Thursday, January 31, 2008

مشرف کی کم ظرفی

Full Story at BBC Urdu

پاکستان کے بعض ریٹائرڈ جرنیلوں نے صدر پرویز مشرف کے اس بیان پر سخت رد عمل ظاہر کیا ہے جس میں انہوں نے کہا تھا کہ ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی تنظیم والے ’نو گُڈ مین‘ یعنی بیکار لوگ ہیں۔

ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی غیر سرکاری تنظیم کے سرکردہ رہنما اور سابق آرمی چیف مرزا اسلم بیگ نے بی بی سی سے بات چیت میں صدر پرویز مشرف کے بیان پر تبصرہ کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ’یہ صدر مشرف کی کم ظرفی ہے۔ جو اپنے خاندان اور اپنے ماں باپ کوگالیاں دے وہ اپنے آپ کو گالیاں دے رہا ہوتا ہے‘۔

مرزا اسلم بیگ نے کہا کہ ’پرویز مشرف کو اپنے بڑوں اور بزرگوں کا ادب ہے اور نہ ہی قومی اداروں کے لیے کوئی احترام ہے۔ یہ دیکھیں کہ کس بہانے سے انہوں نے منتخب وزیراعظم کو ہٹایا، جمہوری اداروں کو تباہ کیا اور اپنے اقتدار کے لیے انہوں نے کیا کچھ نہیں کیا۔ پھر جب عدالتیں انصاف دینے کے لیے کھڑی ہوئیں تو جو عدالتوں کا حشر کیا ہے اس کی مثال پوری مہذب دنیا میں
نہیں ملتی‘۔




ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی غیر سرکاری تنظیم کے صدر لیفٹیننٹ جنرل (ر) فیض علی چشتی نے بی بی سی سے بات کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ’پرویز مشرف نے اگر ہم سابق فوجیوں کو ’نو گڈ مین‘ کہا ہے تو وہ خود بھی اب ریٹائرڈ جنرل ہیں۔ جب وہ اچھے نہیں ہیں تو عہدہ چھوڑ دیں۔ صدر صاحب کچھ تو اپنی بات کا مان رکھیں‘۔

انہوں نے کہا کہ ’ملکی حالات خراب ہیں، فوج اور عوام ایک دوسرے کو مار رہے ہیں، وزیرستان میں کیا ہورہا ہے، امن امان کی حالت کیا ہے، آٹا، چینی، گیس اور بجلی غائب ہے، کیا اس کا اثر ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں پر نہیں پڑتا۔ہم اس ملک اور قوم کے مفاد میں کہتے ہیں کہ پرویز مشرف کو اب مستعفی ہونا چاہیے، انہوں نے فوج سمیت ملک کے تمام ادارے تباہ کیے ہیں‘۔

’مشرف خطرہ ہیں، استعفیٰ دیں

Source: BBC Urdu

پاکستان فوج کے سابق سپاہیوں سے لے کر جرنیلوں نے صدر جنرل (ریٹائرڈ) مشرف کے مزید اقتدار میں رہنے کو ملک کے لیے خطرناک قرار دیتے ہوئے ان سے جلد از جلد مستعفیٰ ہونے کا مطالبہ کیا ہے۔
اسلام آباد میں ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی تنظیم کے اجلاس میں چیف جسٹس افتخار محمد چوہدری کو اقتدار کی منتقلی اور جسٹس رانا بھگوان داس کو نیا چیف الیکشن کمشنر تعینات کرنے کا مطالبہ کیا ہے۔

سابق فوجیوں نے ڈاکٹر عبدالقدیر خان کی نظر بندی ختم کرنے یا پھر انہیں عدالت میں پیش کرنے کا بھی مطالبہ کیا ہے۔

صدر مشرف کو ’تضحیک آمیز‘ قرار دیتے ہوئے ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی تنظیم نے صدر مشرف پر کڑی تنقید کرتے ہوئے ان سے مستعفی ہونے کا اپنا مطالبہ دوہرایا۔ ان کا موقف تھا کہ صدر کے مزید اقتدار میں رہنے سے ملک کو مزید نقصان ہوگا۔

مزید

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Welcome To The Technocratic Dark Age Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Enslavement

By Michael Vail
As posted at
Intel Strike

“The Technocratic Age is slowly designing an every day more controlled society. The society will be dominated by an elite of persons free from traditional values (!) who will have no doubt in fulfilling their objectives by means of purged techniques with which they will influence the behavior of people and will control and watch the society in all details”. “… it will become possible to exert a practically permanent watch on each citizen of the world”.

- Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of Trilateral Commission

There are many today that have become accustomed to living in servitude. The systems of control are layers upon layers, so much so that the average Joe would rather succumb to it than to fight it. I have taken a hard look at these control mechanisms; we are living in a matrix of constant manipulation. We need to deeply examine it and ourselves if we are ever going to free ourselves from it. Let us go now into the rabbit hole.

Systems of Control:

The two dimensional political paradigm:

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy. – Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope p. 1247

We are given false choices with misrepresentative government officials. Take your pick, Democrat or Republican. There are some naïve people in this world who think we decide who will be president of the United States. The harsh reality is that the Bilderberg Group[1] and the Council on Foreign Relations makes their picks and we vote on ‘Diebold’ machines from the list they have already arranged. The whole election process is choreographed like WWF wrestling.

The political spectrum is so narrow that the debate is always left verses right. The Pournelle chart[2] originally showed that people are not so limited in their political stances and that for people like myself libertarians we have commonality with both Democrats and Republicans but only in certain areas. The Republicrats are in place only to make sure that America does not return to a constitutional republic. They will continue to trot out these slick snake oil salesmen but we aren’t buying it anymore.

Group Think/Adult Peer Pressure:
In this world of compact cities and gated communities we have exchanges of thoughts and ideas with friends and family. It is only natural to want to get along with everyone and have them respect you. That is why many people cannot tell others their beliefs if it is outside the norm. In your heart you may know for a fact that 9/11 is an inside job but you can’t admit to your friends and family because you believe that they will look down on you. So you just talk about ball games and mundane issues around the water cooler. You are engaging in self-censorship which will only lead to self hatred and depression

This is called group think. I like to call it adult peer pressure because that is exactly what it is. ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ is another form of group think. You are constantly putting yourself in debt up to your eyeballs because you feel you need to buy something that your neighbor bought so that you can be apart of the ‘in’ crowd. You criticize others who do not think with the crowd and will even be willing to do horrible things to others when you are with your peer group. That is exactly how the brown shirts terrorized Nazi Germany and the Nashi[3] bullies Russia today

Television and the Hypnotic State:
The television has caused irreparable damage to our society. Today you can drive around your neighborhood and see the hypnotic blue glow of the ubiquitous television set. Families no longer talk to each other but go to their separate rooms to watch television. Children used to get exercise by going outside to play football or baseball and now many children[4] are obese[5] and out of shape. To put it bluntly, the television is an emotional stimulation box. You can find people staring at the tele with their mouths open and tears rolling out of their eyes.

The television creates the state of mind which leads to ‘mind fog’[6]. That is how people can watch television for hours and not even notice. What is far more sinister is that the television is literally programming your mind. When you watch television your brain shifts from the left-hemisphere the analytical side to the right hemisphere which leads to accepting ideas in wholes without thinking. If children are raised on television[7] from an early age they don’t begin speaking and reading properly[8] as their brains become right-hemisphere dominant.

What’s worse is that too much television can lead to a spike of endorphins[9], a natural sedative similar to heroin and opium. So you can be literally addicted[10] to the TV. If you watch more than 4 hours of television a day try to stop watching it for a week and you will suffer withdrawals and mood changes. There is a part of the conscious mind called the ‘critical factor’ which prevents your subconscious mind from being affected by outside stimuli. As soon as you turn on your television set the critical factor[11] is bypassed and your subconscious mind is under a barrage of suggestions. You might want to drive to Wendy’s for a juicy burger or buy a used car. Your brain is being programmed by advertisers and they have mastered the art of CFB ‘critical factor bypass’.

Now think about every time you have watched CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. These mockingbird media anchors are shaping your opinions and altering your thoughts. Turn off the television and do not let the television babysit your children. There will be a generation of children who cannot speak or read properly be cause of this infernal box. These will be the leaders of our society in the future. Now do you realize the matrix of manipulation that we live in?

Blind Patriotism:

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.” – Malcolm X

There is a segment of our population who are cheerleaders for the neoconservatives. They believe might makes right and the ends justify the means.
They squat in front of their television sets and watch the fireworks from far, far away. Sitting there drinking beer and enjoying the carnage from their soft Lay-Z boy chair. Sadly they almost get sexually excited watching a country get smart bombed. Standing up saluting President Bush as he puts on a uniform like some tin-pot dictator under a banner that says ‘mission accomplished’. These people make my physically ill. They are lost in the wilderness of the matrix and are nothing more than slaves watching their lords go to the crusades.

Final Thoughts:
These so-called elites are waging a war on the population. We are punch-drunk from a nonstop PSYOP campaign and also being physically and chemically brainwashed. We stare at the television, drink the fluoridated water, eat the genetically modified foods and ask for seconds. Let’s find our way out of this technocratic hell and detox our friends and families. Even if you have to give them some tough love it is worth it. I at least want to look my ancestors in the eye and said that I tried to change the world around me.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever. – George Orwell, 1984

 

Notes:

1. WorldNetDaily. Will secret clubs pick next prez? 2007 cited; Available from: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58425.

2. Answers. Pournelle Chart. 2007 cited; Available from: http://www.answers.com/topic/pournelle-chart-1.

3. New York Times. Youth Groups Created by Kremlin Serve Putin’s Cause. 2007 cited; Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/world/europe/08moscow.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

4. Daily Mail. Child TV addicts ‘are greedy and unhappy’. 2007 cited; Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=468603&in_page_id=1770.

5. Media Family. Media Use And Obesity Among Children. 2007 cited; Available from: http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tvandobchild.shtml.

6. AC. Your Brain Waves Change When You Watch TV -Low Alpha Waves Can Lead to “Mind Fog”. 2007 cited; Available from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type_id=247802.

7. Marita Huxholl. Television and Child Development by Marita Huxholl. cited; Available from: http://www.willungawaldorfschool.com.au/pages/Resources/Television%20&%20Child%20Development.pdf.

8. Japan Today. Too much TV spoils kids’ speaking skills. 2001 cited; Available from: http://www.japantoday.com/jp/kuchikomi/140.

9. BBC. TV ‘can numb pain for children’. 2006 cited; Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4795287.stm.

10. Naira Yaqoob. TV Invasion An Addiction to Resist! 2006 cited; Available from: http://www.boloji.com/perspective/176.htm.

11. Infinity Institute. Hypnosis. What it is not. What it is. How it works. How it is used. cited; Available from: http://www.infinityinst.com/articles/hyp_whatis.html.



I borrowed from: juny's blog

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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Statements conflicting with actions

Musharraf, Soomro ask people to bury differences (Source: Dawn)

AND

 

 

                                            (Source: Nawa-i-Waqt )



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Ahhh Pakistan....

Source: Nawa-i-Waqt

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'Counter Attack' they call it!

Israeli air Strike flattens Hamas ministry

Source: Dawn


GAZA, Jan 18: Israel bombed the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza and closed border crossings with the strip on Friday.


The four-storey ministry complex in Gaza City was empty at the time but one woman was killed and at least 30 others nearby were wounded in the air strike, medical officials said.A second air strike minutes later damaged Hamas naval headquarters in the central Gaza Strip.


An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the air strikes, calling the targets “Hamas terrorist” positions. “This is part of our response to Qassam (rocket) fire against Israel,” she said.


Earlier on Friday, the Israeli defence ministry closed all border crossings with Gaza and prevented the delivery of a UN aid shipment.


Only “humanitarian cases” given Defence Minister Ehud Barak’s personal approval would be allowed through, the ministry said.


“If milk is low in Gaza, the minister will be asked to approve a milk shipment, and it will enter,” a spokesman said.


“Gaza is completely shut down. This will only add to an already dire situation,” said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), whose aid shipment was blocked.


In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli troops killed a militant linked to Fatah movement.


—Reuters








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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

LEST they DISAPPEAR :D

the 'developed' and 'new moderate' pakistan... pics speak for themselves :)

Source: Dawn
Previous Top Next
PESHAWAR - Jan 09: Long queues of people seeking to buy flour outside a shop here on Wednesday.—APP
[Complete News]

Previous Top Next
KAPRA, MAKAN NOT A PRIORITY
RAHIM YAR KHAN - Jan 09: Even the traditionally wheat-rich areas are facing flour crisis.—APP



HYDERABAD - Jan 05: People push each other to get flour bags from a mobile unit of the Utility Stores Corporation here on Saturday.—Online



LEST ‘CHANAS’ ALSO DISAPPEAR

LAHORE - Jan 04: An old gentleman looks closely at ‘chanas’ as if capturing the image for memory in this age of shortages. — Photo by Azhar Jafri

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Since Pakistan is a sovereign state...

... so they'll do it themselves... :) stay back n relax america






Previous

Top

Next



MINGORA - Jan 06: Army personnel arrive on Sunday to take up positions in the Matta area, close to the Afghan border. Pakistan has reiterated that it will not allow American troops on its soil.—AP



[Complete News]


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Bila Unwaan :)

Source: Dawn

ONE MAN’S LOSS IS ANOTHER’S GAIN


BARA (Khyber Agency) - Jan 04: After political authorities imposed a ban on display of arms, a shopkeeper has started a novel service for keeping weapons of tribesmen in safe custody on nominal charges.—Photo by Abdul Majeed Goraya.


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No Power Crisis??

Source: Dawn

NO GAS FOR THE ‘POWERLESS’



BUT

NO POWER CRISIS?


LAHORE - Jan 04: The well-illuminated Allama Iqbal International Airport. — APP

i think the govt. can save half of the energy atleast by just using minimal required number of lights...

AND

Previous Top Next
KARACHI - Jan 05: The city government makes no effort to switch off the streetlights along Mai Kolachi Road during the day while the country faces a shortage of over 4,000 megawatts and Karachi is also in the grip of a severe power crisis.-—Online

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Bush, a man of his words

Bush said he'll throw pakistan to the stone age if it did not support US against the war on (US defined) terrorism... mush got threatened and complied to the US terms... despite the fact tht pakistan fought america's war, pakistan is being pushed to the stone age (through a different procedure) ... the '‘lantern era' is returning... see following pics (taken from various issues of Dawn), NO gas, NO electricity, NO fuel, NO flour... a modern/moderate country n developing economy :)

a few sources abt bush's threat are given as well...

Source:
lewrockwell.com
During last week’s US media blitz to promote his new book, Musharraf claimed soon after 9/11, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warned Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, head of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service, the US would “bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age” if it did not immediately turn against its Afghan ally, Taliban, and allow the US to use military bases in Pakistan to invade Afghanistan.

Source: Guardian Unlimited
The Bush administration threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" after the September 11 attacks if the country did not cooperate with America's war on Afghanistan, it emerged yesterday.

Source:
TimesOnline PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, the President of Pakistan, claimed last night that the Bush Administration threatened to bomb his country “into the Stone Age” if it did not co-operate with the US after 9/11, sharply increasing tensions between the US and one of its closest allies in the war on terrorism.

The President, who will meet Mr Bush in the White House today, said the threat was made by Richard Armitage, then the Deputy Secretary of State, in the days after the terror attacks, and was issued to the Pakistani intelligence director.










Top

Next



PESHAWAR - Jan 05: Activists of a political party at a demonstration held on Saturday against loadshedding and flour shortage.—Abdul Majeed Goraya



[Complete News]



Previous Top Next
NO GAS FOR THE ‘POWERLESS’
LAHORE - Jan 05: A CNG station near Scheme Morr, on Multan Road. — Dawn


LAHORE - Jan 06: The revival of ‘lantern era’. — APP

Previous Top Next
LAHORE - Jan 05: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf activists protest against loadshedding and price hike.—Dawn


ALI SHER (Afghanistan) - Jan 07: A Pakistani refugee carries a sack of foodstuff distributed by the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Afghan officials claimed on Monday about 900 Pakistani families had sought refuge across the border during the past two weeks.—AP

Previous Top Next
LAHORE - Jan 04: Gujjarpura residents protest against gas suspension. — Dawn



See mush, this had to be done anyways... so u could have selected the path of dignity and could have avoided the embarrassment u face these days when america says they gave $ 10 billion to pakistan but pakistan didn't do enough... come on mush dont keep claimin tht pakistan has developed in these years... dear the situation has worsened really... now even a controlled state of afghanistan has the courage to close borders with pakistan whenever they wish :) pakistanis now take refuge in afganistan... is this the dignity u earned for pakistan in ur regime... if yes then u must b sent for a checkup...

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Monday, January 7, 2008

Anglo-American Ambitions behind the Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the Destabilization of Pakistan

Source:Globalresearch.ca
It has been known for months that the Bush-Cheney administration and its allies have been manuevering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the “war on terrorism” across the region. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto does not change this agenda. In fact, it simplifies Bush-Cheney’s options.


Seeding chaos with a pretext


“Delivering democracy to the Muslim world” has been the Orwellian rhetoric used to mask Bush-Cheney’s application of pressure and force, its dramatic attempt at reshaping of the Pakistani government (into a joint Bhutto/Sharif-Musharraf) coalition, and backdoor plans for a military intervention. Various American destabilization plans, known for months by officials and analysts, proposed the toppling of Pakistan's military.


The assassination of Bhutto appears to have been anticipated. There were even reports of “chatter” among US officials about the possible assassinations of either Pervez Musharraf or Benazir Bhutto, well before the actual attempts took place.



As succinctly summarized in Jeremy Page’s article, "Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? The Main Suspects", the main suspects are 1) “Pakistani and foreign Islamist militants who saw her as a heretic and an American stooge”, and 2) the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, a virtual branch of the CIA. Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari directly accused the ISI of being involved in the October attack.


The assassination of Bhutto has predictably been blamed on “Al-Qaeda”, without mention of fact that Al-Qaeda itself is an Anglo-American military-intelligence operation.


Page’s piece was one of the first to name the man who has now been tagged as the main suspect: Baitullah Mehsud, a purported Taliban militant fighting the Pakistani army out of Waziristan. Conflicting reports link Mehsud to “Al-Qaeda”, the Afghan Taliban, and Mullah Omar (also see here). Other analysis links him to the terrorist A.Q. Khan.


Mehsud’s profile, and the reporting of it, echoes the propaganda treatment of all post-9/11 “terrorists”. This in turn raises familiar questions about Anglo-American intelligence agency propaganda involvement. Is Mehsud connected to the ISI or the CIA? What did the ISI and the CIA know about Mehsud? More importantly, does Mehsud, or the manipulation of the propaganda surrounding him provide Bush-Cheney with a pretext for future aggression in the region?


Classic “war on terrorism” propaganda


While details on the Bhutto assassination continue to unfold, what is clear is that it was a political hit, along the lines of US agent Rafik Harriri in Lebanon. Like the highly suspicious Harriri hit, the Bhutto assassination has been depicted by corporate media as the martyring of a great messenger of western-style “democracy”. Meanwhile, the US government’s ruthless actions behind the scenes have received scant attention.


The December 28, 2007 New York Times coverage of the Bhutto assassination offers the perfect example of mainstream Orwellian media distortion that hides the truth about Bush/Cheney agenda behind blatant propaganda smoke. This piece echoes White House rhetoric proclaiming that Bush’s main objectives are to “bring democracy to the Muslim world” and “force out Islamist militants”.


In fact, the openly criminal Bush-Cheney administration has only supported and promoted the antithesis of democracy: chaos, fascism, and the installation of Anglo-American-friendly puppet regimes.


In fact, the central and consistent geostrategy of Bush-Cheney, and their elite counterparts around the world, is the continued imposition and expansion of the manufactured “war on terrorism”; the continuation of war across the Eurasian subcontinent, with events triggered by false flag operations and manufactured pretexts.


In fact, the main tools used in the “war on terrorism” remain Islamist militants, working on behalf of Anglo-American military intelligence agencies---among them, “Al-Qaeda”, and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, the ISI. Mehsud fits this the same profile.


Saving Bush-Cheney’s Pakistan


In an amusing quote from the same New York Times piece, Wendy Chamberlain, former US ambassador to Pakistan (and a central figure behind multinational efforts to build a trans-Afghan pipeline, connected to 9/11), proudly states: “We are a player in the Pakistani political system”.


Not only has the US continued to be a “player”, but one of its top managers for decades.


Each successive Pakistani leader since the early 1990s---Bhutto, Sharif and Musharraf---have bowed to Western interests. The ISI is a virtual branch of the CIA.


While Musharraf has been, and remains, a strongman for Bush-Cheney, questions about his “reliability”, and control---both his regime’s control over the populace and growing popular unrest, and elite control over his regime---have driven Bush-Cheney attempts to force a clumsy (pro-US, Iraq-style) power-sharing government. As noted by Robert Scheer, Bush-Cheney has been playing “Russian roulette” with Musharraf, Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif---each of whom have been deeply corrupt, willing fronts for the US.


The return of both Bhutto and the other former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has merely been an attempt by the US to hedge its regional power bets.


What exactly were John Negroponte and Condoleeza Rice really setting up the past few months?


Who benefits from Bhutto’s murder?


The “war on terrorism” geostrategy and propaganda milieu, the blueprint that has been used by elite interests since 9/11 to impose a continuing world war, is the clear beneficiary of the Bhutto assassination. Bush/Cheney and their equally complicit pro-war/pro-occupation counterparts in the Democratic Party enthusiastically support the routine use of “terror” pretexts to impose continued war policies.


True to form, fear, “terrorism”, “security” and military force, are once again, the focuses of Washington political rhetoric, and the around-the-clock media barrage.


The 2008 US presidential candidates and their elite campaign advisers, all but a few of whom enthusiastically support the “war on terrorism”, have taken turns pushing their respective versions of “we must stop the terrorists” rhetoric for brain-addled supporters. The candidates whose polls have slipped, led by 9/11 participant and opportunist Rudy Guiliani, and hawkish neoliberal Hillary Clinton, have already benefited from a new round of mass fear.


Musharraf benefits from the removal of a bitter rival, but now must find a way to re-establish order. Musharraf now has an ideal justification to crack down on “terrorists” and impose full martial law, with Bush-Cheney working from the shadows behind Musharraf---and continuing to manipulate or remove his apparatus, if Musharraf proves too unreliable or broken to suit Anglo-American plans.


The likely involvement of the ISI behind the Bhutto hit cannot be overstated. ISI’s role behind every major act of “terrorism” since 9/11 remains the central unspoken truth behind current geopolitical realities. Bhutto, but not Sharif or Musharraf would have threatened the ISI’s agendas.


Bhutto, militant Islam, and the pipelines


Now that she has been martyred, many unflattering historical facts about Benazir Bhutto will be hidden or forgotten.


Bhutto herself was intimately involved in the creation of the very “terror” milieu purportedly responsible for her assassination. Across her political career, she supported militant Islamists, the Taliban, the ISI, and the ambitions of Western governments.


As noted by Michel Chossudovsky in America’s “War on Terrorism”, it was during Bhutto’s second term that Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and the Taliban rose to prominence, welcomed into Bhutto’s coalition government. It was at that point that ties between the JUI, the Army and the ISI were established.


While Bhutto’s relationship with both the ISI and the Taliban were marked by turmoil, it is clear that Bhutto, when in power, supported both---and enthusiastically supported Anglo-American interventions.


In his two landmark books, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia and Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, Ahmed Rashid richly details the Bhutto regime’s connections to the ISI, the Taliban, “militant Islam”, multinational oil interests, and Anglo-American officials and intelligence proxies.


In Jihad, Rashid wrote:


“Ironically it was not the ISI but Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the most liberal, secular leader in Pakistan’s recent history, who delivered the coup de grace to a new relationship with Central Asia. Rather than support a wider peace process in Afghanistan that would have opened up a wider peace process in Afghanistan, Bhutto backed the Taliban, in a rash and presumptuous policy to create a new western-oriented trade and pipeline route from Turkmenistan through southern Afghanistan to Pakistan, from which the Taliban would provide security. The ISI soon supported this policy because its Afghan protégé Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had made no headway in capturing Kabul, and the Taliban appeared to be strong enough to do so.”


In Taliban, Rashid provided even more historical detail:


“When Bhutto was elected as Prime Minister in 1993, she was keen to open a route to Central Asia. A new proposal emerged backed strongly by the frustrated Pakistani transport and smuggling mafia, the JUI and Pashtun military and political officials.”


“The Bhutto government fully backed the Taliban, but the ISI remained skeptical of their abilities, convinced that they would remain a useful but peripheral force in the south.”


“The US congress had authorized a covert $20 million budget for the CIA to destabilize Iran, and Tehran accused Washington of funneling some of these funds to the Taliban---a charge that was always denied by Washington . Bhutto sent several emissaries to Washington to urge the US to intervene more publicly on the side of Pakistan and the Taliban.”


Bhutto’s one mistake: she vehemently supported the pipeline proposed by Argentinian oil company Bridas, and opposed the pipeline by Unocal (favored by the US). This contributed to her ouster in 1996, and the return of Nawaz Sharif to power. As noted by Rashid:


“After the dismissal of the Bhutto government in 1996, the newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his oil minister Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan, the army and the ISI fully backed Unocal. Pakistan wanted more direct US support for the Taliban and urged Unocal to start construction quickly in order to legitimize the Taliban. Basically the USA and Unocal accepted the ISI’s analysis and aims---that a Taliban victory in Afghanistan would make Unocal’s job much easier and quicken US recognition.”


Her appealing and glamorous pro-Western image notwithstanding, Bhutto’s true record is one of corruption and accommodation.


The “war on terrorism” resparked 


Every major Anglo-American geostrategic crime has been preceded by a convenient pretext, orchestrated and carried out by “terror” proxies directly or indirectly connected to US military-intelligence, or manipulated into performing as intelligence assets. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is simply one more brutal example.


This was Pakistan’s 9/11; Pakistan’s JFK assassination, and its impact will resonate for years.


Contrary to mainstream corporate news reporting, chaos benefits Bush-Cheney’s “war on terrorism”. Calls for “increased worldwide security” will pave the way for a muscular US reaction, US-led force and other forms of “crack down” from Bush-Cheney across the region. In other words, the assassination helps ensure that the US will not only never leave, but also increase its presence.



The Pakistani election, if it takes place at all, is a simpler two-way choice: pro-US Musharraf or pro-US Sharif.



While the success of Bush-Cheney’s 9/11 agenda has met with mixed results, and it has met with a wide array of resistance (“terroristic” as well as political), there is no doubt that the propaganda foundation of the “war on terrorism” has remained firm, unshaken and routinely reinforced. 


As for Nawaz Sharif, who now emerges as the sole competitor for Musharraf, he, like Musharraf and Bhutto, is legendary for his accommodation to Anglo-American interests---pipelines, trade, and the continued US military presence. As Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie noted in the book Forbidden Truth, the October 1999 military coup led by Musharraf that originally toppled Sharif’s regime was sparked by animosity between the two camps, as well as “Sharif’s personal corruption and political megalomania”, and “concerns that Sharif was dancing too eagerly to Washington’s tune on Kashmir and Afghanistan”. 


In other words, Bush-Cheney wins, no matter which asset winds up on the throne.

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The Destabilization of Pakistan

Source: Global Research Ca
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has created conditions which contribute to the ongoing destabilization and fragmentation of Pakistan as a Nation. 



The process of US sponsored "regime change", which normally consists in the re-formation of a fresh proxy government under new leaders has been broken. Discredited in the eyes of Pakistani public opinion, General Pervez Musharaf cannot remain in the seat of political power. But at the same time, the fake elections supported by the "international community" scheduled for January 2008, even if they were to be carried out, would not be accepted as legitimate, thereby creating a political impasse. 


There are indications that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was anticipated by US officials: 



"It has been known for months that the Bush-Cheney administration and its allies have been maneuvering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the “war on terrorism” across the region. 


Various American destabilization plans, known for months by officials and analysts, proposed the toppling of Pakistan's military... 


The assassination of Bhutto appears to have been anticipated. There were even reports of “chatter” among US officials about the possible assassinations of either Pervez Musharraf or Benazir Bhutto, well before the actual attempts took place. (Larry Chin, Global Research, 29 December 2007)


Political Impasse


"Regime change" with a view to ensuring continuity under military rule is no longer the main thrust of US foreign policy. The regime of Pervez Musharraf cannot prevail. Washington's foreign policy course is to actively promote the political fragmentation and balkanization of Pakistan as a nation. 


A new political leadership is anticipated but in all likelihood it will take on a very different shape, in relation to previous US sponsored regimes. One can expect that Washington will push for a compliant political leadership, with no commitment to the national interest, a leadership which will serve US imperial interests, while concurrently contributing under the disguise of "decentralization", to the weakening of the central government and the fracture of Pakistan's fragile federal structure. 


The political impasse is deliberate. It is part of an evolving US foreign policy agenda, which favors disruption and disarray in the structures of the Pakistani State. Indirect rule by the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus is to be replaced by more direct forms of US interference, including an expanded US military presence inside Pakistan.

This expanded military presence is also dictated by the Middle East-Central Asia geopolitical situation and Washington's ongoing plans to extend the Middle East war to a much broader area. 


The US has several military bases in Pakistan. It controls the country's air space. According to a recent report: "U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units" (William Arkin, Washington Post, December 2007). 


The official justification and pretext for an increased military presence in Pakistan is to extend the "war on terrorism". Concurrently, to justify its counterrorism program, Washington is also beefing up its covert support to the "terrorists."


The Balkanization of Pakistan


Already in 2005, a report by the US National Intelligence Council and the CIA forecast a "Yugoslav-like fate" for Pakistan "in a decade with the country riven by civil war, bloodshed and inter-provincial rivalries, as seen recently in Balochistan." (Energy Compass, 2 March 2005). According to the NIC-CIA,  Pakistan is slated to become a "failed state" by 2015, "as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons". (Quoted by former Pakistan High Commissioner to UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Times of India, 13 February 2005): 



"Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the Central government's control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi," the former diplomat quoted the NIC-CIA report as saying.


Expressing apprehension, Hasan asked, "are our military rulers working on a similar agenda or something that has been laid out for them in the various assessment reports over the years by the National Intelligence Council in joint collaboration with CIA?" (Ibid)


Continuity, characterized by the dominant role of the Pakistani military and intelligence has been scrapped in favor of political breakup and balkanization.

According to the NIC-CIA scenario, which Washington intends to carry out: "Pakistan will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive policies, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction," (Ibid) .  

The US course consists in  fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan. This course of action is also dictated by US war plans in relation to both Afghanistan and Iran. 


This US agenda for Pakistan is similar to that applied throughout the broader Middle East Central Asian region. US strategy, supported by covert intelligence operations, consists in triggering ethnic and religious strife, abetting and financing secessionist movements while also weakening the institutions of the central government. 


The broader objective is to fracture the Nation State and redraw the borders of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. 


Pakistan's Oil and Gas reserves

Pakistan's extensive oil and gas reserves, largely located in Balochistan province, as well as its pipeline corridors are considered strategic by the Anglo-American alliance, requiring the concurrent militarization of Pakistani territory. 


Balochistan comprises more than 40 percent of Pakistan's land mass, possesses important reserves of oil and natural gas as well as extensive mineral resources. 


The Iran-India pipeline corridor is slated to transit through Balochistan. Balochistan also possesses a deap sea port largely financed by China located at Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea, not far from the Straits of Hormuz where 30 % of the world's daily oil supply moves by ship or pipeline. (Asia News.it, 29 December 2007) 


Pakistan has an estimated 25.1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves of which 19 trillion are located in Balochistan. Among foreign oil and gas contractors in Balochistan are BP, Italy's ENI, Austria's OMV, and Australia's BHP. It is worth noting that Pakistan's State oil and gas companies, including PPL which has the largest stake in the Sui oil fields of Balochistan are up for privatization under IMF-World Bank supervision. 


According to the Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Pakistan had proven oil reserves of 300 million barrels, most of which are located in Balochistan. Other estimates place Balochistan oil reserves at an estimated six trillion barrels of oil reserves both on-shore and off-shore (Environment News Service, 27 October 2006) .


Covert Support to Balochistan Separatists

Balochistan's strategic energy reserves have a bearing on the separatist agenda. Following a familiar pattern, there are indications that the Baloch insurgency is being supported and abetted by Britain and the US. 

The Baloch national resistance movement dates back to the late 1940s, when Balochistan was invaded by Pakistan. In the current geopolitical context, the separatist movement is in the process of being hijacked by foreign powers. 


British intelligence is allegedly providing covert support to Balochistan separatists (which from the outset have been repressed by Pakistan's military). In June 2006, Pakistan's Senate Committee on Defence accused British intelligence of "abetting the insurgency in the province bordering Iran" [Balochistan]..(Press Trust of India, 9 August 2006). Ten British MPs were involved in a closed door session of the Senate Committee on  Defence regarding the alleged support of Britain's Secret Service to Baloch separatists  (Ibid). Also of relevance are reports of  CIA and Mossad support to Baloch rebels in Iran and Southern Afghanistan.

It would appear that Britain and the US are supporting both sides. The US is providing American F-16 jets to the Pakistani military, which are being used to bomb Baloch villages in Balochistan. Meanwhile, British alleged covert support to the separatist movement (according to the Pakistani Senate Committee) contributes to weakening the central government.

The stated purpose of US counter-terrorism is to provide covert support as well as as training to "Liberation Armies" ultimately with a view to destabilizing sovereign governments. In Kosovo, the training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the 1990s had been entrusted to a private mercenary company, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), on contract to the Pentagon.  

The BLA bears a canny resemblance to Kosovo's KLA, which was financed by the drug trade and supported by the CIA and Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND).

The BLA emerged shortly after the 1999 military coup. It has no tangible links to the Baloch resistance movement, which developed since the late 1940s. An aura of mystery surrounds the leadership of the BLA.


Distribution of Balochs is marked in pink.


Baloch population in Pink: In Iran, Pakistan and Southern Afghanistan


Washington favors the creation of a "Greater Balochistan" which would integrate the Baloch areas of Pakistan with those of Iran and possibly the Southern tip of Afghanistan (See Map above), thereby leading to a process of political fracturing in both Iran and Pakistan. 



"The US is using Balochi nationalism for staging an insurgency inside Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province. The 'war on terror' in Afghanistan gives a useful political backdrop for the ascendancy of Balochi militancy" (See Global Research, 6 March 2007)


Military scholar Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters writing in the June 2006 issue of The Armed Forces Journal, suggests, in no uncertain terms that Pakistan should be broken up, leading to the formation of  a separate country: "Greater Balochistan" or "Free Balochistan" (see Map below). The latter would incorporate the Pakistani and Iranian Baloch  provinces into a single political entity. 


In turn, according to Peters, Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) should be incorporated into Afghanistan "because of its linguistic and ethnic affinity". This proposed fragmentation, which broadly reflects US foreign policy, would reduce Pakistani territory to approximately 50 percent of its present land area. (See map). Pakistan would also loose a large part of its coastline on the Arabian Sea.      


Although the map does not officially reflect Pentagon doctrine, it has been used in a training program at NATO's Defense College for senior military officers. This map, as well as other similar maps, have  most probably been used at the National War Academy as well as in military planning circles. (See Mahdi D. Nazemroaya, Global Research, 18 November 2006


"Lieutenant-Colonel Peters was last posted, before he retired to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, within the U.S. Defence Department, and has been one of the Pentagon’s foremost authors with numerous essays on strategy for military journals and U.S. foreign policy." (Ibid)




Map: click to enlarge


It is worth noting that secessionist tendencies are not limited to Balochistan. There are separatist groups in Sindh province, which are largely based on opposition to the Punjabi-dominated military regime of General Pervez Musharraf (For Further details see Selig Harrisson, Le Monde diplomatique, October 2006)


"Strong Economic Medicine": Weakening Pakistan's Central Government


Pakistan has a federal structure based on federal provincial transfers. Under a federal fiscal structure, the central government transfers financial resources to the provinces, with a view to supporting provincial based programs. When these transfers are frozen as occurred in Yugoslavia in January 1990, on orders of the IMF, the federal fiscal structure collapses:



"State revenues that should have gone as transfer payments to the republics [of the Yugoslav federation] went instead to service Belgrade's debt ... . The republics were largely left to their own devices. ... The budget cuts requiring the redirection of federal revenues towards debt servicing, were conducive to the suspension of transfer payments by Belgrade to the governments of the Republics and Autonomous Provinces.


In one fell swoop, the reformers had engineered the final collapse of Yugoslavia's federal fiscal structure and mortally wounded its federal political institutions. By cutting the financial arteries between Belgrade and the republics, the reforms fueled secessionist tendencies that fed on economic factors as well as ethnic divisions, virtually ensuring the de facto secession of the republics. (Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Second Edition, Global Research, Montreal, 2003, Chapter 17.)


It is by no means accidental that the 2005 National Intelligence Council- CIA report had predicted a "Yugoslav-like fate" for Pakistan pointing to the impacts of "economic mismanagement" as one of the causes of political break-up and balkanization.

"Economic mismanagement" is a term used by the Washington based international financial institutions to describe the chaos which results from not fully abiding by the IMF's Structural Adjustment Program. In actual fact, the "economic mismanagement" and chaos is the outcome of IMF-World Bank prescriptions, which invariably trigger hyperinflation and precipitate indebted countries into extreme poverty.  


Pakistan has been subjected to the same deadly IMF "economic medicine" as Yugoslavia: In 1999, in the immediate wake of the coup d'Etat which brought General Pervez Musharaf to the helm of the military government, an IMF economic package, which included currency devaluation and drastic austerity measures, was imposed on Pakistan. Pakistan's external debt is of the order of US$40 billion. The IMF's  "debt reduction" under the package was conditional upon the sell-off to foreign capital of the most profitable State owned enterprises (including the oil and gas facilities in Balochistan) at rockbottom prices . 


Musharaf's Finance Minister was chosen by Wall Street, which is not an unusual practice. The military rulers appointed at Wall Street's behest, a vice-president of Citigroup, Shaukat Aziz, who at the time was head of CitiGroup's Global Private Banking. (See WSWS.org, 30 October 1999). CitiGroup is among the largest commercial foreign banking institutions in Pakistan.


There are obvious similarities in the nature of US covert intelligence operations applied in country after country in different parts of the so-called "developing World".  These covert operation, including the organisation of military coups, are often synchronized with the imposition of IMF-World Bank macro-economic reforms. In this regard, Yugoslavia's federal fiscal structure collapsed in 1990 leading to mass poverty and heightened ethnic and social divisions. The US and NATO sponsored "civil war" launched in mid-1991 consisted in coveting Islamic groups as well as channeling covert support to separatist paramilitary armies in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

A similar "civil war" scenario has been envisaged for Pakistan by the National Intelligence Council and the CIA:  From the point of view of US intelligence, which has a longstanding experience in abetting separatist "liberation armies", "Greater Albania" is to Kosovo what "Greater Balochistan" is to Pakistan's Southeastern Balochistan province. Similarly, the KLA is Washington's chosen model, to be replicated in Balochistan province.


The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto


Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, no ordinary city. Rawalpindi is a military city host to the headquarters of the Pakistani Armed Forces and Military Intelligence (ISI). Ironically Bhutto was assassinated in an urban area tightly controlled and guarded by the military police and the country's elite forces. Rawalpindi  is swarming with ISI intelligence officials, which invariably infiltrate political rallies. Her assassination was not a haphazard event. 


Without evidence, quoting Pakistan government sources, the Western media in chorus has highlighted the role of Al-Qaeda, while also focusing on the the possible involvement of the ISI. 

What these interpretations do not mention is that the ISI continues to play a key role in overseeing Al Qaeda on behalf of US intelligence. The press reports fail to mention two important and well documented facts: 



1) the ISI maintains close ties to the CIA. The ISI  is virtually an appendage of the CIA. 


2) Al Qaeda is a creation of the CIA. The ISI provides covert support to Al Qaeda, acting on behalf of US intelligence.  


The involvement of either Al Qaeda and/or the ISI would suggest that US intelligence was cognizant and/or implicated in the assassination plot.


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