Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Pushghar, Afghanistan

I confess, I find it hard to come to Afghanistan and not ask: Why are we here? Who cares about the Taliban? Al Qaeda is gone. And if its leaders come back, well, that's why God created cruise missiles.

But every time I start writing that column, something stills my hand. This week it was something very powerful. I watched Greg Mortenson, the famed author of "Three Cups of Tea," open one of his schools for girls in this remote Afghan village in the Hindu Kush mountains. I must say, after witnessing the delight in the faces of those little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk waiting to learn, I found it very hard to write, "Let's just get out of here."

Indeed, Mortenson's efforts remind us what the essence of the "war on terrorism" is about. It's about the war of ideas within Islam - a war between religious zealots who glorify martyrdom and want to keep Islam untouched by modernity and isolated from other faiths, with its women disempowered, and those who want to embrace modernity, open Islam to new ideas and empower Muslim women as much as men. America's invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were, in part, an effort to create the space for the Muslim progressives to fight and win so that the real engine of change, something that takes nine months and 21 years to produce - a new generation - can be educated and raised differently.

Which is why it was no accident that Adm. Mike Mullen, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - spent half a day in order to reach Mortenson's newest school and cut the ribbon. Getting there was fun. Our Chinook helicopter threaded its way between mountain peaks, from Kabul up through the Panjshir Valley, before landing in a cloud of dust at the village of Pushghar. Imagine if someone put a new, one-story school on the moon, and you'll appreciate the rocky desolateness of this landscape.

But there, out front, was Mortenson, dressed in traditional Afghan garb. He was surrounded by bearded village elders and scores of young Afghan boys and girls, who were agog at the helicopter, and not quite believing that America's "warrior chief" - as Admiral Mullen's title was loosely translated into Urdu - was coming to open the new school.

While the admiral passed out notebooks, Mortenson told me why he has devoted his life to building 131 secular schools for girls in Pakistan and another 48 in Afghanistan: "The money is money well spent. These are secular schools that will bring a new generation of kids that will have a broader view of the world. We focus on areas where there is no education. Religious extremism flourishes in areas of isolation and conflict.

"When a girl gets educated here and then becomes a mother, she will be much less likely to let her son become a militant or insurgent," he added. "And she will have fewer children. When a girl learns how to read and write, one of the first things she does is teach her own mother. The girls will bring home meat and veggies, wrapped in newspapers, and the mother will ask the girl to read the newspaper to her and the mothers will learn about politics and about women who are exploited."

It is no accident, Mortenson noted, that since 2007, the Taliban and its allies have bombed, burned or shut down more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and 350 schools in Pakistan, of which about 80 percent are schools for girls. This valley, controlled by Tajik fighters, is secure, but down south in Helmand Province, where the worst fighting is today, the deputy minister of education said that Taliban extremists have shut 75 of the 228 schools in the last year. This is the real war of ideas. The Taliban want public mosques, not public schools. The Muslim militants recruit among the illiterate and impoverished in society, so the more of them the better, said Mortenson.

This new school teaches grades one through six. I asked some girls through an interpreter what they wanted to be when they grow up: "Teacher," shouted one. "Doctor," shouted another. Living here, those are the only two educated role models these girls encounter. Where were they going to school before Mortenson's Central Asia Institute and the U.S. State Department joined with the village elders to get this secular public school built? "The mosque," the girls said.

Mortenson said he was originally critical of the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he's changed his views: "The U.S. military has gone through a huge learning curve. They really get it. It's all about building relationships from the ground up, listening more and serving the people of Afghanistan."

So there you have it. In grand strategic terms, I still don't know if this Afghan war makes sense anymore. I was dubious before I arrived, and I still am. But when you see two little Afghan girls crouched on the front steps of their new school, clutching tightly with both arms the notebooks handed to them by a U.S. admiral - as if they were their first dolls - it's hard to say: "Let's just walk away." Not yet.

No Indo-Pak talks without Kashmir: Omar Abdullah

* IHK chief minister says Kashmir is 'most outstanding issue'
* Seeks constructive engagement with Hurriyat leaders

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: There cannot be any discussion between India and Pakistan without Kashmir, Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said.

Talking to Daily Times on Thursday, Abdullah said the joint statement issued by the prime ministers of India and Pakistan had a clear reference to 'outstanding issues'. "If Kashmir has not been mentioned in the joint statement, it does not mean it has vanished," he added.

Outstanding issue: Abdullah also distanced himself from fellow National Conference MP Sharifuddin Shariq, who recently criticised Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, asking why India was discussing Kashmir with Pakistan when it was an integral part of India. He said the National Conference believed in sustained dialogue at all levels and Kashmir stood as the most outstanding issue.

Two-way: The IHK CM said the government wanted the Hurriyat Conference to be active and productive. He stressed the need to have a constructive engagement with the Hurriyat leader, saying he was willing to clap if they too contributed a hand.

Abdullah said there was a need to make some structural changes in the security setup to make a transition from confronting counter-insurgency to dealing with law and order.

As a chairman of the Unified Headquarters, which includes representatives of the Indian Army as well as security and intelligence agencies, Omar said he had asked them to adjust the deployment pattern of security force according to the changing circumstances. He said there was a need to provide greater role to Jammu and Kashmir Police in operational duties. "We have already decided to relieve 7,500 state police personnel from guard and VVIP duties to be inducted in operations," he added.

What audacious arrogance!

Shireen M Mazari

Some of us had said it all along: Obama would be little better than Bush for Pakistan - regardless of how he may be for the rest of the world. And so far we have seen nothing to prove us wrong! It is not just the recycled politicians he has surrounded himself with, it is also the old-wine-in-new-bottles' policies he is dishing out. The sheer arrogance of the US political mindset seems to cross all party lines. Therefore it should not have been surprising to find Obama try and suddenly seek the moral high ground over the issue of the Taliban releasing the video of their American military prisoner.

Obama thundered away that releasing the video was against all norms of international law and that it revealed the barbarity of the Taliban. What a farce! So the US has rediscovered international law again, but what about the prisoners displayed in shackles at Guantanamo Bay? Was that not against all international law and even minimal civilised behaviour? What about renditions and the prisoners suffocated to death in airless containers? What about the Bagram base prisoners? In fact what about Abu Ghraib and the growing privatisation of security by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan which allowed the firm Blackwater to give vent to all its seemingly pent-up psychotic anger against Muslims since 9/11? Were, and are, these activities on the part of the US state not against all international law? And then there are the US drone attacks on Pakistani territory which is as clear a violation of the principle of state sovereignty as ever there was - unless the US has declared war against this hapless country? Or is Obama remembering international law selectively?

Yes, certainly parading prisoners of military conflict is against the laws of war but the US has set new standards of abuse of these laws in all the instances mentioned above so why should it expect the Taliban to observe the moral high ground in the Afghan conflict where many Pushtuns see the US as an occupying force regardless of what some foreign-based Pushtun origin analysts may state! As a child I remember the memorable words in the book, "The Water Babies": do as you would be done by. Perhaps it should be compulsory reading for all Americans aspiring to become politicians.

While on the issue of international law that Obama seems to have suddenly discovered, let us not forget the recent revelations about the US assassination squad created under the previous Vice President Dick Cheney, which were not under the CIA has had been the case when such squads had existed earlier. Instead, Cheney had placed the squad under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Department of Defence -which is why it was being compared to the Vietnam War's Phoenix Programme in which Vietcong leaders were identified and then assassinated. Now Obama has appointed General McChrystal from the JSOC to Afghanistan so he is almost going overt with these assassination squad operations. Some of us have been writing for some time about small odd groups of Americans attempting to look like locals in terms of dress and beards roaming around the Tarbela area and Balochistan so one really will need to examine very carefully cases of targeted killings in Pakistan. But for more on the assassination squad and its linkages to the US military one can read up the Wayne Madsen Reports. Suffice it to say, that this is simply one more instance of the US simply bypassing all norms of international law.

Clearly the Americans are suffering from an overdose of arrogance, especially when it comes to Pakistan and Afghanistan and no one exemplifies it better than Holbrooke who shows no interest in learning anything about Pakistan or its people, but comes over far too frequently to push our compliant leaders into doing US bidding or simply to show the imperial colours. While Hillary Clinton happily agrees to sell all manner of hi-tech offensive weapons systems to India as well as agreeing to two nuclear power plants' sites to built by US firms, we are being short changed again by the US even as our soldiers are being compelled into the quagmire of FATA to match the US/NATO mess up in Afghanistan.

However, we have no one but our leaders to blame for their continuing subservience to the US. It seems the only thing they ever seem to learn is the arrogance displayed by Washington, so that even as they bow before Yankee diktat, they treat their own nation with an arrogant disdain. This seems to have little to do with whether we are being ruled by a dictator or a democrat - especially in the post-9/11 environment. Musharraf's blustering was attributed to his "commando" fixation, but what about our present set of democratically-elected rulers? We have a president who sees the country as his personal fiefdom exemplified by his constant use of the word "I" and "My" - especially when going around with the begging bowl. Worse still, the presidency and the capital have become more like party headquarters with no one paying much attention to norms and rules of conduct.

Perhaps the most absurd is the unanimously elected prime minister who is inflicting burden upon economic burden on the people he is representing - simply in order to please foreign entities like the IMF. Is this why we are desperately seeking loans from this notorious body - to break our own nation's back? The most recent incident is that of the immoral inflated GST on POL products where the dealers, the oil companies and the government make money - but the ordinary Pakistani is crippled. The prime minister declares, "I want to make history" in a most arrogant fashion; but does he realise he is making history already?

Never have we seen such huge increases in indirect taxation; never before have we seen such huge raises in the money for legislators; never before have we seen such brazen side-stepping of rules and institutional norms and procedures - especially in terms of appointments. The most glaring are in the diplomatic field, but tales of similar diktat in other fields' also abound.

Our leaders are also continuing to make history in kowtowing before the US that began after 9/11, so that we now have US personnel supervising all our policies on the pretext that they need to see how their aid money is being spent! This is apart from the covert operations US personnel are involved in within Pakistani territory - all being supervised by the dubious General McChrystal in Afghanistan. Are the deaths of our soldiers in FATA and the mayhem brought to this country post-9/11 not a sufficiently visible quid pro quo for the Yankee paymasters? As if all that was not enough, the US insists on "training" our military in the art of counterinsurgency - a field in which their own record is hardly commendable - whether one looks at Iraq, Afghanistan or Vietnam! Incidentally, the arrogance of McChrystal seems to know no bounds as he goes about his "win them over or kill them" approach! Perhaps he ought to revisit the recent history of what happened to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan!

As I write this, I sit with my children in Istanbul looking at the wonderful Bosphorus gleaming a seductive blue, witnessing my daughter Imaan turn sixteen. Here in Turkey with its intense history of empires rising and crumbling, the ephemeral nature of power in the universal construct is almost palpable in the environment, but how many remember this when actually in power? Perhaps if the successive rulers of the powerful and the weak realised this, we would witness a little less of the dangerous temerity and arrogance that presently has the power wielders in its grip!

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Telecom firms lack capability to monitor SMS

Telecom firms lack capability to monitor SMS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's cellular companies are short of the capability or mechanism to "either filter or monitor" all the SMS and email traffic, as the number of messages crosses millions on a daily basis.

Resultantly, the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) would launch an investigation into the matter only if it receives a complaint by any citizen, as each and every SMS or email cannot be monitored.

"No sir, we don't have the required mechanism in place, both hardware and software, that can monitor and then filter out SMS traffic," an official of a leading cellular company informed APP on Wednesday.

However, the official said that the company could track all voice and data traffic of GSM network, but that would require extra features to be added in the systems, which are not in place at this point in time. "This would require millions of dollars to be pumped into the system," he remarked.

When contacted, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) official was also empathetic to the cellular company official's version regarding monitoring of emails.

"The websites that contain inappropriate content can be taken down by requesting the respective host. However, tracking millions of emails is not an easy job and needs technical assistance as well as human resource," added the official.

Source: The News

Saudi counter-terrorism effort masks abuse: Amnesty

RIYADH (Reuters) - Major U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is exploiting counter-terrorism efforts to violate human rights with thousands having been detained on security grounds since 2001, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

In a 65-page report, the human rights organization said an unknown number of detained people have been held in secret without access to lawyers or visitors for months or years while those brought to trial often face grossly unfair procedures.

"The scale of human rights violations is shocking. Thousands of people have had their lives turned upside down or destroyed by violations of their rights in the name of countering terrorism," Amnesty said in the detailed report.

An unknown number of human rights defenders, advocates of political reform and members of religious minorities who had committed no crime recognized in international law had been caught in a "security-related repression," it said.

A spokesman for the interior ministry in Riyadh had no immediate comment on the report which highlighted several cases of people whom Amnesty said had been detained under questionable circumstances.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament whose courts are run by clerics applying an austere version of mainstream Sunni Islam.

The report comes after Saudi Arabia earlier this month handed out verdicts in the first publicly reported trials since al Qaeda-linked militants began a campaign in 2003 to destabilize the world's top oil exporter.

In total 289 Saudis and 41 foreigners got verdicts ranging up to 30 years in prison, state media said last week, without disclosing the nationalities. One unnamed person was also sentenced to death, a government official has told Reuters.

A group called Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula began a campaign to destabilize the government in 2003 but violence was ended by security forces in cooperation with foreign experts. The last major attack was in 2006.

Local human right activists have long accused Saudi Arabia of using counter-terrorism efforts to detain opposition activists demanding democratic reforms or refusing to provide figures of detained and arrested people.

Saudi Arabia's main ally United States and other Western countries rarely criticize the Gulf Arab state, which controls more than a fifth of global crude reserves and is a major holder of dollar assets as well as a key trading partner.

King Abdullah has tried some reforms since taking office in 2005 and removed two hardline clerics from top positions in a cabinet reshuffle in February aimed at curbing the influence of the religious establishment in education and judiciary.

But diplomats and analysts say his room for maneuver is limited given resistance of conservatives in the ruling family. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Israel to evacuate all outposts in a day

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel plans to remove in a single day all 23 unauthorized settler outposts slated for evacuation in the occupied West Bank, a move that would meet a long-standing pledge to Washington, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

A Jewish settler arranges belongings after the Israeli police demolished makeshift structures in the unauthorised West Bank settlement outpost of Nofei Yarden July 20, 2009. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The report in Haaretz gave no date for removing the outposts, where some of the most militant settlers in the West Bank live, but said the military held an exercise last week to prepare for their evacuation.

Haaretz, a left-leaning newspaper, said the military was preparing to "forcibly evacuate 23 illegal outposts in one day. The plan was formulated by the security establishment, with the knowledge of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."

Spokesmen for Netanyahu and the Israeli army declined to comment on the report. It was written by the same Haaretz columnist to whom former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon disclosed plans to withdraw settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip, a pullout that took place in 2005.

"The report sounds totally delusional," said settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein. But he told Army Radio that settlers could be "partners to painful agreements, although not as a result of American pressure."

Israel has come under increasing diplomatic pressure from its main U.S. ally to halt all settlement building in the West Bank to spur peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said made a resumption of peace talks, suspended for the past six months, conditional on a halt to settlement activity in line with a 2003 peace "road map" that also calls on Palestinians to rein in militants.

"When Israel meets these demands we can return to negotiations," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.

RIFT

Netanyahu has rejected a total freeze, in the most serious rift between Israel and the United States in a decade.

Briefing foreign reporters, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor urged the Palestinians to return to negotiations, noting they had held peace talks with the previous government led by Ehud Olmert while settlement building continued.

"In the coming weeks, I think that we will see, I certainly hope so, the resumption of negotiations," Meridor said.

The Defense Ministry says it will not reveal the locations of all the settler outposts to maintain an element of surprise.

But they include those built after March 2001, a group that Israel committed to remove during the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The evacuation is expected to be met with resistance from the settlers. Wallerstein said some 8,000 people live at the outposts.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah; Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Pak, France Joint Task Force on Terror

Associated Press of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, July 20 (APP): Pakistan and France have reached an understanding under which a joint Task Force will be set up for sharing information regarding terrorists across the world. This understanding reached at a meeting between Interior Minister of Pakistan Rehman Malik and his French counterpart Brice Hortefeux at Paris, said a fax message received here Monday.

While lauding Pakistan efforts for the eradication of menace of terrorism, the French Minister said that the French government would provide technical assistance to counter terrorism, police training, exchange of information and coordination.

He also lauded firm commitment of President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Army and the people against rooting out of terrorism.

Speaking on the occasion Rehman Malik apprised his counterpart about the steps taken by the Pakistani government for countering terrorism and sacrifices rendered by Pakistan Army on the war on terrorism.

He also appreciated the French government support for Internally displaced persons (IDPs) and cooperation in civilian nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

He also extended an invitation to visit Pakistan, which he accepted.

Solana supports talks with cooperative Taliban

* EU envoy calls for more comprehensive plan to eliminate threat of terrorism, militancy

* Says Swat operation will yield positive results in Pakistan, Afghanistan

* EU working hard to provide greater market access to Pakistani products

* Supports resumption of high-level engagement between India and Pakistan

By Zulfiqar Ghuman and Sajjad Malik

ISLAMABAD: Peaceful elements within the Taliban should be given a chance to cooperate with the government, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana said on Monday.

"I think anybody willing to cooperate should be given a chance. Dialogue is needed (to end the conflict) and for the talks to succeed, local leadership should be contacted," he told Daily Times in an exclusive interview. He said the ongoing battle against the Taliban could not be won by military might alone, adding it was vital to formulate a "more comprehensive plan" to eliminate terrorism and militancy from the region.

Helping out: Appreciating the Swat operation, Solana said it had been successful as all stakeholders in Pakistan were united against the Taliban. "I think it was a great operation and it was successful because all the actors were on the same wavelength. It proves that it is very important that your country gets together on key issues," he said. He rejected the impression the Swat operation would not help the NATO and US forces in Afghanistan. "The success in Swat will help the campaign against terrorism on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border," he said.

More access: The high representative said Pakistan's actions against the Taliban would help the coalition forces in Afghanistan control the situation in the neighbouring country. He said the EU was trying to deepen its relations with Pakistan, adding talks were underway to grant Islamabad a generalised system of preferential status. He said the EU and Pakistan were also attempting to finalise a free trade area agreement. The EU wants to work more closely on institution building in Pakistan, he added. "We are working very hard with your trade minister to work out a reformed free trade agreement to give more access to Pakistani products in the EU markets," he said.

Good move: Solana supported the resumption of high-level engagement between India and Pakistan but refused to comment on the Indo-Pak conflict unless the EU was asked to intervene by the two sides. He said both sides should solve the Kashmir issue amicably. "I'm very pleased to see Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh meeting Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. This is a very important and encouraging development. No third party can resolve the issues of parties concerned better than the parties themselves," he said.

The high representative said the international community was doing a lot for Pakistan, adding the Friends of Democratic Pakistan were especially striving to meet the country's needs. However, he added, it might not be possible for them to meet each and every need, as they were themselves passing through a difficult phase due to the economic recession. "I hope once they come out of the current financial crisis, they will provide more help in future," he added.

Concerning the security of Pakistan's atomic weapons, Solana said he was not an expert on the issue. However, he said various US and EU defence officials had informed him that they were safe.

Malik slams US drone strikes

PARIS (AFP) - Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday attacked the United States' ongoing bombing campaign against suspected militant leaders in tribal areas of Pakistan. Pakistan, fighting its own campaign against the militants, has long criticised the strikes, which have been stepped up since President Barack Obama was elected and which have reportedly killed around 700 civilians.

"Well, if you talk of drones, our whole nation has condemned them. Our four regional assemblies, our NA, our Senate all passed unanimous resolutions saying no to drones," Malik told France 24 television.

"We said to the US: 'You are a great champion of democracy, and here is a small democratic country with all voices saying stop the drones. I think the US must listen and must stop the drones," he said.

"If they give us real time information we're quite capable of handling Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. If we are given the information I assure you that we have the capability to take the necessary action against him."

In May, Obama's new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, described the bombing as "very effective". "it's the only game in town in terms of confronting and trying to disrupt the Al-Qaeda leadership." Nevertheless, while the drone war has ramped up, with reportedly 48 such strikes since August 2008, the threat posed by Al-Qaeda and other extremists continues unabated, analysts say.

Baloch insurgents involved in target killings going underground: FC IG

* Major General Saleem Nawaz claims there are no missing persons in Balochistan

* Says insurgency in province does not pose serious threat to Pakistan

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA: Baloch insurgents involved in target killings have started to leave Quetta and go underground following the "successful deployment" of the Frontier Corps (FC) in the provincial capital, Balochistan FC chief Major General Saleem Nawaz has said.

He told Daily Times in an exclusive interview that the trouble in Balochistan was caused by two individuals -- Bramdagh Bugti, chief of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) and Nawabzada Hairbayar Marri, one of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Baksh Marri's sons. He claimed they were sowing trouble on the directives of "foreign elements". However, he added, the FC has made "remarkable headway" in dismantling the forces involved in target killings in Quetta. "Bramdagh is rapidly losing support among his own tribesmen following the appointment of a new Bugti tribal chief," he said.

No one missing: The FC inspector general claimed there were no "missing persons" in Balochistan. "As a matter of fact, all the so-called missing persons were kidnapped by Bramdagh Bugti, who is holding them hostage in Afghanistan and forcing their families to work for him [Bramdagh]," he said, adding United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Balochistan chief John Solecki had also been kidnapped by Bramdagh. "The doors of amnesty and reconciliation are still open. If Bramdagh wants to come back as a Pakistani, I am sure the government would accommodate him in its reconciliatory process," he said.

No threat: Nawaz said the insurgency in Balochistan did not pose a serious threat to Pakistan, as it was a "handful of people" whose sense of deprivation had been exploited by foreign elements. "No one can disintegrate Pakistan merely by burning the national flag, attacking schools or targeting national installations. The majority of the Baloch tribes are already represented in the Balochistan Assembly. So there is no threat to Pakistan at all," he added.

He lamented that countries supporting the international war against terrorism were not cooperating with Pakistan in extraditing Baloch leaders Bramdagh Bugti and Hairbayar Marri. "We expect these countries to support us in fighting terrorism by asking these terrorists to leave their countries," he said.

The IG said the Taliban did not threaten Balochistan, rejecting the impression that the Pushtoon areas of Balochistan were hiding Taliban activists. "The Taliban have no support among the Pushtoons, because the latter have already voted overwhelmingly for the nationalist and secular parties. They do not enjoy any kind of political, social and religious support in the province. If they were backed by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam then why would they attack the head of JUI-Fazl (Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani)?" he asked.

The FC, he added, was aware of its responsibilities to monitor the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and ensure no one entered Pakistan illegally. He said the corps needed more technological support from the government and the international community to fight the threats facing them. Nawaz also ruled out the possibility of any upcoming operations in the province, either against the Baloch or the Taliban. "Those who are airing the propaganda of an operation are in fact trying to divert public attention. They do not want us to pre-empt their terrorist designs. We will thwart all their intentions if the miscreants challenge the writ of the government," he added.

Pakistan has great potential for development: Italian envoy

ISLAMABAD: Italian Ambassador Vicenzo Prati said that European countries should pay more attention to Pakistan, as it has great potential to develop.

"Pakistan has great potential to be a big entity in coming years and the EU countries should consider it for economic partnership for the future," Prati told journalists at his residence on Tuesday.

The ambassador explained at length last month's G8 summit and G8 foreign ministers' meeting with foreign ministers of Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries in the region. He said Pakistan had a great opportunity to convey its viewpoint to the G8 members.

Prati supported Pakistan's fight against terrorism and said, "We respect Pakistan's decision to fight the militants". However, he said only fighting against the Taliban was not enough to end terrorism, and people should be provided better opportunities and living conditions. He said Italy had pledged an assistance of $62 million at the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) conference in Tokyo and it was working with Pakistan to provide the funds. He said $40 million would be used for micro-credit schemes, $20 million for vocational training and $2 million for olive cultivation in Pakistan.

The envoy said the G8 summit was a great success as US President Barack Obama supported the initiative to protect the environment. He said the summit also announced $20 billion in aid for African countries. He said G8 – an exclusive club of rich nations – was opened for developing nations for the first time. The ambassador said Italy had provided a forum for Pakistan during the summit to get it in the spotlight.

Threatening Iran

By Paul Craig Roberts | Counterpunch

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Japan did not spend years preparing her public case and demonstrating her deployment of forces for the attack. Japan did not make a world issue out of her view that the US was denying Japan her role in the Pacific by hindering Japan's access to raw materials and energy.

Similarly, when Hitler attacked Russia, he did not preface his invasion with endless threats and a public case that blamed the war on England.

These events happened before the PSYOPS era. Today, America and Israel's wars of aggression are preceded by years of propaganda and international meetings, so that by the time the attack comes it is an expected event, not a monstrous surprise attack with its connotation of naked aggression.

The US, which has been threatening Iran with attack for years, has passed the job to Israel. During the third week of July, the American vice president and secretary of state gave Israel the go-ahead. Israel has made great public disclosure of its warships passing through the Suez Canal on their way to Iran. "Muslim" Egypt is complicit, offering no objection to Israel's naval forces on their way to a war crime under the Nuremberg standard that the US imposed on the world.

By the time the attack occurs, it will be old hat, an expected event, and, moreover, an event justified by years of propaganda asserting Iran's perfidy.

Israel intends to dominate the Middle East. Israel's goal is to incorporate all of Palestine and southern Lebanon into "Greater Israel." The US intends to dominate the entire world, deciding who rules which countries and controlling resource flows.

The US and Israel are likely to succeed, because they have effective PSYOPS. For the most part, the world media follows the US media, which follows the US and Israeli governments' lines. Indeed, the American media is part of the PSYOPS of both countries.

According to Thierry Meyssan in the Swiss newspaper Zeit-Fragen, the CIA used SMS or text messaging and Twitter to spread disinformation about the Iranian election, including the false report that the Guardian Council had informed Mousavi that he had won the election. When the real results were announced, Ahmadinejad's reelection appeared to be fraudulent.

Iran's fate awaits it. A reasonable hypothesis to be entertained and examined is whether Iran's Rafsanjani and Mousavi are in league with Washington to gain power in Iran. Both have lost out in the competition for government power in Iran. Yet, both are egotistical and ambitious. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 probably means nothing to them except an opportunity for personal power. The way the West has always controlled the Middle East is by purchasing the politicians who are out of power and backing them in overthrowing the independent government. We see this today in Sudan as well.

In the case of Iran, there is an additional factor that might align Rafsanjani with Washington. President Ahmadienijad attacked former President Rafsanjani, one of Iran's most wealthy persons, as corrupt. If Rafsanjani feels threatened by this attack, he has little choice but to try to overthrow the existing government. This makes him the perfect person for Washington.

Perhaps there is a better explanation why Rafsanjani and Mousavi, two highly placed members of the Iranian elite, chose to persist in allegations of election fraud that have played into Washington's hands by calling into question the legitimacy of the Iranian government. It cannot be that the office of president is worth such costs as the Iranian presidency is not endowed with decisive powers.

Without Rafsanjani and Mousavi, the US media could not have orchestrated the Iranian elections as "stolen," an orchestration that the US government used to further isolate and discredit the Iranian government, making it easier for Iran to be attacked. Normally, well placed members of an elite do not help foreign enemies set their country up for attack.

An Israeli attack on Iran is likely to produce retaliation, which Washington will use to enter the conflict. Have the personal ambitions of Rafsanjani and Mousavi, and the naive youthful upper class Iranian protesters, set Iran up for destruction?

Consult a map and you will see that Iran is surrounded by a dozen countries that host US military bases. Why does anyone in Iran doubt that Iran is on her way to becoming another Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, in the end to be ruled by oil companies and an American puppet?

The Russians and Chinese are off balance because of successful American interventions in their spheres of influence, uncertain of the threat and the response. Russia could have prevented the coming attack on Iran, but, pressured by Washington, Russia has not delivered the missile systems that Iran purchased. China suffers from her own hubris as a rising economic power, and is about to lose her energy investments in Iran to US/Israeli aggression. China is funding America's wars of aggression with loans, and Russia is even helping the US to set up a puppet state in Afghanistan, thus opening up former Soviet central Asia to US hegemony.

The world is so impotent that even the bankrupt US can launch a new war of aggression and have it accepted as a glorious act of liberation in behalf of women's rights, peace, and democracy.

China dismisses US spy charges as fabrication

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing said Monday that a Chinese-born former Boeing engineer convicted by a US court of spying for China had been set up, and insisted it had no links to the espionage case.
 
FP/File - An engineer inspects the engine of a Boeing aircraft in Tokyo. Beijing has said that a Chinese-born former

"The allegation that a so-called Chinese person stole trade secrets in the United States and gave them to China is purely a fabrication made up out of ulterior motives," the foreign ministry said in a short statement.

The ministry refused further comment on the case.

The former Boeing engineer, Dongfan 'Greg' Chung, was convicted by a US court last week of stealing technology and trade secrets for China for decades, including data on NASA's space shuttle programme.

Chung, 73, a resident of Orange County, California and a naturalised US citizen, was found guilty of economic espionage and acquiring information using his "secret" classified clearance.

The former employee of Rockwell International's space and defence unit, which was taken over by Boeing in 1996, was convicted of multiple counts related to his decades-long espionage.

Chung, who was arrested in February 2008, remains in custody pending sentencing on November 9.

After riots, China to promote anti-separatist laws

BEIJING (AP) -- The top legislator from China's riot-hit Xinjiang said authorities will speed up local legislation against separatism in the western region that has a long-running independence movement by minority Uighurs, state media reported Monday.

China faced its worst unrest in decades this month when tensions between the dominant Han Chinese and the Turkic-speaking, Muslim Uighurs descended into violence in the regional capital of Urumqi. Nearly 200 people died in the unrest.

The chairman of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Regional People's Congress blamed the July 5 riots on "three forces" - extremism, separatism, and terrorism - both at home and abroad, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Eligen Imibakhi said the public's lack of understanding about laws is an "urgent problem," adding that the government plans to distribute legal booklets in ethnic minority languages to farmers and herdsmen across the region.

China already has a national law against secession, though there are no similar regional laws. Xinjiang is working on legislation that would "provide legal assistance to Xinjiang's anti-secession struggle and the cracking down on violence and terrorism," Imibakhi said.

The violence began when police in Urumqi intervened at a peaceful protest by Uighurs, who went on a rampage, smashing windows, burning cars and beating Han Chinese. Two days later, vigilante groups of Han took to the streets and attacked Uighurs.

The government says 197 died in the unrest, with more than 1,700 hurt. Most of the dead were Han Chinese, though Uighurs say they believe many more of their community were killed in the ensuing government crackdown.

Over the weekend, the government said rioters had stockpiled weapons and planned synchronized attacks across Urumqi. The report did not name individual sources nor offer concrete evidence.

Local police said they had received reports of attacks on people and property in more than 50 locations across Urumqi by 9 p.m. on July 5, Xinhua said. Targets included the offices of the Xinjiang regional committee of the Communist Party, the public security and fire departments and media organizations.

Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri said police shot the "mobsters" on July 5 after firing warning shots, and said 12 people died. He did not say which ethnic group the "mobsters" belonged to.

"The police showed as much restraint as possible during the unrest," Bekri was quoted as saying, adding that one officer was killed.

Police said alleged ringleaders included women wearing long, black Islamic robes and head scarves who were issuing "commands," according to footage from security cameras, the China Daily newspaper reported Monday.

"Such dressing ... is very rare in Urumqi but these kinds of women were seen many times at different locations on surveillance cameras on that day," the report quoted unnamed police sources as saying.

Xinhua cited the local security department as saying the rioters were mostly from outside Urumqi (pronounced uh-ROOM-chee).

The Uighurs, who number 9 million in Xinjiang, have complained about an influx of Han Chinese and restrictions on their religion, language and culture. Han Chinese say the Uighurs should be grateful for Xinjiang's rapid economic development.

Government officials have been seeking to ease tensions and look for ways to encourage ethnic unity.

On Sunday, Urumqi hosted a multiethnic beauty pageant with contestants from ethnic groups including Han, Uighur, Kazak and Hui, Xinhua reported. Six Uighur models were among the 45 contestants who vied for the title of 2009 Miss Tourism International in Xinjiang.

"We miss the people who died (in the riot), but we also should cast off the shadow as early as possible," Zhang Tiantian, hostess for the contest, was quoted as saying.

US review calls for overhaul of Bagram prison

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US military review has called for overhauling the troubled US-run Bagram prison in Afghanistan because US officials are concerned that abuses and militant recruiting within local prisons are helping strengthen the Taliban, The New York Times reported.

AFP/File - File photo shows two US soldiers stopping a truck near the heavily fortified prison at the main American …

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said that Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has sent a confidential message to all of the military service chiefs asking them to redouble their efforts to alert troops to the importance of treating detainees properly.

The Bagram prison at an air base north of Kabul has become a holding site for terrorism suspects captured outside Afghanistan and Iraq.

Marine Major General Douglas Stone, credited with revamping US detention practices in Iraq, was assigned to review all detention issues in Afghanistan, according to the report.

General Stone?s report, which has not been made public but is circulating among senior US officers, recommends separating extremist militants from more moderate detainees instead of having them mixed together as they are now, the paper said.

The United States is also to help build and finance a new Afghan-run prison for the hard-core extremists who are now held in the poorly run Afghan corrections system and use it to covert common criminals into militants, The Times said.

The remaining inmates would be taught vocational skills and offered other classes, according to the report.

They also would be taught about moderate Islam with the aim of reintegrating them into society, the paper said.

The review also presses for training new Afghan prison guards, prosecutors and judges.

Singh-Gilani talks get mixed reception in India

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The outcome of the India-Pakistan talks in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh has been received in India with mixed response. Experts believe the joint statement issued after the summit-level talks between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh was ambiguous and left to the interpretation of both the governments to address their respective audiences.

While the officials and the ruling Congress party were gloating that Singh had succeeded in keeping the Kashmir issue out of talks and narrowed focus on terrorism, a section of experts and the opposition maintained that de-linking terrorism from the talks was disappointing. Security expert Manoj Joshi believed Pakistan had succeeded in getting what it wanted from the talks, saying it almost seemed as if the joint declaration between the two countries was made "just for the sake of it". There is no credibility in (Pakistani Prime Minister) Gilani's commitments to India, he added. Former diplomat G Parthasarthy, however, reacted cautiously, but said the PM would lose face in case of another terrorist attack. Officials in India were, however, rejoicing that for the first time since the composite dialogue process' format was agreed upon between the two sides in June 1997, Kashmir would not be a major factor.

After the Simla agreement in 1973, Kashmir had almost disappeared from the India-Pakistan discourse. But it made a comeback in the early 90s after India agreed to discuss Kashmir, interpreting it as discussing issues related to militancy and cross-border terrorism. After the exit of the Narasimha Rao government, the next Indian prime minister IK Gujaral and then Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, agreed to form a separate working group on Kashmir in 1997 on the sidelines of a SAARC summit. The arrangement continued until Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Islamabad in 2004 and agreed to find a solution to the Kashmir issue. While Pakistan considered it a huge success - finding a lasting solution to Kashmir had reappeared in the dialogue process - India took solace in Pakistan's commitment not to allow its territory to be used against India. At the last interaction of leaders on April 18, 2005 in New Delhi, the joint statement said the two leaders addressed the Kashmir issue and agreed to continue dialogue in a sincere and purposeful way for a final settlement.

Goals clear: Noted expert on Kashmir and Pakistan affairs AG Noorani believed both sides had travelled a distance and were now clear of their goals. There was not much to do on Kashmir except to implement the understanding, he added.

On the inclusion of Balochistan and other areas in the joint statement, senior Indian officials said they had nothing to hide. If Pakistan believed someone from the Indian side was creating trouble for them, they were more than willing to clear the misunderstanding, they added.

Meanwhile, both sides had also agreed on sharing credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats with intelligence agencies of both countries remaining constantly in touch.

ANALYSIS - The faded roadmap to India-Pakistan peace

By Myra MacDonald

LONDON (Reuters) - India and Pakistan may have begun talking to each other again but as yet there is no clear vision on where those talks might lead.

As a result many analysts are looking to a roadmap agreed in secret two years ago -- and which only really came to light this year -- as probably the best model around for a peace deal.

"It's a good deal for Pakistan, for India, for the Kashmiris," said Bruce Riedel, who led a review of strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for President Barack Obama.

Negotiated by advisers to former president Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the accord made an ambitious attempt to lay out a framework for peace in Kashmir, which has been divided between the two countries since independence.

While there was to be no exchange of territory, borders were to be made irrelevant by encouraging the movement of people and trade across the Line of Control which divides Kashmir.

At the same time, a joint mechanism would be set up which would allow both countries to supervise Kashmir affairs.

One source familiar with the deal said there was no evidence it would ever have worked -- the exact nature of the joint mechanism, for example, was never agreed.

But the negotiating process alone functioned as an important "shock-absorber" between the two nuclear-armed countries, which have fought three full-scale wars and faced many spikes in tensions, most recently after last year's attacks on Mumbai.

According to Riedel, who is now at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, western diplomats would like to see them getting back into the position they reached in 2007.

Yet doing so is difficult for both countries.

Pakistan's civilian government would find it hard to embrace a deal negotiated by Musharraf after fighting to force the former army general out of office last year.

"Politically it would be very difficult to accept this was Musharraf's achievement," said journalist and analyst Steve Coll, who was the first to write in detail about the accord.

And in India, there is little public support for peace moves after the three-day assault by Pakistani gunmen on Mumbai.

"There is a hardening of posture. Outside of Manmohan Singh, there are no doves left in this government," said Praveen Swami at The Hindu newspaper -- though he added that a return to the principles of 2007 would be great from an Indian point of view.

India is also dubious about whether any deal with Pakistan's civilian government would be backed by the army, adding a layer of complication which did not exist with Musharraf.

So for the moment the two countries are engaged in tactical battles which focus more on form than on substance.

Though they agreed at a meeting in Egypt last week to hold further talks, India rejected Pakistan's call to hold these within the "composite dialogue" -- the formal peace process broken off by New Delhi after the attack on Mumbai.

And despite public rhetoric about working together to fight terrorism, they are locked into an almost impossible situation.

India wants action against the Laskhar-e-Taiba, the militant group based in Pakistan's Punjab province blamed for Mumbai.

But realistically few believe Pakistan is about to disarm all the gunmen in the LeT -- whose estimated numbers run into the thousands -- at a time when its army is battling the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

"President (Asif Ali) Zardari, the government and the Pakistan Army are very aware of the limits to how much they can take on at any one time," said one observer.

Without a peace deal, Pakistan would be unlikely to disarm a militant group it once nurtured to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, and whose armed cadres could still be used as a first line of defence in the event of an invasion by India.

At best it will take limited action under pressure.

"LeT is the group Pakistan wants to wind down last, not first," said one analyst who tracks militant groups there.

Real progress in talks between India and Pakistan would therefore require a precarious balancing act -- of the kind nearly managed in 2007 -- in which moves towards peace would be matched by curbs on the LeT and other militant groups.

Riedel said that in any case, western governments should keep pushing for action on the LeT, increasingly seen as a threat not just to India but also to the West.

But he also said India had been "awfully slow" in taking up the deal offered by Musharraf in 2007 before he become embroiled in political problems that eventually forced him out of office.

"India does not deserve a get-out-of-jail free card," he said. "They should have grasped this when the chance was there and they missed a major opportunity."

ANGER AND DESPAIR IN KASHMIR

The Obama administration, desperate to bring stability to Afghanistan by convincing Islamabad to take action against militants on its territory, is likely to keep pushing quietly for India and Pakistan to pick up where they left off in 2007.

But even for the two countries themselves, the clock is ticking. If they cannot reach a peace deal soon, they run the risk of future wars over water as the Himalayan glaciers which supply shared rivers recede because of global warming.

Kashmir, now in a relative lull in a separatist revolt which began in 1989, could also erupt into "a second intifada" which would complicate peace efforts even further.

And as for how it looks inside Kashmir?

"On the question of expectations, there aren't many here," said Basharat Peer, a Kashmiri journalist who has just published a book on the impact of the conflict on ordinary people. "It is pure anger and a lot of despair in Kashmir nowadays."

Tales of hope

By Chris Cork

The more I saw, the less it looked like a disaster. There was human suffering and tragedy to be sure; on a scale almost beyond comprehension. Countless lives have been lost, or shattered by injury and the loss of homes and businesses. The disruption for millions of ordinary people is beyond calculation and is going to take years and billions of dollars to repair. Finding bad news about the lives of the IDPs is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel - open any newspaper or tune to any TV channel. Pointing the finger of blame or incompetence at any agency you care to name, governmental or otherwise, likewise presents no difficulty. It would have been easy for me to write about the failure of all and sundry; but there is another side to every story and even in this darkest of times there is light - even hope.

For almost five years I have worked as the in-country consultant for the Abaseen Foundation, an NGO whose service delivery arm is in Pakistan and whose fundraisers are in the UK. They are aren't big, rich or famous and go about their work with a minimum of fuss and fanfare. They have gained a reputation for reliability and when the IDP crisis developed they were one of several local NGO's called to duty by the government. Spending two days looking in detail at what they had done over the last two and a half months was an education in the art of the possible.

Thursday morning and the Health Cluster meeting in the committee room of the Health Secretariat, Peshawar. A dense, busy, and mostly well focused weekly gathering where participating agencies share information. Nobody panicked about anything, the agenda got properly covered, squabbles were minor and a lot of work got done in ninety minutes. Amongst the dragons they killed was a story aired by a private TV channel regarding an outbreak of cholera allegedly involving 300 people in Kalam. Wrong. About 50-60 people were affected by an outbreak of simple gastro-enteritis; a woman and child had died - but they died of dehydration and not cholera. There was no epidemic and sloppy reporting had turned a routine and manageable situation into the crisis beloved of news-hungry TV channels.

A multitude of other topics were covered, some in depth others less so - medical screening for IDPs, the management of high-risk pregnancies, coordination or lack of it with the military, and unrealistic expectations on the part of returnees many of whom were experiencing levels of health care they had never had in their lives before. We dispersed just as the news of the murder of a well liked and respected UN official was breaking, a good man gunned down in a failed kidnap attempt.

Larama camp cooked under a sun that spared nobody. Abaseen Foundation is providing the health input alongside UNICEF and a basket of other agencies. They also work with IDPs via social mobilisers who visit the over-800 tents regularly. A spirit of self-help is encouraged and was perhaps most evident in terms of the cleanliness of the camp generally. Tents are organized into groups of twenty and each family given an area for which they are responsible. One day out of twenty they clean their designated area. Apparently nobody has complained, the system works and the camp is almost a model of public hygiene and, according to a teacher I spoke to, considerably cleaner than Mingora city from whence he came. There is potable water on tap (yes, I drank it), a fan for every tent, street lighting, decent latrines, camp committees to oversee things like health services as well as planning ahead for the coming monsoon and organizing digging teams and implements; a fully-functional basic health service, a mother-and-child nutrition unit and a range of schools that are bursting at the seams. Children had banded together and set up an open-air shop selling sweets; a man had set up shop trading through a hole in his compounds' boundary sheeting. Home it wasn't, and everybody had a grumble about something or other. But nobody was hungry and, at the end of a long hot day, an astonishing figure. Zero. Not a single woman or child has died as a result of complications of delivery since the camp opened. Now that really did make me sit up straight and pay attention.

Friday morning and a tour of IDPs living off-camp in schools. There had been a severe outbreak of common sense on the part of whoever decided to cluster related families together in schools. Private, secure, facilities already installed and a (sort of) bricks and mortar home that was infinitely better than life in a tent. There were complaints about the quality of the flour they were given. I looked. Mostly husk. No complaints about health services, and we talked to a woman whose left leg was a mass of bolts and surgical steel. Terribly wounded, she had been brought to the Abaseen hospital at Nahaqi. They saved her leg and her life. Her cousin Sidra was in class nine and looking forward to going home and back to school.

There was a moment when I had to turn away and gather myself together. It was our last visit, going to see an interesting family, I was told. The husband, uprooted and jobless had found himself daily work in the fields. His wife, a mother to eight, was found to be an expert seamstress but the poverty of the family had meant that she never had a sewing machine of her own. She does now. Abaseen bought one for her and gave it to her last Friday. I looked at her face as it was placed on the charpoy before her. There was a tear in her eye. And mine. The sewing machine she will take back with her will make a living for the family for years to come, and the look on her face said that she knew she had just been presented with the keys to a kingdom she had only ever dreamed of before.

Several hundred very happy children gathered under tentage back at the camp for an event organized by Abaseen and UNICEF. Singers sang, and one small child said her times-table to thunderous applause and cheering. There were races with apples on the head and everybody won a prize. Health and cleanliness was the theme and each child took home a care-pack with toothpaste, toothbrush, prickly heat powder and a bar of soap. A couple of private TV channels came to cover what by any standards was a good-news story and I got on the bus back to Islamabad.

Abaseen Foundation and the other agencies large and small governmental and non-governmental, have ensured that the IDP crisis, vast as it was and is, did not turn into a disaster. I could list the things they had got wrong and it would cover pages, but I could also list the things they got right and it would cover more pages than the list of mistakes and follies. I'm going to Swat in six weeks to see how the lady with the sewing machine is doing and if Sidra ever got back to school. Watch this space.

Javed Jabbar cautions India against ignoring immediate neigbours in media field

NEW DELHI, (APP) : Javed Jabbar, former Information Minister and media expert has cautioned Indian media policy makers and media leaders from letting India become ignorant of its immediate neighbours even as India aspired to be a new global player.Speaking in the inaugural Distinguished Forum of the 18th annual conference of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre,Singapore being held here, Javed Jabbar called for TV equity in South Asia. The conference theme for 2009 is " Media, Democracy and Governance : emerging paradigms in the digital age."

Javed Jabbar, who is also the founding Chairman of the South Asian Media Association (SAMA) said that while it is notable that there are now reports to be about 500 TV channels in India reflecting the rich, broad range of linguistic and regional diversity, it was equally notable that virtually none of the cable istributors in India offered a single Pakistani TV news channel to hundreds of millions of viewers.

Similarly, he said there is virtually no availability of TV channels from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives in an average choice offered to Indian viewers. He said there may be a few exceptions but the overwhelming majority of Indian citizens had no opportunity to receive news and views from a Pakistani perspective through their TV set.

Cautioning India from becoming as insulated and ignorant as media-rich America has been due to its own unwillingness to promote foreign media content in the USA, the founding Chairman of SAMA said both Pakistan and India in particular,and South Asian countries in general should agree to a reciprocal basis for enabling their citizens to have the choice of viewing at least 4 or 5 news channels from the other country or countries. This kind of exchange would significantly improve levels of information and understanding and also discourage frequent media hysteria and war-mongering as had been witnessed immediately after the November 2008 Mumbai incident.

The conference session was chaired by Dr. Prannoy Roy, Chairman of NDTV and a well-known broadcaster. Other speakers included Dr. Kiran Karnik, an eminent IT expert of India, Barun Das, Chief Executive of Zee TV, and Dr N. Bhaskar Rao, a prominent media scholar of India.

Over 300 delegates from Asia, Europe, Australia and North America are attending the conference. Dr Anjum Zia, a media educationist from Lahore is also participating.

In his remarks, Dr Prannoy Roy agreed with Javed Jabbar's proposal and said it was vital for Indians to remain well-informed about how India's immediate neighbours perceived various issues, including bilateral relations.

During an interview with NDTV while referring to issue of terrorism, Javed Jabbar said that the people and the Government of Pakistan were fully committed to curbing terrorism and extremism.

Referring to Hafiz Saaed,s case he pointed out that the superior Judiciary of Pakistan is completely independent. At the same time, he stressed that there is a widely held view in Pakistan that several terrorist acts in Pakistan especially in Baluchistan are connected some how to the activities of Indian consulate in Afghanistan.

We Want CHANGE

Pakistan's Battle Of The Generations

The patriotism of the last and the presently phasing-out Pakistani generation has now been overtaken by the questioning mind of the younger generation that is far more educated. This new generation of Pakistanis has travelled a lot, has interacted with the world, in person and on the internet, and is far more informed than their ancestors could ever dream of. And they want change. It is now time for those who wield the reins of the destiny of this country to return to the drawing board and redraw the contours of the future of this great nation.

By MASOOD SHARIF KHAN KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Over the years the cementing factors binding the people of Pakistan have been losing their adhesiveness. Poor governance, absence of political reforms, inequitable progress, absence of justice, oppression of farmers and workers by the feudal lords and businessmen, absence of merit, non-provision of equal opportunities to each Pakistani and, above all, the denial of quality education to a vast majority of Pakistanis are only some of the reasons that come to mind as aspects responsible for the fractures that we see in our national structure.

At any given time there have been complaints of exploitation from one or another part of the country. If assessed dispassionately they have mostly been justified. Only seldom have they been meant to foment trouble of one kind or another. So what have we done, or are doing, to rid this great nation of reasons that bring about such cries of foul play? Nothing in concrete terms yet, although it is past the high water mark to take this aspect seriously.

Since our last generation and the one that is now phasing out had lived under a colonial power they were used to being governed as slaves, or a little better than that. The change of the color of the skin of the masters on 14 August 1947 did not make much difference to that generation and they accepted the new local masters with the same slavish mentality.

Just having an independent country and a flag that they could call their own was good enough to have the adrenaline going. Their unflinching loyalty and patriotism to Pakistan was admirable and enviable. It is not those generations but those of them that ruled the new country in their name that let Pakistan down and are responsible for the mess that we are in presently.

The blind faith, loyalty and patriotism of the last and the presently phasing out generation has now been overtaken by the questioning mind of the younger generation that is far more educated. This new generation of Pakistanis has travelled a lot, has interacted with the world, in person and on the internet, is far more informed and has access to mass communications that their ancestors could never dream of which has opened them to demand and expect for themselves and their country all the right things.

Things have changed and it is time to realize this and move with the currents of time. This new generation of Pakistanis and the ones that live abroad and yearn to return to Pakistan are our major resource that must be tapped.

It is now time for those who wield the reins of the destiny of this country to return to the drawing board and redraw the contours of the future of this hapless nation so that it starts getting counted as a progressive and civilized country that has released its brakes on development and is now on its way to achieving what it should have achieved decades ago.

There is no alternative to doing all this and there is also no time left to defer this action in terms of time. The permanent solution to terrorism and militancy also lies here more than in the actual battlefield.

A country in which there are daily demonstrations against the lack of such a basic modern-day amenity like electricity, a country where factories and even small businesses are being closed down due to the absence of electricity, a country in which the poorest of the poor has to travel for days and live in rented accommodation on borrowed money to try and obtain justice and so many other such well known adverse aspects can only bring about hopelessness in a nation. In fact the nationhood of such countries becomes threatened from within in the absence of a reasonable life for its citizens. This is exactly what Pakistan is experiencing today.

Isn't it thought-provoking that someone like Barrack Obama can become the president of the world's most powerful nation? This is where the strength of the United States lies. A country that is tolerant enough to absorb as its citizens people from every culture and nationality of the world and then allow them to one day ascend to the mighty office of the president. We in Pakistan cannot even tolerate a man from the neighboring district within the country. What a pitiable situation. Wake up, Pakistan, before we become a nation divided into fiefdoms governed by local warlords. Strengthening Pakistan is the only guard against this from happening. Local governance is now inevitable to strengthen and cement Pakistan.

Obama says "all of us want" effective Afghan strategy

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday "all of us" want an effective exit strategy from Afghanistan in which Afghan authorities are able to take more responsibilities.

Obama made the comment after talks with Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende that centred on the current situation in Afghanistan as well as the global economy and climate change.

"All of us want to see an effective exit strategy where increasingly the Afghan army, Afghan police, Afghan courts, Afghan government are taking more responsibility for their own security," Obama said.

Around 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of NATO and Afghan forces are taking part in an offensive in various parts of Helmand province against the Taliban, the biggest by foreign troops since they ousted the Islamist group in 2001.

The operation comes ahead of next month's presidential election, which is crucial both for Kabul and for a U.S. administration that has identified Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan as its top foreign policy priority.

"If we can get through a successful election in September and we continue to apply the training approach to the Afghan security forces and we combine that with a much more effective approach to economic development inside Afghanistan, then my hope is that we will be able to begin transitioning into a different phase in Afghanistan," Obama said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Editing by Sandra Maler)

‘No contact with Sufi, rumours only to benefit Taliban’

* NWFP information minister says rumours being propagated by people who want terrorism to gain strength

PESHAWAR: NWFP government has no contact with Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi chief Sufi Muhammad and such rumours will only benefit the Taliban, NWFP Informatrion Minister Iftikhar Hussain said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, Iftikhar rejected the impression created by certain quarters about the government's backdoor-diplomacy with Sufi Muhammad, saying that such stories were propagated by elements wanting to strengthen militancy in the country.

He said July 13 was a significant day in the country's history, as on this day, the world's biggest wave of displaced people began moving back to their homes in a disciplined manner.

"It is a day of jubilation for all of us that the internally displaced persons (IDPs) have started moving back to their homes," he said, adding that the repatriation process began in an organised fashion and would culminate in accordance with the set schedule.

The provincial chief minister saw off the first batch of IDPs from Charsadda district, who were received by NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour, Minister for Environment Wajid Ali Khan and MPA Shamsher Ali Khan in Swat.

Iftikhar said he had recently addressed a public gathering in Khwazakhela, where all bazaars were open and the people went about their lives as usual.

"The response of the people gathered on the occasion was indicative of the fact that terrorists will never come back," the minister said, adding that times had gone when the people of Swat had to give their hard-earned income as donation to the Taliban.

"The minds of the people have changed in Swat and they are earnestly demanding of the government wipe out the criminals from their soil who fooled them in the name of Islam, slaughtered the innocent desecrated corpses and ruined public property," Iftikhar said.

The information minister said that government would increase the strength of the police force and in order to avoid the re-emergence of the Taliban. app

US developing strategy to reduce tensions over drone attacks

Daily Times

* US Deputy Pak-Afghan special representative says Washington to increase aid to help Pakistan develop its own communications strategy

ISLAMABAD: US officials are developing a new communications strategy in order to reduce tensions in the aftermath of its drone attacks in Pakistan.

Aiming to bolster Islamabad's understanding of US tactics, officials are planning to expand public relations initiatives in the country, according to Paul Jones, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia.

According to an article published in Eurasiatnet.org, Jones, while testifying before the US Congress, said that he could not discuss the drones' successes in a public hearing, but said a "very important part of our tactics is strategic communications".

Strategy: He said the US planned to increase the aid to Pakistan "quite significantly" in order to help the Pakistani government with its own communications strategy. That included distributing radios to Pakistanis in the Tribal Areas and helping Islamabad with public service announcements, he said.

Jones added that such programmes "will help people understand what the goals of the Pakistani government and the international community are, and how they are helping the country of Pakistan".

But Islamabad is apprehensive about the drone attacks, saying they have resulted in a high number of civilian casualties. It claims drones have killed only 14 Taliban and other terrorists since 2006, but over 700 civilians.

US officials dispute the figures but refuse to publicise the data, which it rates "classified".

Some experts assert that the Pentagon was relying on drone attacks too much, but said a better information strategy could help ease the existing problems.

"Drone strikes excite visceral opposition across a broad spectrum of Pakistani opinion. The persistence of these attacks on Pakistani territory offends people's deepest sensibilities, alienates them from their government, and contributes to Pakistan's instability," said Nathaniel Fick, the chief executive officer of defence think-tank Centre for a New American Security, who also testified at the hearing.

"Currently, strikes from unmanned aircraft are carried out in a virtual vacuum, without concerted information campaigns or an equally robust strategy to engage the people," he said.

Washington has also pledged $381 million to help the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan and $164 million of that has already been distributed.

But US officials happily let the Pakistani government take credit for supplying the assistance to the internally displaced persons, as their presence is often not welcomed by the locals.

Jones said that in order "to counter the attempts by extremists to influence displaced persons, it is very important for the displaced persons to see that their own government is actually providing assistance".

Another participant of the congressional hearing, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Senator Carl Levin said the US was being "hamstrung" by Pakistani officials frequently criticising the drone attacks.

Apart from bolstering the information campaign, Washington is providing some forms of military assistance as well.

In June, the US gave Pakistan four Mi-17 helicopter gunships.

"The additional helicopters are meant to enhance Pakistan's capabilities in current operations against extremists, and its efforts to care for hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who have been displaced from their homes by the fighting," the US embassy in Islamabad had said in a statement.

Jones said that the US was providing two more helicopters later in July and then an additional two at a later, undisclosed date. daily times monitor/app

India-Pakistan talks to steal limelight at NAM summit

The Daily Star

Leaders of the developing world head to Egypt on Wednesday for a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit that is set to be overshadowed by talks between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan. Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan and Manmohan Singh of India are to meet at the summit venue in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday, amid hopes of a resumption of peace talks between the arch-foes, who have fought three wars.

Founded in 1955, NAM counts some 118 member states that represent around 56 percent of the global population. NAM states consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

Set up during the Cold War, the movement sought to distance itself from both the Western and Soviet blocs but today its raison d'etre is questioned after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing shift in power politics.

NAM heads of state and government meet every three years. This year, Egypt will replace Cuba at the helm of the movement. The two-day summit, held under the banner "International Solidarity for Peace and Development," aims for a "new international order ... in which nations [are not judged] by their size or military and economic capabilities," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit said at a preparatory meeting.

NAM groups 53 states from Africa, 38 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and just one from Europe - the former Soviet republic of Belarus.

Gilani set off for the NAM conference in Egypt on Tuesday, saying he hoped discussions there with his Indian counterpart would get peace talks back on track.

India put a pause on talks with old rival Pakistan after a militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in November in which 166 people were killed.

India said the assault was carried out by Pakistani militants who must have had help from Pakistani security agents. Pakistan has denied any involvement by state agencies and says it will prosecute militants suspected of involvement.

Pakistan wanted cordial relations with all its neighbors, Gilani told reporters before his departure. "I am sure that such interactions would be really beneficial for the country," he said, referring to the meetings in Egypt.

The nuclear-armed neighbors launched a "composite dialogue" covering all of their disputes in early 2004 after nearly going to war for a fourth time since 1947.

Gilani said the two countries had been "moving in the right direction" until the Mumbai attack and the pause India put on the talks had only benefited the terrorists.

"When there will be more interaction, I think that will pave the way for the composite dialogue and for more interaction with the Indian government," he said.

Pakistan is keen to revive the five-year talks but Singh has insisted Pakistan must first show it is serious about taking action against militant groups that launch attacks in the Indian part of the disputed Kashmir region and elsewhere in India.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said over the weekend Pakistan had completed its investigation into five suspects accused of links to the Mumbai attack, and they were expected to be put on trial this week.

Pakistan also handed a fresh dossier on its probe into the Mumbai attack to India on Saturday.

The suspects include Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a commander of the banned Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, who is accused of masterminding the attack.

India was angered by a Pakistani court decision in June to release from house arrest Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of the LeT, whom India accused of plotting the Mumbai assault.

The federal government this month lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court against Saeed's release. The Supreme Court began hearing the appeal on Tuesday but adjourned the hearing until July 16. Saeed was put under house arrest in early December after a UN Security Council committee added him and an Islamist charity he heads to a list of people and organizations linked to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

The talks between Singh and Gilani will be the second meeting between leaders of the two countries since the Mumbai attacks. Singh met President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of a regional summit in Russia last month. - AFP, Reuters

Palestinians reject any Israel-U.S. settlement deal

* Palestinians oppose any compromise on settlements
* Netanyahu renews call on Abbas to resume peace talks

(Adds Netanyahu remarks)

By Ali Sawafta

RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 12 (Reuters) - Palestinians reject any deal between Israel and the United States that would allow even limited Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, a top Palestinian negotiator said on Sunday.

"There are no middle-ground solutions for the settlement issue: either settlement activity stops or it doesn't stop," Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.

Erekat said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed that message in a letter on Saturday to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Erekat was responding to reports that Israel and the United States were discussing a compromise that would allow some building in existing settlements under what Israel terms "natural growth" to accommodate expanding families.

A U.S. official denied on Wednesday a report in the Israeli daily Maariv that the Obama administration agreed work could continue on 2,500 housing units whose construction had begun, despite its call for a total freeze to spur peace efforts.

The report followed talks in London last week between George Mitchell, Obama's special Middle East envoy, and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak aimed at healing a rift over continued settlement activity.

The U.S. State Department said Mitchell was expected in the region "soon" for talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Barak has been seeking a deal with the United States that would include initial steps by Arab states to normalise relations with Israel in return for limiting settlement activity.



PEACE TALKS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday renewed his call on Abbas to resume peace talks immediately.

"There is no reason for us not to meet anywhere in Israel and I suggest we meet ... to advance peace for the benefit of both our peoples," Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting, held in the southern city of Beersheba.

Palestinians have said they would not revive stalled peace talks with Israel unless its settlement activities stopped.

"If settlement continues Israel will be allowed to build one thousand units here and two thousand units there, which will lead Arabs and Palestinians to believe that the American administration is incapable of swaying Israel to halt its settlement activities," Erekat told the radio.

"The message is clear: settlements should stop immediately."

Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. Palestinians say Jewish settlements, deemed illegal by the World Court, would deny them a viable and contiguous state.

Western officials said the United States was moving in the direction of making allowances so Israel could finish off at least some existing projects which are close to completion or bound by private contracts that cannot be broken.

Israel estimates that 2,500 units are in the process of being built and cannot be stopped under Israeli law.

Netanyahu, under U.S. pressure, has pledged not to build new settlements in the West Bank. (Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Heat: number one enemy for soldiers in Afghanistan

by Ben Sheppard

GARMSIR, Afghanistan (AFP) - After hours of ferocious fighting in southern Afghanistan, the two young US Marines desperately needed emergency medical care -- and it was the heat, not the Taliban, that had finally defeated them.

AFP - US Marines are seen during a patrol with Afghan National Police in the district of Garmsir in Afghanistan's

Charles Auge and Edwin Saez had landed at a canal junction at dawn last Thursday as part of a major US offensive against Islamist insurgents in the key province of Helmand.

They were engaged in an intense battle through the heat of day against dozens of gunmen who were determined not to lose control of the Mian Poshtey intersection in the south of Garmsir district.

When their two-and-a-half-litre (five-US-pint) water backpacks ran out, Auge and Saez looked to restock from the bottles that Echo company from the 2/8 infantry battalion had brought with them on the helicopter assault.

But as the company came under constant fire, the supplies were limited and the water scorchingly hot when it did arrive.

"We were on the flank beside a thick grass berm, and in the middle of the day the sun was so strong and there was no shade," Auge, 24, said. "I began to feel dizzy and everything turned white."

Saez, 21, also became a "heat casualty" soon after, having shot at -- and apparently killed -- two gunmen who were firing at the Marines from behind a wall.

"I started slipping in and out of consciousness," he said. "The water we got was so hot it burnt in my throat."

The two Marines became so seriously ill that they were evacuated from the battlefield by Red Cross helicopters that came in under hostile fire.

They were treated with intravenous drips and ice baths, and kept under observation at a field hospital for three days before being released, now recovering from the ordeal.

One of their fellow Marines was shot dead in the fighting last Thursday, and they say a total of five men were flown out of the battle after becoming dangerously overheated.

With temperatures in Helmand reaching 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) in the past week, soldiers face huge problems staying hydrated as they fight in helmets and flak jackets, loaded down with weapons, ammunition and water.

Basic Marine combat kit weighs a minimum of 50 pounds (23 kilograms), officers say, and the men fighting in Mian Poshtey were carrying hundreds of extra ammunition rounds each as they did not know when they would be re-supplied.

The terrain in Helmand varies from the dusty plains of the desert to the river valley, which is criss-crossed with ditches and walls.

Both provide a brutal environment for US troops despite extensive conditioning before they arrive in Afghanistan.

Active soldiers can get through 10 litres of water a day and providing water at the frontline is a major logistics priority, according to Captain Micah Caskey.

"A heat stroke can be fatal, and the heat definitely claims more victims among Marines than the Taliban.

"The balance is between the protection provided by a larger plate carrier (flak jacket) and the problems of heat and mobility."

Despite their experiences, and with temperatures forecast to rise further, Auge and Saez said they were anxious rejoin their fellow Marines in south Garmsir as soon as possible.

Robert Fisk: The story of Baha Mousa

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'He was a decent guy. They didn't need to do that'

I first heard about Baha Mousa from his family. He was working as a hotel receptionist in Basra when British troops surrounded the building and arrested seven men. They were taken to a British barracks, hooded and beaten. Two days later, as his weeping father recalled for me, Mousa was dead. His family was given $3,000 in compensation and rejected a further $5,000. What they wanted was justice. His father had been appointed a police officer by the British authorities themselves. He was wearing two pistols on his hips. He was "our man", and we killed his son.

The outrageous death of his 26-year-old son, arrested in front of his own father, remains one of the most shameful episodes of our occupation of southern Iraq. As they beat the seven men, the British soldiers gave them the names of footballers. I guess it is always easy to demean those who you are going to brutalise. One of his comrades, who worked in the same hotel, and who spoke to me in great pain from his hospital bed, described how Baha had pleaded for his murderers to stop kicking him. "He was a decent guy. They didn't need to do that to him," he said.

When I first heard this story, it reminded me - alas - of all the accounts that I had heard in Northern Ireland, of British Catholics taken from their homes and beaten up in British army barracks, called "terrorist" by those who should have controlled their tormentors. I had heard it all before. Always, but always, those who had been beaten and kicked were always the bad guys. In Basra, the British like to say that they knew how to treat the locals, that they had learnt from Northern Ireland. Oh, how they had learnt!

I remember sitting in front of Baha Mousa's children - his wife had already died of cancer - and, listening to his father's account, I doubted if justice would be done. It was not. The bad guys got away with it. As they usually did in Northern Ireland. It's not about hearts and minds. It's about justice. And this we do not administer.

4 US soldiers killed, South Afghan battles heat up

Pak Tribune

KABUL: Roadside bombs killed four US soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the US military said on Sunday, the latest deaths in an escalation of violence that has put pressure on coalition leaders over their war strategy.

Thousands of US Marines and hundreds of British soldiers have been fighting major new offensives in the past 10 days in Helmand province. Violence has again flared across Afghanistan since the assault by US Marines, Operation Khanjar, began on July 2, with attacks in traditional Taliban strongholds in the south and east as well as in relatively more peaceful areas in the north and west.

The Taliban backlash has put pressure on leaders in Washington and London, who say US and other NATO-led troops have pushed back the Taliban but that a lot of tough fighting remains to be done during the summer. The latest four soldiers to be killed by roadside bombs, which the US military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, died in two separate attacks in the south on Saturday, a US military spokeswoman said, Reuters reported. "The four killed in two IED attacks in Helmand were US service members," said spokeswoman Lieutenant Commander Christine Sidenstricker. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Fifth soldier: A fifth soldier serving with NATO-led forces in the south died on Friday from wounds received in June, the alliance said in a statement released on Sunday. No other details were available.

Washington is pouring in extra troops under Obama's new strategy, with numbers set to more than double to 68,000 by the end of the year. About 90,000 US and NATO troops are already serving in Afghanistan. British troops mounting their biggest operation of the campaign in Afghanistan have also suffered under the Taliban backlash, with 15 confirmed killed in a 10-day period, including five in two roadside bomb blasts on Friday. Taliban casualty figures were not immediately available. Britain has now lost 184 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the US-led war, more than the 179 killed in Iraq since 2003, putting the Afghan campaign sharply into focus at home.

Brown: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, the presidential palace said in a statement, and Karzai expressed his sympathy over the British casualties. Brown told Karzai that Britain would continue to help the Afghan people in the fight against terrorism and in building up Afghan security forces, the palace said. US commanders have complained of a lack of Afghan troops in the latest operations. One of the main goals of the new operation is to capture ground from the Taliban and hold it, something overstretched British-led NATO troops have so far been unable to achieve. It is also seeking to win over Afghans from the insurgency.

With the latest deaths dominating headlines, Finance Minister Alistair Darling said on Saturday British troops would get whatever equipment they needed despite a ballooning deficit putting pressure on the defence budget. The media, military experts and opposition politicians have questioned the government's strategy and its commitment to equipping troops properly. Britain has sent 700 extra troops for the presidential election period, taking its force to 9,000. In Helmand, the main British military hospital on Friday coped with the biggest load of battlefield casualties suffered in a day since the Falklands campaign in the 1980s. But politicians and military leaders have warned often in recent weeks that a bloody summer of fighting lay ahead.

Police: Meanwhile, the insurgency has claimed the lives of six to 10 police every day since March with nearly 50 killed in attacks in the past week alone, the government said on Sunday, according to AFP. Militant strikes had over the past seven days also killed 69 civilians, showing a 37-percent increase over the week before, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters.

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