March 2012
Vol 12, No.03
EXPOSING THE ISRAELI-MOSSAD FALSE FLAG TERROR ATTACKS IN NEW DELHI, TBILISI & BANGKOK By Feroze Mithiborwara “It would be far more preferable if the USA could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly the more outrageous, the more deadly & the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the USA will be. Of course, it would be very difficult for the US to goad Iran into such a provocation, without the rest of the world recognizing the game, which would then undermine it. One method that would have some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even-semiovertly, which would then be portrayed as an act of unprovoked Iranian aggression.” (US Foreign Policy makers, Brookings Institution’s 2009 report, pages 84-85)
“Attack on Iran imminent this summer”
both India & Iran have agreed on a Rupee Trade & barter system, thus avoiding the use of the USD regime.
(General Nikolai Makarov, Russian General Staff) The terror attacks in New Delhi & in Tbilisi (Georgia), Baku (Azerbaijan) & Bangkok (Thailand) are another round of false-flag terror (http://mailstar.net/ ostrovsky.html) being waged by the Israeli Mossad to achieve its strategic objectives by targeting Iran & the Hezbollah, which is a resistance movement. The timing of the false-flag terror attack is very interesting. It comes at the precise moment when India has refused to enforce the USIsraeli-EU sanctions against Iran & when Indo-Iran ties are witnessing a new strategic rethink in Delhi, where Pranab Mukherjee in a visit to the US, refused to abide by the sanctions. Also
Also the Tbilisi, Georgia bombings though not of a serious nature, are making international headlines, with Iran & Hezbollah being mentioned by PM Netanyahu. Georgia & Azerbaijan are both US-Israeli satellite states, with
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ARTICLES .OBAMA UNVEILS WAR STRATEGY FOCUSED ON CHINA
.REGIME CHANGE IN MALAYSIA
BY BILLVAN AUKEN.................................................................P 2
BY CHANDRA MUZAFFAR.......................................................P 7
.LEAKED UN REPORT REVEALS TORTURE, LYNCHINGS AND ABUSE IN POST- GADDAFI LIBYA
.SHOCKING NEWS OF HUMAN SACRIFICE
.THE ALLURE OF AFGHANISTAN
.THE WASHINGTON- “MODERATE ISLAM” ALLIANCE: CONTAINING REBELLION; DEFENDING EMPIRE (PART I)
BY KIM SENGUPTA....................................................................P 4 BY PEPE ESCOBAR....................................................................P 6
BY NARABAIL VIRODI VEDIKE.............................................P 9
BY JAMES PETRAS ...............................................................P 10
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a strong presence of CIA-Mossad operatives & security advisers in both the nations. The riddle of Bangkok, where Iranians have been injured in the blasts, needs to be understood and it is a very simple matter to comprehend. The Mujahedeen Khalq (MKO/MEK), is a terrorist organization comprising disgruntled Iranians who are now working for the CIA and Mossad. The MKO-MEK, is openly supported by the US-Israel as their strategic allies and they are the ones who are responsible for the assassinations of the Iranian nuclear scientists and terror attacks within Iran. Time & again the Chabad Lubavitch members and houses are involved with acts of terror and drug smuggling operations. Chabad Houses, under the guise of religious centres are also dens of espionage and used by Mossad operatives the world over. Thus the Chabad Lubavitch centres across the country need to be probed by the government agencies, as they certainly pose a grave security threat. There has been increased activity of Israeli “tourists”, where a number of them have been caught red-handed with revolvers, live ammunition & satellite phones in the last 5 years. Due to the direct intervention of the Israeli embassy, they are let off by the police within 24 hours, despite the fact that they are foreigners and supposedly “tourists”. Recently an Israeli couple Shenor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi were
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ordered to be deported from Kochi (Kerala), after being under surveillance by the RAW and the police authorities and were suspected of being involved in drug smuggling and espionage as Kochi is a sensitive Indian naval base. They are still to be deported pending a court order. This false-flag attack has once again opened the doors for more Mossad agents to come into India, under the pretext of security considerations & joint investigations. In the Indian context, the HindutvaRSS are once again under pressure as the NIA-ATS have arrested another of their activists, Kamal Chauhan from Indore in connection with the Samjhauta train terror attack, previously blamed on Pakistan. These arrests also come at a time when the crucial UP and 4 other state elections are on and in any case the BJP is under pressure due to many other issues of corruption & morality where it stands utterly exposed. Thus this terror attack surely helps to change the national headlines and priorities. The terror attack has again been carried out in a high-security area, barely a few hundred meters away for the residence of the PM himself and thus this is not possible without the collusion & support of certain sections of the IB-RAW that are aligned to the Mossad & CIA. Also has the visit of SM Krishna (being probed for a multicrore iron ore scam) to Israel got some relation with this false-flag attack? Clearly there is a struggle within the Indian government & bureaucracy in terms of our alignment with the
L E A D A R T I C L E Imperial-Zionist powers and the other that represents the Non-Aligned Movement & Third World Solidarity. But the more crucial point is that, Israel-Mossad will use the strategy of false-flag terror to further demonize, isolate & escalate the war-mongering against Iran & the Hezbollah & finally against the Fatah, Hamas, PLO & the rest of the Palestinian national resistance as they continue to unite & forge a common front and strategy against the Israeli occupation, based on collective popular mass resistance. Israel and its Zionist allies are fabricating false-flag terror attacks, finally leading to another massive 9/11 style false flag on US & possibly European soil, after which we will witness an Israeli attack on Iran, with the backing of the Western powers, who will immediately step in. Thus it is necessary to expose the Israeli-Mossad-CIA role in the 9/11 terror attacks, as that started a new wave of Zionist-imperial intervention, wars and an ongoing genocidal holocaust of the Third World nations. A war is on the horizon . . .we are heading towards WWIII & now India is being prepared to fight that war on the side of the Imperial-Zionist powers. 16 February, 2012 Feroze Mithiborwala is a peace activist in Mumbai. He led the Asia to Gaza peace flotilla. Source: Countercurrents.org
OBAMA UNVEILS WAR STRATEGY FOCUSED
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By Bill Van Auken The military strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama Thursday keeps massive spending on the US war machine largely intact, while shifting its focus decisively toward China. Obama made an unprecedented
appearance at the Pentagon Thursday, marking the first time that a US president has personally participated in the presentation of such a defense strategic guidance document, which presents in broad strokes the priorities and direction for the US armed forces.
In presenting the document, entitled “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense,” Obama insisted that the US military budget would remain higher than those of the next 10 military powers continued next page
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continued from page 2 combined. Preemptively responding to right-wing claims he was “cutting” military spending, he pointed out, “The growth in the defense budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this: it will still grow.”
The guidance calls for a fundamental re-orientation of American military power toward the Asia-Pacific region, while affirming its commitment to maintaining US military control over the oil-rich Persian Gulf. “All trends are shifting to the Pacific,” stressed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey. “Our strategic challenges will largely emanate out of the Pacific region.” In its blunt and provocative portrayal of China as an enemy, the document reflects the steady build-up toward a confrontation over dominance of the Asia Pacific region, the scene of the world’s greatest economic growth. The guidance document asserts that “US economic and security interests are inextricably linked to developments” in this region and, while Washington will continue its interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere across the globe, “we will of necessity rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region.”
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countries that “will continue to pursue asymmetric means to counter our power projection capabilities,” citing “electronic and cyber warfare, ballistic and cruise missiles, advanced air defenses, mining and other methods.” The Pentagon has grown increasingly concerned over China’s development of torpedoes capable of attacking US aircraft carriers, which were previously seen as impregnable means of deploying massive US military power off China’s shores.
The document also includes multiple assertions of US determination to uphold the “free flow of goods” and “access to the global commons,” which are primarily thinly veiled references to Washington’s increasingly bellicose intervention in regional disputes over the South China Sea.
“The growth of China’s military power,” the document warns, “must be accompanied by greater clarity of its strategic intentions in order to avoid causing friction in the region.”
In surrounding himself with the uniformed members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as civilian Pentagon officials, Obama was undoubtedly attempting to cast himself as a handson commander-in-chief and to insulate himself from criticism from the Republican right. Republican presidential candidates, leading Republican members of Congress and sections of the right-wing media all seized upon the document’s budgetary implications, portraying them as a gutting of the American military.
In a section entitled “Project Power despite Anti-Access/Area Denial Challenges,” the guidance document lumps together China and Iran as
The strategic guidance represents nothing of the sort. As Obama himself boasted, the administration’s proposal to trim around $450 billion in projected
The document stresses US efforts to forge a series of military alliances ranging from Japan and South Korea to the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, while singling out India for the role of an “anchor” for US security interests in the Indian Ocean region.
A R T I C L E S expenditures over the next ten years will still leave the Pentagon’s base budget higher than the last one implemented by the George W. Bush administration. The cuts being proposed by the Obama administration are not to the current budget, but rather to the projected spending over the next decade, which factored in an assumed steady increase in funding for Washington’s bloated armed forces. The past decade, dominated by the “global war on terror” and the simultaneous wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, saw military spending in the US soar by more than 80 percent. The plan being implemented by Obama will maintain military spending at this unprecedentedly high level, even as the White House and the US Congress prepare to take a meat axe to core social programs and benefits, including Medicare and Social Security. Media reports on the presentation of the strategic review have included claims that the document unveiled on Thursday represented Obama putting his “personal stamp” on US military policy. This is even more absurd than the claims about crippling budget cuts. The outline presented in the strategic guidance has been worked out within the US armed forces command and the military-industrial complex, with Obama serving as little more than a political spokesman for these powerful interests. In its broad outlines, the guidance presents proposals that are remarkably similar to those pushed by Bush’s first defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who entered the Pentagon pushing for a “revolution” in military policy. Like Rumsfeld’s proposals, the guidance presented on Thursday advocates streamlining the ground forces, particularly the Army, while relying more heavily on Special Operations troops and hi-tech weaponry, including continued next page
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unmanned attack drones. While the document provides no specific numbers relating to budgets and manpower, it has been reported that with the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and the drawdown from Afghanistan, the Army’s ranks will be thinned from the current 570,000 to 490,000. Similar reductions in force are reportedly in store for the Marine Corps, meaning that tens of thousands of troops returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be thrown onto America’s long unemployment lines. While undoubtedly the senior brass in the Army and Marines are chafing at these cuts, their concerns are outweighed by powerful corporate interests that are pleased with the guidance’s promise of continued spending on a new stealth bomber, submarines, star wars technology and other air and sea weapons systems that are seen as the most efficient means of aggressively projecting US military might. During Thursday’s press conference, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta directly addressed these interests, declaring the Pentagon’s commitment to “preserving the health
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and viability of the nation’s defense industrial base.” In his appearance at the Pentagon, Obama repeated his assertion that, based on the withdrawal from Iraq and the minimal troop reductions in Afghanistan, “the tides of war are receding.” On the contrary, the defense strategic guidance demonstrates that US imperialism remains committed to the use of armed force to assert its hegemony over the oil-rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia, even as it gears up its war machine for an armed confrontation with China. Giving a cynical tip of the hat to the “Arab Spring”, the guidance affirms US reliance on the despotic monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council in preparing for a military confrontation with Iran. Defense Secretary Panetta provided a glimpse of what is on the horizon, assuring the assembled media that the US military is prepared to wage “a land war in Korea” while simultaneously defeating Iran in a confrontation over the Straits of Hormuz.
A R T I C L E S China issued a strong reaction to the defense guidance document. “China must make the US realize that its rise cannot be stopped,” Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper declared. Insisting that Beijing must not “give up its peripheral security,” the paper added that “China needs to enhance its longdistance military attack ability and develop more ways to threaten US territory in order to gradually push outward the front line of its ‘game’ with America.” Confronting the relative decline of American capitalism and the rise of China, Washington is turning toward the reckless use of military might to defend its position of global dominance, threatening a conflagration that would eclipse the wars of the past decade. 7 January, 2012
Bill Van Auken is a politician and activist for the Social Equality Party and was a Presidential candidate in the U.S. election of 2004. He is a fulltime reporter for World Socialist Web Site Source: WSWS.org
LEAKED UN REPORT REVEALS TORTURE, LYNCHINGS IN POST-GADDAFI LIBYA
AND
ABUSE
By Kim Sengupta Thousands of people, including women and children, are being illegally detained by rebel militias in Libya, according to a report by the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations. Many of the prisoners are suffering torture and systematic mistreatment while being held in private jails outside the control of the country’s new government. The document, seen by The Independent, states that while political prisoners being held by the Gaddafi regime have been released, their places have been taken by up to 7,000 new
“enemies of the state”, “disappeared” in a dysfunctional system, with no recourse to the law. The report will come as uncomfortable reading for the Western governments, including Britain, which backed the campaign to oust Gaddafi. A UN resolution was secured in March in order to protect civilians from abuses by the regime, which was at the time mercilessly suppressing the uprising against the Gaddafi regime. There was evidence, says the report by Ban Ki-moon, due to be presented
to the Security Council, that both sides committed acts amounting war crimes in the bitter battle for Colonel Gaddafi’s hometown, Sirte. The SecretaryGeneral who recently visited Libya, echoes the concern expressed by many world leaders over the killing of the former dictator by rebel fighters pointing out that Gaddafi was captured alive before being put to death. The report also stresses that it is a matter of great praise that the country has been liberated after 42 years of totalitarian rule. The victorious continued next page
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continued from page 4 opposition - which formed a new interim government this week - fully intends to follow a democratic path and introduce a functioning legal system, he says. The report is due to be circulated among members of the UN Security Council, and discussed next week.
However, Ban Ki-moon also presents a grim scenario of the growing power of the armed militias that control of the streets of many towns, including those of the capital, Tripoli, and the settling of internecine feuds through gun battles resulting in deaths and injuries. Meanwhile the lawlessness has resulted in the vast majority of the police force not being able to return to work. In the few places where they have been back on duty under experienced officers, such as Tripoli, their role has been restricted largely to directing traffic. Libya is the only Arab uprising to have attracted direct Western military support, despite the closer links forged with the West in recent years by the Gaddafi regime. The resistance in London, Washington and elsewhere to Nato-led intervention in other Arab countries has centred largely on a lack of coherent opposition. Political backers of the air strikes in Libya had cited the National Transitional Council (NTC) as a credible alternative to the Gaddafi regime. The scope of escalating strife, inside the country as well as the wider region, is highlighted by the caches of weapons abandoned by the regime and subsequently looted. These include shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, known as Manpads, capable of bringing down commercial airliners. The Report of the Secretary-General on United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) states that: “Libya had accumulated the largest known
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stockpile of Manpads, of any nonManpad-producing country. Although thousands were destroyed during the seven-month Nato operations, there are increasing concerns over the looting and likely proliferation of these portable defence systems, as well as munitions and mines, highlighting the potential risk to local and regional stability.”
But the continuing human rights abuses, says the Secretary-General’s report, are the most pressing concern. The report says that “while political prisoners held by the Gaddafi regime have been released, an estimated 7,000 detainees are currently held in prisons and makeshift detention centres, most of which are under the control of revolutionary brigades, with no access to due process in the absence of a functioning police and judiciary.” Of particular worry was the fate of women being held for alleged links with the regime, often due to family connections, sometimes with their children locked up alongside them. “There have also been reports of women held in detention in the absence of female guards and under male supervision, and of children detained alongside adults,” says the report. A number of black Africans were lynched following the revolution following claims, often false, that they were hired guns for the Gaddafi regime. The city of Tawerga, mainly comprised of residents originally from sub-Saharan countries, was largely
A R T I C L E S destroyed by rebel fighters from neighbouring Misrata. The port city had withstood a prolonged and brutal siege in the hands of the regime forces during which, it is claimed, fighters from Tawerga were particularly aggressive and brutal. The report says that “sub-Saharan Africans, in some cases accused or suspected of being mercenaries, constitute a large number of the detainees. Some detainees have reportedly been subjected to torture and ill treatment. Cases have been reported of individuals being targeted because of the colour of their skin.” The document continues: “Tawergas are reported to have been targeted in revenge killings, or taken by armed men from their homes, checkpoints and hospitals, and some allegedly later abused or executed in detention. Members of the community have fled to various cities across Libya.” The UN findings chart the vicious abuse carried out by the regime until the final days of the civil war. In a personal note in the document, Ban Ki-Moon said: “I was deeply shocked by my visit to an agricultural warehouse in the Khallital-Ferjan neighbourhood of Tripoli where elements of the Gaddafi regime had detained civilians in inhuman conditions, had subjected some to torture and had massacred as many as they could and burned their bodies.” “The international community must support the efforts to establish the fate of missing persons and to bring to justice perpetrators with the greatest responsibility for such crimes.” 24 November, 2011 Kim Sengupta is a journalist with The Independent, specialising in defence. Source: Countercurrents.org
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AFGHANISTAN
By Pepe Escobar
Asian powers jostle for position amid vast mineral reserves and strategic oil pipelines, while West keeps bombing. Afghanistan is not often perceived as a mineral Holy Grail.
Few may know it, but it’s not only Africa that is the object of a fierce IndiaChina business “war”. Afghanistan is also a key chessboard. There are five types of minerals on the Afghan horizon - gold, copper, iron ore, and inevitably, oil and gas - and the Indians and the Chinese are all over them.
But, as it turns out, between $1-3 trillion in mineral wealth lies unexplored across the Hindu Kush. There’s enough uranium, lithium, copper and iron ore to potentially turn Afghanistan into a commodities powerhouse. The Pentagon knows all about it - how could it not? And the Russians have known about it since at least the 1970s, when they mapped out all the uranium riches of northern Afghanistan. Washington may have complex geopolitical energy reasons to remain in Afghanistan - as explored in a previous Al Jazeera article that generated enormous reader response. For its part, Islamabad is still obsessed with viewing Afghanistan as a pliable satrap. But the going gets much juicier when one looks at key Eurasian players such as Russia, India and China and their own, non-Pentagonised reasons to come to this mineral Walhalla. Business Suits, Not Bombs Early next month a crucial bidding war begins in Kabul. It concerns Hajigak, the world’s biggest iron ore deposits, which are located in central Afghanistan (at least 1.8bn tons, according to a Soviet estimate made in the 1960s). To the sound of much predictable Taliban grumbling, all 15 bidding companies are from India including giants Tata Steel and JSW, the country’s third-largest private steel company. A stable, business-friendly Afghanistan is absolutely essential for India - a gateway to oil and gas from Iran, Central Asia and the Caspian. India is building power stations and strategic roads, such as the one linking Afghanistan with the Iranian port of Chahbahar.
China Metallurgical Corporation already got a big prize in 2008 - the Aynak copper mine in Logar, southeast of Kabul - for $3.4bn. Why? Because Western companies were asleep at the wheel (or paranoid with “security”); because the Chinese wasted no time; and, according to the Afghan Ministry of Mines, “because of their package” (in characteristic Chinese style, that includes building a whopping $6bn railway connecting northern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan with western China). Kabul will get up to $350m a year in royalties. At least 5,000 jobs will be created, with added benefits such as health clinics, roads and schools. Security may indeed be a huge problem; there’s a war going on and safe transit routes are a mirage. But as war-weary Afghans are poignantly stressing, that’s already a start. The Business Track in Afghanistan Now Runs Parallel to the Political Track. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visited Tehran twice within only three weeks. He had two face-to-face meetings with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The House of Saud, to put it mildly, freaked out. After all, this Islamabad-Tehran
lovefest totally smashes the myth that the so-called “Shia crescent” is the greatest threat to Sunnis in the Middle East and South Asia. Washington, predictably, was also hardly fond of it. The occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq can be seen as an attempt by the US to encircle Iran from both east and west (that’s certainly Tehran’s view), and Washington believed Pakistan would play the same role on Iran’s southeast border. In a fascinating exchange that must have choked many a throat across the Potomac, Khamenei told Zardari that Pakistan’s “real enemy” was the West, “and the US on top of it”, while Zardari told Khamenei that Iran was a “model of resistance and path to progress”. What next? Karachi taxis sporting Khomeini magnets? But the most fascinating part is that Tehran and Islamabad are now discussing not only security matters but also business, such as an upcoming free-trade agreement and a currency swap scheme that would move both countries away from the US dollar. On the security front, Islamabad has proposed what would be an Integrated Border Management Regime - that is, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan fighting together against drug trafficking. That also happens to be Russia’s numberone priority in Central and South Asia. Over twelve tonnes of pure heroin that’s over 3 billion single doses reach Russia every year from Afghanistan. On the business front, it was all about the crucial Pipelineistan gambit, the Iran-Pakistan (IP), also known as the “peace pipeline”. IP may supply as much as 50 per cent of Pakistan’s energy needs. There are delays, of course. By the end of 2012, Iran will have built its whole stretch of pipeline up to the Pakistani border. Yet Pakistan will only continued next page
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start working on its own stretch by early 2012. But by 2015 IP should be online, forming a strategic umbilical cord between Shia Iran and majority-Sunni Pakistan and rocking the Eurasian geopolitical equation. IP will cross ultra-strategic Balochistan, which is not only dripping with resources but which also, as a transit corridor, provides the shortest access to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea. Iran and Pakistan as Allies? So look for another unintended consequence of Washington’s obsession with the war on terror: Iran and Pakistan as increasingly close allies. One can already foresee Tehran sharing on-the-ground intelligence with Islamabad on Washington’s myriad covert ops inside Pakistani territory. Another unintended consequence unthinkable only two or three years ago - is that now Tehran, which is tremendously influential in northwest Afghanistan, views the Taliban the Mullah Omar way: as an indigenous “national resistance” movement against US/NATO occupation and perpetual military bases. Moreover, Tehran is also
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in sync with Islamabad in their support for the wily Hamid Karzai, who has increasingly distanced himself from Washington. There are huge problems, of course. Although Zardari told Khamenei that Islamabad supports Karzai and an “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned” peace process, hardly any progress can be made without a substantial reversal of Pakistan’s official Afghan policy, which considers Afghanistan as little more than “strategic depth” in a confrontation with India, and which does everything to contain India’s influence in Afghanistan. Moreover, regional priorities differ. Moscow worries about its own “war on drugs,” wants NATO out of its backyard, and does not want US military bases in Afghanistan. Beijing worries about the Taliban influencing the Uighurs in Xinjiang. Tehran will keep cultivating its privileged relationship with Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks - and not Pashtuns. What is certain is that any unilateral Made-in-USA road map for Afghanistan, of the “surge, bribe and stay” variety, is doomed to failure without input from these key Eurasian players.
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A R T I C L E S Tragedy aside, the US/NATO war in Afghanistan is now seriously flirting with surrealism - witness the Taliban’s accusation that the West hacked their website, their phones, their emails and spread false rumours of Mullah Omar’s death. Forget about “medieval towelheads on hash”; these are iPhonefriendly Taliban who tweet and post on Facebook - and command quite a following. Unsurprisingly, gloomy warmachine NATO “declines to comment”. It will be fascinating to watch what schemes the House of Saud will concoct to smash the new businessfriendly Tehran-Islamabad axis; after all, Saudi Arabia political/economic annex. But not as fascinating as watching which Russian, Chinese and Indian companies will make a killing off of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth while the Atlanticist West bomb themselves to irrelevancy. 29 July, 2011 Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for the Asia Times. His latest book is Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com. Source: Al- Jazeera
MALAYSIA?
By Chandra Muzaffar In his widely read blog (13 February 2012), the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, criticises the politics of regime change pursued by the United States of America. He is concerned that Malaysia may also be a target for regime change. And the US candidate to head the new regime which will be in full, complete support of US policies, he says, is none other than the Leader of the Opposition, Anwar Ibrahim. Why should the US government seek regime change in Malaysia when the present Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has sought to further strengthen ties with Washington? He has even employed a Washington based public relations firm, Apco, to boost
Malaysia’s image in the US. Najib’s personal relations with US President, Barack Obama, are supposed to be “excellent.” And yet it is quite conceivable that the forces that shape Washington’s attitude towards Malaysian politics and political leaders may prefer Anwar to Najib for a number of reasons. One, while Najib may have some rapport with formal leaders and the formal state, it is Anwar who has intimate links with the “deep state” in the US system. It is the deep state represented by powerful interests such as the Zionist lobbies, the Christian Right, the big wigs on Wall Street, the oil barons, the arms merchants and the
media Moghuls which is in effective control. To appreciate the distinction between the two, one has to reflect on Obama’s Cairo speech on 4th June 2009 which stated explicitly that “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements” but in reality the formal leader has had to yield to the Zionists and the Christian Right who are enthusiastic promoters of Zionist expansion at the expense of the Palestinians. Anwar’s entry into the deep state was through his close friendship with Paul Wolfowitz, the former US Deputy Secretary of Defence and one of the staunchest champions of Zionist power. It was mainly because of continued next page
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continued from page 7 Wolfowitz that Anwar became the first Chairman of the Foundation for the Future in 2005, an organisation established ostensibly to promote democracy in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) whose real purpose is to perpetuate US-Israeli hegemony over the region. Even before this, in 1998, in the midst of the Asian financial crisis, Anwar was espousing an IMF type solution to the nation’s economic woes thus revealing his political orientation.
This is why during his first two trials for abuse of power and sodomy between 1998 and 2004 and during his recent trial for sodomy, the mainstream Western media went out of its way to demand that the Malaysian authorities acquit Anwar. Wolfowitz and former US Vice-President, Al Gore, even penned a joint opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on 4 August 2010 urging the US government to persuade the Malaysian government to “ act with wisdom” in Anwar’s trial. A day before he was acquitted, on 8 January 2012, The Washington Post in an editorial warned that “ If the verdict fails that test (Malaysia’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law) there should be consequences for Mr. Najib’s relations with Washington.” This was an undisguised, unabashed attempt by one of the media pillars of the deep state to pressurise a sovereign nation to submit to its will. Two, if Anwar is the darling of the deep state in the US, it is partly because of his stand on Israel. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on 26 January 2012, he reiterated his support for “all efforts to protect the security of the state of Israel.” It should be emphasised here that support for Israeli security — contrary to what he is saying now — was not contingent on “Israel respecting the aspirations of the Palestinians.” In the interview Israel’s security stands by itself. It is diplomatic recognition of Israel that Anwar links to Palestinian aspirations. Placing Israel’s security on a pedestal is the sort of gesture that the deep state
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and Zionists the world over laud, especially if the advocate is a Muslim leader. For Israel’s security has become the justification for all its policies of occupation, annexation and aggression in the last 63 years. Israel’s security is the albatross around the neck of the dispossessed Palestinians and other Arabs who have lost their land and dignity to the occupying power. It is obvious that by acknowledging the primacy of Israeli security, Anwar was sending a clear message to the deep state and to Tel Aviv and Washington — that he is someone that they could trust.
In contrast, the Najib government, in spite of its attempts to get closer to Washington, remains critical of Israeli aggression and intransigence. Najib has described the Israeli government as a “serial killer” and a “gangster.” This has incensed the deep state. Anwar, on the other hand, told Zionist friends in Washington two years ago that he regretted using terms such as “Zionist aggression” (Jackson Diehl “Flirting with zealotry in Malaysia” The Washington Post 28 June 2010). Three, Anwar is the choice of the deep state for another reason which in its own reckoning is becoming almost as important as Israel. This is the rise of China and what it means for US global hegemony. Elements within the deep state appear to have convinced Obama that China is a threat to its neighbours and to the US’s dominant role in the Asia-Pacific. Establishing a military base in Darwin, resurrecting the US’s military alliance with the Philippines, coaxing Japan to play a more overt military role in the region, instigating Vietnam to confront China over the
A R T I C L E S Spratly islands, and encouraging India to counterbalance Chinese power, are all part and parcel of the larger US agenda of encircling and containing China. In pursuing this agenda the US wants reliable allies — not just friends — in Asia. In this regard, Malaysia is important because of its position as a littoral state with sovereign rights over the Straits of Melaka which is one of China’s most critical supply routes that transports much of the oil and other materials vital for its economic development. Will the containment of China lead to a situation where the hegemon determined to perpetuate its dominant power seeks to exercise control over the Straits in order to curb China’s ascendancy? Would a trusted ally in Kuala Lumpur facilitate such control? The current Malaysian leadership does not fit the bill. It has sustained and deepened the bond of friendship between Malaysia and China through increased bilateral trade and investments. China is Malaysia’s biggest trading partner globally and Malaysia is China’s biggest trading partner within ASEAN. China is most appreciative of the fact that Malaysia under the late Tun Razak was the first non-communist country in Southeast Asia to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1974. When his son Najib became Prime Minister in April 2009, China was the first country outside ASEAN that he visited. In a number of regional and international forums, Malaysia has maintained that China is not a threat to its neighbours and does not seek global dominance. These are views that do not accord with the deep state’s bellicose stance towards China. It explains why the deep state may be inclined towards regime change in Kuala Lumpur. 29 February, 2012 Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) and Professor of Global Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
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By Narabail Virodi Vedike The human sacrifice that took place at Thirumaladevara Koppa in Ranebennuru taluk of Haveri district of Karnataka State, India on 26 November 2011 has already drawn the attention of the people all over the state. A 17 year old dalit boy by the name Basavaraja Kadimani was sacrificed to set right Vastu Dosha (Inauspicious faults and shortcomings in a building) of the house of Basavanagowda of the same village. Basavaraja was working with Basavanagowda, a landlord, as a tractor driver. In fact almost all the members of his family had worked for the land lord at one time or the other in the past. Nijalinga swamy, popularly known as Tatu Ajja of Niralagi near Gadag used to visit Basavanagowda very often. Under his guidance the landlord had already performed many rituals on various occasions. On 26 November, 2012 Basavaraja went to his master’s place at night and did not return. Next day early in the morning the members of his family, father, mother and elder brother were informed by the police of Haligeri police station that Basavaraja had been injured in a fight with Ninganagowda, the son of Basavanagowda and had been hospitalized. The police took them not to the hospital, but to the police station where they told them that their boy had been killed and not just injured. They were brought to a spot near their village where they saw a gunny sack containing the dead body of Basavaraj. The body bore marks of vermilion and turmeric. It also had a hole on the forehead. An eye had been plucked out and a few teeth were missing. The parents and others suspected that it was a case of sacrifice and complained to the police on those grounds. But the
police did not register it as case of sacrifice but continued to maintain that it was only a murder. Later on, the villagers also found traces of blood sprinkled all around the house. When the police opened the doors of the house nearly 50 days after the incident blood marks were also found inside the building. Still the police were not ready to consider the angle of human sacrifice in this case. Ninganagowda, the son of Basavanagowda had surrendered to the police saying that he had killed Basavaraja.
Members of Peoples’ Democratic Forum and Swabhimani Dalita Shakti visited the village on 9 January 2012 and met the villagers including the parents and relatives of Basavaraja and also the police officer(Dy S P of Ranebennuru) investigating the case. We found that in spite of the evidence and complaint by the parents the police are not ready to consider the angle of human sacrifice seriously. They have been insisting that it was only a murder committed by Ninganagowda suspecting an illicit relationship between Basavaraja and his (Ninganagowda’s) wife which on verification does not sound credible. The people of the village and also various other progressive elements of the area held a protest rally and demonstration at Ranebennuru on 30 January 2012 to press the demand to consider it as not merely a murder
but as a human sacrifice. It is only then that the sorcerer, Tatu Ajja’s role will be exposed. It is essential not merely to find out the truth but also to prevent any recurrence of such superstitious practices in future. But somehow the police of Ranebennuru are not prepared to move in that direction. This will only protect the sorcerer and the head of the family Basavanagowda. Already an application has been made to the State Human Rights Commission and an appeal to the honourable governor of Karnataka has been submitted through the Tahasildar of Ranebennuru. Demands: 1)The police of Ranebennuru should take the complaint of the parents of Basavaraj seriously and treat it as a case of human sacrifice. 2)If the local police fails to do so the case should be handed over to the CBI by the state government. 3)The sorcerer Tatu Ajja and the head of the family Basavanagowda who was responsible for the murder/sacrifice should be arrested. 4)Compensation should be paid to the family according to rules existing in such cases. Shivalingam,(Swabhimani Dalita Shakti), Nagari Babaiah, (People’s Democratic Forum), Nagaragere Ramesh, (Peoples’ Democratic Forum), Kranti Govind, (Swabhimani Dalita Shakti), Ramadas Rao, (PUCL) 16 February, 2012 Narabail Virodi Vedike is an organisation in India Source: Countercurrents.org
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THE WASHINGTON-“MODERATE ISLAM” ALLIANCE: CONTAINING REBELLION; DEFENDING EMPIRE (PART I) By James Petras The dynamic of democratic, nationalist and class struggles throughout the Moslem world has set in motion a new constellation of alliances between the imperial West (US and European Union) and Islamist parties, leaders and regimes, dubbed “moderate” by US officials, propagandists and academics.
This essay analyzes the changing contemporary context of imperial domination, especially the demise of longstanding client regimes. It then examines the previous significant ties between western imperial powers and Islamist movements and regimes and the basis of ‘historical collaboration’. The third part of the paper will outline the political circumstances in which the imperial powers embrace “moderate” Islamists in government and utilize “armed fundamentalists” in opposition to secular regimes. We will critically analyze how “moderate” Islam is defined by the Western imperialist powers. Is this a tactical or strategic alliance? What are the political “tradeoffs”? What do imperialism’s neoliberal clients and their new ‘moderate’ Muslim allies have in common and how do they differ? In conclusion we will evaluate the viability of this alliance and its capacity to contain and deflect the popular democratic movements and repress the burgeoning class and national struggles, especially in regard to the ‘obstacles’ posed by the Israel-USZionist ties and the continued IMF
policies which promise to worsen the crises in the Muslim countries. The Transition from Neo-Liberal Client Rulers to Power-Sharing with Moderate Islamists The key motivation in Washington’s and the European imperial troika’s (England, France and Germany) embrace of what their press and officialdom hail as “moderate” Islamist parties has been the collapse or weakening of their long-term client rulers. Faced with the ouster of Mubarak, in Egypt, Ali in Tunisia and Saleh in Yemen, mass protests in Morocco and Algeria, the US-EU turned to conservative Muslim leaders who were willing to work within the existing state institutional framework (including the army and state police), uphold the capitalist order and align with the empire against anti-imperial movements and states. In Egypt, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) (the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood), in Tunisia the Renaissance Party, in Morocco the Justice and Development Party have all indicated their willingness to serve as reliable partners in blocking the prodemocracy movements that challenge the socio-economic status quo and the long-standing military-imperial linkages. The Islamist collaborators are called “moderate and respectable” because they agree to participate in elections within the boundaries of the established political and economic order; they have dropped any criticism of imperial and colonial treaties and trade agreements signed by the previous client regions including ones which collaborate with Israel’s colonization of Palestine. Equally important “moderate” means supporting imperial wars against nationalist and secular Arab republics, such as Syria and Libya, and isolating and/or repressing class based trade unions and secular-left parties.
“Moderate” Islamists have become the Empire’s ‘contraceptive of choice’ against any chance the massive Arab peoples’ revolt might give birth to substantive egalitarian social changes and bring those brutal pro- western officials, responsible for so many crimes against humanity, to justice. The West and their client officials in the military and police have agreed to a kind of “power-sharing” with the moderate/respectable(read ‘reactionary’) Islamist parties. The Islamists would be responsible for imposing orthodox economic policies and re-establishing ‘order ’ (i.e. bolstering the existing one) in partnership with pro-multinational bank economists and pro US-EU generals and security officials. In exchange the Islamists could take certain ministries, appoint their members, finance electoral clientele among the poor and push their ‘moderate’ religious, social and cultural agenda. Basically, the elected Islamists would replace the old corrupt dictatorial regimes in running the state and signing off on more free trade agreements with the EU. Their role would keep the leftists, nationalists and populists out of power and from gaining mass support. Their job would substitute spiritual solace and “inner worth” via Islam in place of redistributing land, income and power from the elite, including the foreign multi-nationals to the peasants, workers, unemployed and exploited low-paid employees. Why the Empire Arms Fundamentalist Anti-Secular Muslims While the US and EU have backed respectable “moderate Islam” in heading off a popular upheaval of the young and unemployed, in other contexts they have enlisted violent, fundamentalist Islamic terrorists to overthrow secular independent antiimperialists regimes – like Libya, Syria continued next page
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continued from page 10 - just as they had done earlier in Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. The US, Qatar and the European troika financed and armed Libyan fundamentalist militias and then engaged in a murderous eight months air and sea assault to ensure their client’s ‘victory’ over the secular Gaddafi regime. Fresh from NATO’s success, the US, the European ‘Troika’ and Turkey, with the backing of the League of Arab collaborator princes and emirs, have financed a violent Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in Syria, intent on destroying the nationalist economy and modern secular state.
The US and EU have openly unleashed their fundamentalists allies in order to destroy independent adversaries in the name of “democracy” and ‘humanitarian intervention’, a laughable claim in light of decade long colonial wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. All target regimes have one crime in common: Using their national resources to develop modern secular states – independent of imperial dictates. NATO implements its campaigns through conservative ‘moderate’ or armed fundamentalist Islamist movements depending on the specific needs, circumstances and range of options in any given target nation. With the fall of pro-Empire ‘secular dictatorships’ in Egypt and Tunisia, pliable conservative Islamist leaders are the fall back “lesser evil”. When the opportunity to overthrow an independent secular or nationalist regime arises, armed and violent fundamentalist mercenaries become the political vehicle of choice. As with European empires in the past, the modern Western imperial countries have relied on retrograde religious parties and leaders to collaborate and serve their economic and military interests and to provide mercenaries for imperial armies to savage any antiimperialist social revolutionaries. In that sense US and European rulers are neither ‘pro nor anti’ Islam, it all
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depends on their national and class position. Islamists who collaborate with Empire are “moderate” allies and if they attack an anti-imperialist regime, they become ‘freedom fighters’. On the
other hand, they become “terrorists” or “fundamentalists” when they oppose imperial occupation, pillage or colonial settlements. Contemporary History of Islamist-Imperial Collaboration The historical record of western imperial expansion reveals many instances of collaboration and cooptation as well as conflict with Islamist regimes, movements and parties. In the early 1960’s the CIA backed a brutal military coup against the secular Indonesian nationalist regime of Sukarno, and encouraged their puppet dictator General Suharto to unleash Muslim militia in a veritable “holy war” exterminating nearly one million leftist trade unionists, school teachers, students, farmers, communists or suspected sympathizers and their family members. The horrific ‘Jakarta Option’ became a model for CIA operations elsewhere. In Yugoslavia the US and Europe promoted and financed fundamentalists Muslims in Bosnia, importing mujahedeen who would later form part of Al Qaida, and then backed the Kosovo Liberation Army, a known terrorist organization, in order to completely break-up and ethnically ‘cleanse’ a modern secular multi-national state – going so far as to have Americans and NATO bomb Belgrade for the first time since the Nazis in the Second World War. During
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A R T I C L E S administration, the CIA joined with Saudi Arabia’s ruling royalty, providing billions of dollars in arms and military supplies to Afghan Muslim fundamentalists in their brutal but successful Jihad overthrowing a modern, secular nationalist regime backed by the USSR. The murderous fate of school teachers and educated women in the aftermath was quickly covered up. Needless to say, wherever US imperialism faces leftists or secular, modernizing anti-imperialist regimes, Washington turns to retrograde Islamic leaders willing and able to destroy the progressive regime in return for imperialist support. Such coalitions are built mainly around fundamentalist and moderate Islamist opposition to secular, class- based politics allied with the Empire’s hostility to any anti-imperialist challenge to its domination.. The same ‘coalition’ of Islamists and the Empire has been glaringly obvious during the NATO assault on Libya and ontinues against Syria: The Muslims provide the shock troops on the ground; NATO provides the aerial bombing, funds, arms, sanctions, embargoes and propaganda. These Islamist-Imperialist coalitions are usually temporary, based on a common secular or nationalist enemy and not on any common strategic interest. After the defeat of a secular anti-imperialist regime, militant Muslims may find themselves attacked bthe colonial neo-liberal regime most favored by the imperial west. This happened in Afghanistan and elsewhere after the overseas Islamist fighters (Afghan Arabs) returned to their own neo-colonized, collaborating home countries, like Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Egypt and elsewhere. 13 December, 2011 Part II of this article will be published in the April 2012 JUST Commentary. James Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals. Source: Countercurrents.org
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