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zindadil on "American perceptions of the Mumbai attacks"

zindadil — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:40:11 +0000

this is internal, the hindu fascist,

Prgaya case mystrey

Three Police officers killed for investigating the Pragya case.

Indian army personnel caught collaborating with Pragya(BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal, Sangh Parivar)

Underworld was tired of the above police officers being very just, shoot at sight and these police officers did not take prisoners. Hence a collaboration.

These elements got together and created a scene just to get rid of the three police officers. (the families of the slain police officers refuse to take the charity money from Modi)

Why Mumbai? Why not Kashmir? Why Not Gujarat?

Because Pragya was being tried in Mumbai a State run by congress. Because Maharashtra is a Congress state and elections due in the near future, BJP wants to be a strong contender. And BJP needs money from underworld to spend on elections. Underword wants Mumbai to run it's dirty business without any obstacles.Obstacles were the three fine Police Officials.

Understand this. The LET wants Kashmir, attacks there would be understanding. Attacks in Gujarat by LET, may be. No link there, but then again maybe because Muslims were macassered by Modi. But it is highly unlikely. Mumbai too far for LET and no adwantage at all.

This has to be them i.e. the BJP and Underworld.

Kanishk Tharoor on "American perceptions of the Mumbai attacks"

Kanishk Tharoor — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:46:12 +0000

Good piece, Thomas.

McCarthy says: "local issues are fitted to an ideological framework that is global, hegemonic, and more about the ultimate triumph of fundamentalist Islam than, say, a Palestinian state, Kashmir, Danish cartoons, economic inequality, or whatever this week's complaint is."

This is fanciful nonsense, a template of a template. Militants aren't looking for an "excuse" to wage jihad. These attacks have a particular pre-history, rooted mostly in Pakistan. To dispense with the detail and go straight to the level of ideology simply betrays his distance from real issues, and a view of the world wishfully reduced.

raghuvanshiramesh on "India: states of insecurity"

raghuvanshiramesh — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:16:14 +0000

From ancient time Indian were living in unsecurity. Life here in India always unpreditable.because of monsoon`s craziness.Today also Indian are living in unsecuire way. Terrorism is spreading all over India only because enemployment.Most Muslim community is eneducated ane enemployed.Only tiny section of community is prosper.Muslim are majority in U.P. Everywere where enemployment there arise terrorism, When there is enscurity fundamental religious madness arise, fundamentalist can do anything for religion.Only solution to finish terrorism reduce the enemployment, give security to all section of community. Today all rich countries are behaving reverse way, and they are digging their death by their own hand, if they reduce their selifishness and help poor section of people we can reduce terrorism.

Peter Maffia on "Justice in Madrid: the “11-M” verdict"

Peter Maffia — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:55:36 +0000

Fred Halliday adresses a lack of investigation in the terror trials and totally fails to mention the suspicions against members of the executive which have been proclaimed regarding Madrid, London and New York and the connections between the "terrorists" and the security apparatus. To call the alleged terrorists "sorcerer's apprentices" exactly matches that point. If Halliday believes in sorcery, then a forum to discuss real politic is probably not the best place for his view. What he captures right is the majority's discurse, but where he fails is to adress the "many questions unanswered". There are much more then his article may make us believe. He could have asked why there are "failure[s] to examine the causes" but in this issue he commits "a failure to examine the causes" himself.

kerrywinn on "Justice in Madrid: the “11-M” verdict"

kerrywinn — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:15:20 +0000

Those found guilty of murdering innocent people will earn time off for good behavior. I guess 8 years will be the max served! When you lose your culture, your sense of right and wrong, you lose everything. Know your friends well, keep them close; know your enemies better to defeat them.

patrickcummins on "The IAEA escape route"

patrickcummins — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:56:00 +0000

It would be surprising if Iran had zero interest in nuclear weapons. After all, Washington has made implicit threats of regime change and it rejected the 2003 Iranian offer to settle differences. Yet, it is also extremely difficult to see Iran moving straight ahead to build and test a nuclear device, particularly after all the disavowals that they've given to the world. They would lose all credibility and invite total isolation. It is however plausible that they are pursuing an intermediate path between a military and non-military program. The Iranians are clearly intent on mastering uranium enrichment, and all phases of nuclear fuel production. Once they achieve this they will be in the same position as many other countries in the world, e.g., Japan, Canada, Germany, etc. That is, they will not have nuclear weapons, but, if a decision is taken, they could acquire nuclear weapons within a short period of time. They would, in effect, be a virtual nuclear power. This path would give them some deterrent against a U.S. attack, but without the dangers presented by a full and open pursuit of a weapons program. It is my understanding that many people within the IAEA are of the opinion that Iran is pursuing this middle course.

policzer on "Al-Qaida: from centre to periphery"

policzer — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:46:56 +0000

Jamil, Good points. I don't think your comments contradict our basic argument: that we need to shift the focus away from the centre of al-Qaida, and not see bin Laden and his cohorts as the master puppeteers behind a single global organization or movement. Once we shift the focus in this way, we begin to see exactly the various kinds of grievances that you outline. But I would say that even here one has to be careful with sweeping generalizations, and not assume that one set of grievances felt or expressed in one area applies universally to all. In this sense, the analogy to Che Guevara (which I really like, by the way, thank you for pointing it out) is an interesting one. Che was and remains an inspiration for many around the world who have been treated unjustly. But Che's mistake was to think that all poor and downtrodden around the world (or even around Latin America) were more or less equivalent, and faced similar conditions. This is not the case. Some grievances that apply in some cases do not apply in others. And it's important to be sensitive to the local circumstances and dynamics, and not see each local case as yet another example of a single global phenomenon, whether it be the global war on terror (or "clash of civilizations") or the "global" fight against neo-imperialism, neo-liberalism, etc. Pablo Policzer

hari_1 on "The IAEA escape route"

hari_1 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:12:43 +0000

The comments above are ALL inline with current propaganda and misunderstanding of the historical antecedents of US foreign policy in the region and Iran, in particular. Under GWB and his neocons, US foreign policy in mideast has been devastated and perhaps also made irrelevant now! Sarkozy is also climbing on the zionist/israeli pulpit to eventually disenfranchise France and its historical legacy in Maghreb and Palestine, in particular. IAEA will not submit to dictate from GWB/Condi. That's for sure! Like in Iraq, IAEA will expose the duplicity surrounding US strategic calculations in the region with particular reference to Iran. Don't forget under Pres.Regan, Iran-Contra affair was managed by one Elliott Abrams - dealing with Israeli weapons for Contra support in CentralAmerica! Now, the same Elliott Abrams is NSC adviser to GWB on mideast and, in particular, Palestine and Iran. He also happens to be an active supporter/member of AIPAC. If Sharon became a "peacemaker" for GWB, thereby declaring Arafat perona-non-garata from any WhiteHouse meetings, the influence of Abrams is significant not only with "land for peace" strategy with the Palestinians, but specially with current saber rattling against so-called nuclear ambitions of Iran. There's no technical evidence from AIEA that Iran is capable of making nuclear weapons today! Tomorrow, I'm of the view, Iran will inevitably go nuclear for reasons explicity contained in not only current Israeli propaganda on CapitalHill (thru AIPAC!) but also based on US strategic thinking. There's no way US (France)is willing to accept Iran as a nuclear power in the region. More reason why Iran will go nuclear to deter any aggression against its sovereignty! Why did US accept nuclear Pakistan and India and China and Soviet Union? Would not deterrence be a better way to contain Iran in future - istead of an Israeli-inspired blunder of war? The battle ground for this strategic rhetorics will not be the SC - but IAEA Council - in which event India is now also unlikely to support US posture against Iran! [The US nuclear power agreement with India is also in the process of bringing down the centre-left coalition govt. in New Delhi]. Dr El Baradei of IAEA is a respected international layer (graduated from Columbia University/NY) and has been a diplomat in service to his native country Egypt before going to IAEA as an adviser. He took over the mantle from his Swedish predecessor - who was responsible for WMD inspection in Iraq. If US is bent on undermining IAEA and its legal/technical competence under NPT, there's no reason to believe EU and rest of the members will allow such a development in IAEA Council. Without the authority of IAEA, the rule of the junge will prevail! If that's what Israel/US/France want then they'll surely get it!

m.jamil on "Al-Qaida: from centre to periphery"

m.jamil — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:12:08 +0000

Would haida or other B.C. bands / first nation peoples have had a right of violent resistance against the bruital suppression of their language and culture, seizure of their lands, destruction of their ways of life, and in many cases the violent suppression and murder of their resistance leaders? Yes, Canadian injustice was not as much physical genocide as were the ethic cleansing and crimes against humanity committed by a US government that supported its white citizens to commit equal acts of genocide, not to mention slavery of blacks, and continued apartheid and suppression of their constitutional rights through the late 20th century. But we still remember Lousi Riel. We still remember Clifford Sifton and the Canadian government's disenfranchisement of Ukrainian settlers from their hard won properties across the prairies. We still remember the internment of Japanese Canadians, and theft of their property by a BC elite (Sinclair among others). What rights do the oppressed of the world have against tyranny? Read Mike Davis' latest book "Beda's Wagon: history of the car bomb" to learn how this favored CIA assassination technique continues to be a staple Mossad tool, and who were CIA-Mossad trained in Lebanon and elsewhere. You may be a professor of political science and I a professor of geopolitical history, We may both may have opposing world views. But I always ask one simple question set: "what do you do that makes you part of the problem?" We all have to answer that we do many things everyday that make us part of a global problem with local consequence. And "what do you do that makes you part of the solution?" Resistance to injustice is at thee heart of any political process. Gordon Campbell turned from a mild mannered city councilman more concerned with parks than economics, into a neo-liberal liberal premier whose concerns for the wealthy disenfranchise many ordinary british columbians, especially a white working class that finds itself priced out of the housing market, deprived of union representation, and in many cases dumped into a surplus labour market to be de-skilled and deprived. In today's BC where Asian immigrants buy citizenship for $1million per family member, & may never even reside in the country, earlier generations of immigrants find themselves dropped down the socio-economic totem pole to a position just above first nations. Civilized Canadians still have democratic processes by which to resist the Americanization of the nation, a declining health, education and social service system, and so on, but what rights and options do the global underclasses have? what rights to Iraqis have? It seems refugee status -- 2.5 million having fled to other countries and an equal number of internal refugees. Over one million Iraqis have died at US hands and means of destruction, from sanctions to invasion to occupation, and billions of dollars siphoned off to corrupt US firms while Iraq still has no clean water or dependable electric infrastructure, most of the nation's middle class professionals and businessmen have fled. Many think back to the oppression of Saddam, and remember a functional services and infrastructure, a secular society relatively safe from crime and a liberal environment for women. The British seized and reassembled the territory they created as Iraq a spoils of WWI, and occupied it into the 1930's, but keeping a hand in the security apparatus, reoccupying it and Iran during WWII. then turning both over to the US in the 1950's. Resistance has a long history, as soon as the British withdrew forces, Baghdadis hanged the foreign king and henchmen imposed on them. Afghanistan, a mosaic of mountains and valleys peopled by impoverished warrior tribes and spill over of centuries of invading armies from Aryans to Alexander, Mongols to Mughuls, was allowed to remain independent by the British as a buffer against their Indian colony and Russian expansion into Central Asia. As well they lost at least two British armies to fierce resistance by varied Afghani coalitions. How ridiculous, ironic, or tragic that the Brits are back again in their former colonial battlefields, only now as subalterns to the US. Media today avoids history as if it were a retrovirus. To know the past is to learn patterns, understand consistency and change. If more people were exposed to history they might wonder how politicians repeat the same folly over and over again, generation after generation. They might also realize patterns of oppression and exploitation, and patterns of resistance and struggle for justice.

m.jamil on "Al-Qaida: from centre to periphery"

m.jamil — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:27:36 +0000

term ... "movement" ... we talk about the feminist or environment "movements" not organizations ... dynamic affinities among individuals and groups. What the US and their "allies" -- whether bullied, bought, of just foolish -- have done is to create a resistance movement with many faces, from the fundamentalist to the progressive, from the well-educated to the underclasses. The vast overwhelming majority of Muslims are horrified by what we see daily from Palestine to Brazil, the covert and overt war, state terror and intimidation of ordinary Muslims, just because of our identity as Muslim, whether Arab or Chinese. But this new crusade does not only target Muslims, it targets Christian Arabs, and any non-Muslim from all parts of the Muslim world. Therefor, the USA faces a resistance movement not totally unlike their own origins of resistance to the regime of King George or European anti-Nazi resistance. But it is even more complex as we are also in resistance against both corrupt ruling elite that drain our resources and impoverish our nations, and global corporate dominance of local economies that further exploit our human and natural resources in a system of unequal exchange and accumulation that ever more effectively transfers wealth to the already wealthy countries and classes. Thus, we in the Muslim world are between a rock & a hard place. Few Muslims support indiscriminate killing of non-Muslims, fewer still suicide bombings of fellow Muslims by holier-than-thou fanatics, and the vast majority do not want to live under the warped version of sharia' law proposed by fanatical conservatives. But an overwhelming majority of Muslims believe that the USA has turned into the greatest evil to befall the Muslim world since the Mongol invasions of 800 years ago. Yes, the era of European conquest and colonization of most of the Muslim world was a disaster, as neo-colonialism continues to be a disaster for the Muslim world. But the US regime supports dictators who brutally control their subjects -- we are not yet citizens, but remain subjects of our own corrupt rulers. The present condition of neo-colonial, neo-liberal and neo-conservative ideology is solidly racist and totally lacking moral compassion, or even the good sense to conserve the ecosystems that support human habitat. To conclude. we also celebrate the 40th anniversary of Che Geuvarra's martyrdom. However problematic his reality, he was and remains a martyr for the cause of human justice. You can see Che's image on T-shirts throughout the Muslim world where repressive governments wold arrest anyone wearing an Osama image. No single idea has more power among Muslims than JUSTICE, which we believe was the most important mobilizing strength of the message and movement begun by Prophet Mohammed. Today, Osama Bin Ladin is a 21st century Che. However distasteful we may find his brand of Islam or advocacy of violent retribution, in the eyes of most Muslims he represents a champion for Justice against oppression. Moreover, we see that in a nominally Christian Latin America, forces that struggle for justice against more than a century of US oppression, have similar feelings. Recently, I saw in Mexico side-by-sideT-shirts with images of Che and Osama. The overriding reality here is that so-called Al-Qaida is no more than one segment of a global movement across all religions and ethnic lines against the dark history of imperialism and neo-colonialism, and the drive toward global hegemony by the US ruling elite. One struggle — many fronts!

reza on "The IAEA escape route"

reza — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:03:31 +0000

blisslight It would be good to have some facts in your comments. Your comments just give your personal views without any evidence of its validity. I respect your views as long as it is accepted that they hold no real value in setting policies or supporting the existing US policy which is very much out of order and lacks credibility. The times of bullying are far gone and such policies will not help in international relationships. The US has to come to terms with the reality of the international law and stop using force in place of diplomacy! This is setting a bad example in the world where democracy has become very fragile entirely due to double standards set by the US and forced upon its allies! If this is an acceptable behaviour; then I am afraid this will be a prefix for other developing nations to follow suite.

ai_1 on "The IAEA escape route"

ai_1 — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:43:48 +0000

The author is a self-described "UK board member of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran". Nothing wrong with that: we live in a democracy and it is perfectly valid to make the case against sanctions and military intervention in Iran. However, anybody expecting this article to be anything but a piece of propaganda will be disappointed. It amasses every single piece of evidence to vindicate the Iranian government and the purity of its intentions, while either dismissing or doesn't even caring to mention any argument to the contrary. Propaganda is legitimate, as are advocacy and special pleading. But, to avoid misleading the unwary, they should be seen for what they are.

nick_myst on "The IAEA escape route"

nick_myst — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:20:48 +0000

This is a case of known unknowns and unknown knowns. We know that Iran has a government committed to keeping itself in power. We know it has a government that wants to shelter itself from international scrutiny and intervention. Ergo, nuclear weapons are very much a possibility, as they provide a deterrence and insulate the leadership. Just because there is "no evidence" (I think the case can be made that there is), doesn't mean that Iran doesn't aspire to have them. That can never be allowed.

Maxwell A. Cameron on "Al-Qaida: from centre to periphery"

Maxwell A. Cameron — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:53:18 +0000

I agree with the thrust of this analysis, and would opt for the mixed strategy implied as a possibility at the end of this thoughtful essay: engage with the periphery whilest decapitating the centre. Maxwell A. Cameron Department of Political Science University of British Columbia

paulmkane2001 on "Dropping "muqawama""

paulmkane2001 — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:30:13 +0000

r" anything. It has taken power by fiat, fiat backed by foreign occupiers and their backers. God knows, the basic plan sounds good, but unless Abbas figures out a way to include Hamas in the government, it means nothing. The problem has been the same as it's been since Hamas was elected. Some compromise has to be worked out that allows those legitimately elected, Hamas, to govern.