as the new pot growing capital of the world, with Israelis in every community guiding the industry clear on up to the Indo-Tibetan border.

The latest news from that beautiful border area is this. Dharamshala became Tibetan Dalai Lama's de facto capital ever since the Chinese annexed Tibet. Some of the world's most high profile leaders and Hollywood stars (like Richard Gere) are regular visitors.

In these peaceful parts, what are 20,000-plus Israelis doing? Many in Manali town and its surrounding villages speak Hebrew. Near Dharamshala no less than 10 villages have been taken over by the Israelis. It has long been known that the Dalai Lama gets a very large annual stipend from the CIA, and is planning to create a Buddhist independent nation across the Himalayas, stretching from Ladakh in Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh in Northeastern India.

The war on Afghanistan and Pakistan by the U.S. is a drug war. The locals want to do away with drugs, but the Jews and U.S. want to keep profiting from this moneymaking scheme, because for centuries this particular secret industry has literally ruled the world with its profits.

The creation of a New Israel right in the middle of the major East Asian markets sheds new light on the American military assaults on Pakistan and Afghanistan, as its war against the Muslims of the region more and more resembles the Jewish-dominated political cooptation and military oppression in the Middle East.

Millions of penniless Indian and Bangledeshi peasants have for centuries provided slave labor to the British overlords who have always ruled Burma with puppets and who have plagued China and India with their opium. China in particular has every right to bear seriously ill will against the Jewish Sassoons of the world who control people's minds through exploitation of their weaknesses.

Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. These are the three states that border Myanmar where sinister Jewish manipulation of desperate societies has become obvious.

This remote region of India north and east of Bangladesh is shrouded by the awful memory of what has come to be known as the Nellie Massacre, when in 1983 1500 Muslims were hacked to death after being promised it was safe to vote by Indian President Indira Gandhi. Numerous government inquiries produced no perpetrators and no motives, so typical in a government investigation when that government is controlled by Jews. Relations between India and Israel have warmed considerably in recent years.

The Nellie slaughter looked like a manipulated false flag massacre because Muslims and the indigenous Tiwas are not enemies. And it resembles the 9/11 coverup in the United States, where a major false flag operation was also blamed on Muslims.

The same result more recently occurred in Bombay, after 60 Uzi toting commandos shot up the Jewish Shabad House. On Nov. 26, 2008, a handful of terrorists, well trained and well armed, entered some high profile buildings and hotels, after killing three top anti-terrorist police officers and spraying bullets on common citizens in Mumbai. Latest information: 125 dead, around 300 injured some critically. Why was Shabad House never investigated? Muslims were rounded up, but the Jews, the ones who pulled the caper, were given a free pass, reminiscent of U.S Homeland Security czar Rabbi Michael Chertoff releasing 60 Israeli terror suspects immediately after the 9/11 incident….."

Israel Assembles Advanced Missile Defense Systems

By Howard Schneider

 

Washington Post

 

Posted: 09/18/2009 08:56:46 PM PDT
Updated: 09/18/2009 08:56:47 PM PDT

 

ASHKELON, Israel — As it pushes for international action against Iran's nuclear program, Israel is steadily assembling one of the world's most advanced missile defense systems, a multilayered collection of weapons meant to guard against a variety of threats, including the shorter-range Grads used to strike Israeli towns like this one and intercontinental rockets.

 

The effort, partly financed by the United States and incorporating advanced American radar and other technology, has been progressing quietly for two decades. But Israeli defense and other analysts say it has now reached a level of maturity that could begin changing the nature of strategic decisions in the region. Centered on the Arrow 2 anti-missile system, which has been deployed, the project is being extended to include a longer-range Arrow 3, the David's Sling interceptor designed to hit lower- and slower-flying cruise missiles, and the Iron Dome system intended to destroy shorter-range projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

 

With the Arrow system in operation and the Iron Dome due for deployment next year, Israel "has something to stabilize the situation: the knowledge that an attack will fail," said Uzi Rubin, a private defense consultant who ran Israel's missile shield program in the 1990s. Iran, he said, now cannot be assured of a successful first strike against Israel, while groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon may find one of their favored tactics undermined.

 

Advances in Iran's rocket technology, coupled with its ongoing nuclear program, are chief concerns of the United States and Europe, as well as of Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Alongside diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear research, missile defense programs have been designed with that country in mind.

 

The Obama administration decided this week to scrap a Bush-era plan to deploy a longer-range-missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, and said it would move toward a more intermediate system that better matches its assessment of Iran's capabilities.

 

In Israel, the issue is considered a top foreign policy priority. There have been varying Israeli assessments about Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon: The head of the Mossad intelligence agency told a parliament committee over the summer that Iran may be five years away from acquiring an atom bomb, but the head of military intelligence has said it could happen by the end of this year.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, sees Iran's program as an imminent danger. It "is something that threatens Israel and threatens the region and threatens the peace of the world," he said during a recent visit to Germany. "There is not much time."

 

A recent unannounced trip by Netanyahu to Russia was thought by some Israeli analysts to be linked to the broad set of issues regarding Iran, including Russia's possible sale of advanced antiaircraft missiles to Tehran and the likelihood that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear facilities if the United States and Europe cannot find another solution.

 

But the steady growth of Israel's missile defenses sheds a different light on the country's military doctrine and sense of vulnerability.

 

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said this week that he did not consider Iran's nuclear program an "existential issue" because "Israel is strong." Part of that strength lies in its nuclear capabilities — never acknowledged but widely presumed to exist — and part in the assumption that the United States would stand behind Israel if it came under attack. But it also rests in the calculation that enough of the country's air bases and other military facilities would survive a first strike to retaliate effectively.

 

The sort of deterrence — guaranteed retaliation — that the United States and then-Soviet Union once achieved by deploying nuclear warheads in submarines and keeping bombers aloft is what Israel is striving for through its antimissile systems.

 

Iran "is radical, but radical does not mean irrational," Rubin, the defense consultant, said. "They want to change the world, not commit suicide."

 

Israel's program had its origins in the 1980s and grew out of concern about Syria's suspected acquisition of chemical weapons. It took on added urgency in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when nearly 40 Iraqi Scud missiles hit the Tel Aviv area.

 

The Arrow was deployed in 2000, and Israel and the United States have since conducted a joint, biennial missile defense exercise, called Juniper Cobra, to work on integrating the weapons, radars and other systems of the two countries. Israel, for example, has the advanced U.S. X-Band radar stationed in the Negev desert. Israeli defense industry officials say the country also has virtually real-time access to some U.S. satellite data, an important part of its early-warning system.

 

The next joint exercise is scheduled for October.

 

As concern shifted to the threat of long-range missiles from Iran — the countries are about 700 miles apart at the closest point, well within the known range of Iranian missiles — it also focused on the shorter-range weapons that Hezbollah and Hamas have turned on Israel in the past few years.

 

The rockets fired by Hezbollah at northern Israel during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war led Israeli officials to accelerate work on a short-range-missile defense system, as did recent Grad strikes against Ashkelon, a Mediterranean city of about 120,000 people and the site of major electricity, desalinization and other facilities.

 

As it stands, "we have no defenses, no shelters, no public buildings being protected," said Alan Marcus, the city's director of strategic planning and architect of a response plan developed to cope with the about 80 missile strikes since 2006.

 

"What do we do? Close the beach and tell people there might be a missile attack?" Marcus said.

 

Beginning next year, Israeli officials say, the Iron Dome system should provide some relief. The mobile launchers initially will be placed around towns and facilities near the Gaza Strip, but they ultimately may be deployed in locations nationwide.

 

The system has sparked some controversy. It has not, for example, proved effective against mortar shells and could leave the towns closest to the border areas vulnerable, including chief targets such as Sderot. Critics have pushed for other systems, including a chemical-laser one that Israel was jointly developing with the United States, or the rapid-fire Phalanx guns that can be used to protect key facilities such as power plants.

 

There is also concern that militant groups could try to overwhelm the system by firing large barrages of comparatively cheap, homemade Qassams — perhaps not expecting to do damage so much as forcing Israel to spend tens of thousands of dollars a shot to knock them down.

 

But Israeli officials say systems such as Iron Dome are crucial to the country's military planning — in terms of preventing damage and diminishing the need to retaliate.

 

Although many of the rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah land on empty land, "one of these times one of the Qassams will hit a bus, and then the government will have to make a decision" about how to react, said Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. "There is a bigger issue here than how much it costs. It is going to give us some answers."

 

bc-israel-missile

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GENOCIDE OF SIKHS - LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR THREE

NOVEMBER 1984 GENOCIDE OF SIKHS - LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR THREE

Although delayed, the Sikh community saw a glimpse of justice when a Sessions Court in Delhi sentenced three men to rigorous imprisonment for life under charges of attempt to murder, loot and arson during the November 1984 genocide of Sikhs.   In a punishment commensurate with their gruesome crime, Sessions judge Surinder S Rathi sentenced the three, Brij Mohan Verma, Mangal Sain and Bhagat Singh with the maximum sentence along with a fine of Rs 6.2 lakh each. Failure to pay the fine would invite an additional imprisonment for four years.   The convicts were immediate neighbours of victim Joginder Singh in Shastri Nagar, North Delhi. On November 1, 1984, the three barged into Singh's house, beat up the family and looted the house before putting it on fire. After this alarming incident done by own neighbors, Joginder Singh and his sons Jagmohan and Gurinder migrated to Amritsar. However, they continued their struggle for Justice.   The case was re-investigated by the police on the recommendation of Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission in 1992 following an affidavit filed by Joginder Singh. The court had framed charges under Sections 148, 395, 436, 307 and 149 of the IPC. The prosecution produced nine witnesses, including Joginder's sons, who had identified the accused during the trial.   Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Surinder S Rathi held that the convicts had to be given the maximum punishment for their acts of "mindless violence committed under the garb of emotional outburst." He further described the 1984 Sikh massacre as the "most unfortunate time" for the country after Independence and that "there can be no justification, verbose or otherwise, to validate such mayhem and pogrom." Slamming the state machinery for mishandling the situation and failing to protect the victims' families, ASJ said that history would never forgive police officials who were at the helm of the affairs and the government of the day for their unprecedented slothful and quiescent role. The contrived action and sluggish response of the police and the government led to the failure of saving the priceless lives. The Judge expressed apology to the brothers for the delay in justice and ordered that Rs. 18 lakh out of the penalty amount be given to the brothers as token compensation.   The brothers Jagmohan Singh and Gurinder Singh are today completely satisfied with the judgment, and further felt vindicated to find that although Justice to them was delayed, but wasn't denied. Setting a Justice precedent for others, they wanted their father, who passed away in 1990, to see the guilty being punished.   Expressing satisfaction and welcoming the judgment, attorney Gurpatwant S Pannun, legal advisor Sikhs For Justice, a US based human rights group that is advocating the cases of 84 Sikh Genocide with the help of All India Sikh Students Federation President Karnail Singh Peermohammad, appealed to the victims and witnesses of the massacre to come forward and raise their voice for justice. Mr. Pannun stated that although the judgment is a welcome development and shows that justice can still be hoped for, the victims and the Sikh community would feel that justice has been served only when the organizers of the genocide, the big politicians and powerful people like Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, Kamal Nath, Amitabh Bachan would be punished by court.   Mr. Pannun stated that their organizations are preparing to file petitions before High Courts of all the states where Sikhs were killed in November 1984. The Petitions will request the respective high courts to order judicial inquiry into the killings of Sikhs and order filing of charges against those responsible for the killings. He further stated that if need arises, Sikhs for Justice will knock the door of Supreme Court of India. If justice would not be served in India, then Sikhs for Justice would take the issue of Sikh genocide before United Nations and various international forums.   Mr. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun reiterated that there is still hope for Justice and appealed to the witnesses and victims to come forward and testify against the culprits.

 

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Sajjad Ahmad

 

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Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 

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Sangh Parivar and Partition - The Jinnah debate

Kancha Ilaiah

The BJP and the Sangh Parivar have now been forced to forget the theory of Akhanda Bharat.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was born basically to counter Pakistan where Mohammad Ali Jinnah was considered Qaid-e-Azam or father of the nation, a position Mahatma Gandhi enjoyed in post-Partition India. While Gandhi was assassinated in the backdrop of the RSS's opposition to Partition as he was seen as an abettor of that process, the right-wing organisation took up a massive campaign against Jinnah. The RSS and its front organisation, the Jana Sangh, that was established as its political arm, campaigned against the formation of Pakistan (West and East) and more systematically against Jinnah. In later years, the Jana Sangh was transformed into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has so far had a chequered political life. The changes that the BJP has undergone has not left the RSS, the mother organisation, untouched. Wittingly, or otherwise, Jinnah has become the source of the tumultuous changes within the BJP and the RSS. Historically, the survival of the RSS and the BJP is based on their agenda of Akhanda Bharat, which essentially means reuniting Pakistan and Bangladesh with India and subjugating the Muslim population to the political and cultural suzerainty of Hindu majoritarianism. But the two organisations do not have any agenda to accord equal rights to all castes within the Hindu spiritual realm. In essence, the Brahminical forces have grandiose plans to rule over the larger nation with Hindu Varnadharma as the cornerstone. Quite surprisingly, the BJP failed to learn a lesson during the time that it led the NDA government at the Centre that the notion of Akhanda Bharat is not only unachievable within the framework of the Constitution. The hard reality was further driven home by the fact that the Hindutva forces cannot come to power without harping upon its anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan campaigns. Some of the non-Brahminical forces within the BJP have realised this stark reality and one among them is none other than the stalwart L K Advani. To become a globally acceptable prime ministerial candidate, he said in 2005, following his memorable visit to Pakistan, that Jinnah could not be held responsible for the Partition of the sub-continent. Advani's comments at the time stirred a hornet's nest within the party. He had to step down as BJP chief but it was his stature within the party that safeguarded his position as its prime ministerial candidate. Sudden shift In the midst of all this, Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah has shifted the blame on the sub-continental Partition to Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhai Patel. This has caught the BJP with two problems: Exonerating Jinnah from the sin of being the catalyst for Partition and holding Patel responsible for it. Patel is the only Congressman whom the RSS has treated as its hero in spite of the fact that he banned the organisation once Gandhi was assassinated. Long believed to be the only pro-Hindutva Congress leader, Patel has been positioned to have taken a tough stand against the Muslim question as also against the Muslim princely states within the Indian union. No wonder Patel's proximity to the Sangh's ideology has been used to describe Advani as Abhinava Sardar Patel. Jaswant burst that ideological balloon by making a positive statement about Jinnah and a negative statement about Sardar Patel. Though the party, backed by the RSS, expelled him, the Parivar is caught up in an ideological cobweb. Its theory of Akhanda Bharat stands demolished by its own leaders now. The existence of Pakistan and Bangladesh as independent countries cannot be made an issue within their organisations as both Advani and Jaswant validated their existence by taking a stand on Jinnah's role in Partition. The RSS and Sangh Parivar wanted to work for a long-term strategy by sustaining the campaign of Akhand Bharat. But Advani, as the first home minister of that party and Jaswant Singh as the first external affairs minister, seem to have realised that such a slogan is unsustainable. One must appreciate Jaswant Singh for the simple reason that he thought of writing a book with a position on Partition. Now that he has put fourth a point of view on Jinnah's role, it has become a troublesome issue within the Parivar. We know that earlier Parivarites wrote vituperative tracts against Jinnah and were richly rewarded. For example, when Arun Shourie sought to curry favour with the RSS, he wrote a series of articles against Jinnah. He did succeed in getting close to the organisation and could manage a Cabinet berth. But the credit must go to Jaswant Singh for having tread a path that is anathema to the BJP and RSS. His work will, hopefully, go a long way in playing a damage control role in relation to Pakistan and Bangladesh. For this, his bold effort is laudable. By all accounts, the theory of Akhanda Bharat ought to be jettisoned by the BJP and the other constituents of the Sangh Parivar.

 

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When you start, you never stop. If you stop, you will never be able to start again.

 

Sajjad Ahmad

 

Freelance Writer & Researcher
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 

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Dalits demand distinct representation in legislation

By Jan Khaskheli
 
Karachi

 

Scheduled Castes Federation of Pakistan (SCFP), an organisation representing all Dalits in the country, has demanded their actual numbers are reflected and represented in political and legislative arrangements.

 

In a letter written to the Constitutional Reforms Committee of Senate, which is led by Senator Raza Rabbani, SCFP Chairman Surrender Valasai and General Secretary Engineer Gianchandani urged the government to conduct a census of Dalits which was separate from upper caste Hindus so that the precise number of Dalits in the national population can be ascertained. The letter further read that the scheduled castes form 80 per cent of the population registered as "Hindu & Scheduled Castes" in Pakistan, but despite their overwhelming majority, their political and other rights are grabbed by a tiny minority of upper caste Hindus.

 

"We cannot allow our rights to be snatched by the wealthy class of upper caste Hindus. For this, adequate legislation in the form of an article may be incorporated," the letter emphasised.

 

Dalits have faced untouchable status and caste discrimination for thousands of years in this part of the world. The Law of Manu or Manu Samriti, which governed most parts of the South Asia before partition, continues to be implemented in Pakistan in different forms and manifestations, the letter claimed.

 

The letter, a copy of which was received by The News, read that these 'so-called' laws that are invoked in Pakistan, especially in Tharparker desert region, are a complete violation of vision of Founder of the Nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

 

The letter added that on November 12, 1957, the Ministry of Law had issued a presidential ordinance to declare certain non-Muslim castes as "scheduled castes", and 40 castes were added to this schedule.

 

The Ordinance was called the Scheduled Castes (Declaration) Ordinance, 1957. The SCFP said that while the idea of the Ordinance and phrase 'purpose of Constitution' were understandable, a six-percent job quota was subsequently reserved for Dalits in government departments. This allocation, however, was less than one per cent, if viewed as a national level percentage.

 

However, the sordid fact remains that this quota was never implemented in letter and spirit till its life ended in 1998 in regrettable circumstances. This quota needs to be restored and introduced in provinces too as per vision of Quaid-e-Azam, the letter demanded.

 

The letter further read that due to lack of constitutional protection, Dalits' representation in legislature, judiciary and government services and education has been dismal since the independence.

 

The letter requested to the committee to consider their demands for inclusion in the proposed Constitutional Package by the Reforms Committee, so that justice can be delivered to the country's more than four million Dalits.

 

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When you start, you never stop. If you stop, you will never be able to start again.

 

Sajjad Ahmad

 

Freelance Writer & Researcher
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 

Emails:
sajjad_pak@hotmail.com
sajjadahmad@markthetruth.com

 

WebSite:
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Blogs:
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http://pakistanisnotsleeping.blogspot.com
http://picnicplaces.blogspot.com
http://worldofscienceandtechnology.blogspot.com]

 

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