Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Terrorism’ Category

Freedom is meaningless without dignity, in fact, its worse than slavery.

Pakistan should announce a head money on Raymond Davis (because as per their promise with Pakistan, the US government failed to take legal action against RD) of double the amount of $10 million, notified by USA on Hafiz Saeed.

And if, Americans say this has been done on the 26 November killings of US citizens in Mumbai attack, OK, then Pakistan has also the right to demand trial at International Court of Justice, of those US troops and their commanding general, who killed and injured dozens of Pakistani soldiers on 26 Nov. 2011 attack at Salala post.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The process of justice must be a two way traffic.

We must remember no one can insult us without our permission or in other words we ourselves determine our level of insult. This is as simple, take it or leave it. Look what Iran did with US drone and what we did with the downed US helicopter at Abbotabad?

The news published at ESPNcricinfo.com quoted as below, that ICC is not willing to send its officials for supervising the planned cricket matches to be played between Pakistan and Bangladesh, scheduled in April 2012, is really disappointing to say the least. Rather than ICC helping revive international cricket in Pakistan, by sending a world XI, it is relegating the BD cricket teams tour to Pakistan, almost to a nonevent, as if it was hockey or rugby and does not pertains under the ambit of ICC. This is NOT Cricket.

Quote. “ICC news

ICC frames plan for ‘unsafe’ series
Nagraj Gollapudi
March 7, 2012

The ICC has introduced a “special dispensation” to be made only in “exceptional circumstances” in order to ensure that bilateral series take place even if the ruling body has determined it “unsafe” to appoint its officials for such series. This would allow such series to be manned by “non-neutral match officials”, a departure from the ICC’s Standard Playing Conditions, pending permission from the ICC’s Executive Board.

The dispensation, announced at the end of the ICC’s Chief Executive Committee (CEC)’s two-day meeting in Dubai, will have special significance for the proposed tour of Pakistan by Bangladesh, the planning for which is at an advanced stage.

The CEC stated that it had limited powers to take a decision over safety issues as to whether tours should take place or not. It reiterated that the ICC’s role in bilateral series was “limited to considering the safety and security of the match officials after a tour had been confirmed and a security plan produced.” The decision as to whether a particular tour should take place or not was, the CEC stated, “one for the participating countries.”

The CEC statement has ensured that the ICC’s own officials need not be appointed for Bangladesh’s tour of Pakistan. That could be seen by Pakistan as a stumbling block towards hosting top-level international cricket; other nations would be wary of touring if the ICC deemed the situation was not safe for their officials.

For Bangladesh, the seal of ICC’s approval would have ensured greater vigilance around security issues. Last week, a nine-member Bangladesh delegation, led by their cricket board president Mustafa Kamal, gave a nod to the security arrangements at various venues after a two-day visit. Both Kamal, and Zaka Ashraf, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, had said that they would approach the ICC to approve the tour.

It is understood that the ICC dispatched individual letters to both the PCB and BCB on Monday, saying that it could not give the tour a go-ahead. The CEC’s introduction of this special dispensation around “non-neutral match officials” did not make a specific reference to the ICC’s disapproval of the series or that the tour had been deemed “unsafe” for its match officials to stand in. The dispensation however, creates the opportunity for the series to go ahead with Pakistani or Bangladeshi umpires and match-referees.

There had been two itineraries proposed for the tour, one of which includes a three-match ODI series, and the other a series of two ODIs and one Twenty20 international, to be completed in one week in April. Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi’s National Stadium are the venues expected to host the matches.

ESPNcricinfo understands that Bangladesh’s security team had expressed its reservations in playing in Karachi, and instead hope to play all the proposed matches in Lahore. Earlier, Rawalpindi was dropped as a venue from the plan.

“It is important the tour goes ahead for Pakistan cricket to show the country can host games again,” Subhan Ahmad, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told Reuters. “We will have the highest level of security possible.”

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, pointed out that special dispensations however should not become a norm. “Bearing in mind that safety and security is the sole responsibility of individual member boards for bilateral matches, the CEC regarded this as an exceptional circumstance in which the appointment of non-neutral match officials could be justified but stated clearly that it should not to be regarded as a preferred option or precedent if the dispensation were to be granted,” Lorgat said.

There has been no international cricket in Pakistan for exactly three years now after masked terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team bus and the van carrying ICC match officials, who were on their way to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on March 3, 2009, on what was the third day of the second Test.” Un-quote.

The above mentioned decision of ICC means that they want to inflict upon Pakistan, a perpetual punishment of banning genuine and authentic International cricket from this cricket loving country forever. And too, by ignoring all the huge human and material sacrifices Pakistan gave as a front line state, in the war against terror, while standing with the world community to make this planet a secure and safe place of freedom, peace and liberty.

This is called playing into the hands of terrorists. In fact, this gives a clear cut signal that terrorism pays.

But remember, what happened at Munich Olympics where so much blood was shed? IOC did not succumb to the unbearable pressures of security concerns and the majestic Olympics flame and its movement goes on, despite severe security threats all over the world.

ICC must know that the way it is approaching security issues in Pakistan, it is not only retrogressive but discriminatory, as well. However, leaving aside the negative effects on Pakistan cricket, the biggest sufferer will be the game of cricket, for which ICC will rue for a long time to come, when posterity will give its verdict that not terrorism, but ICC, with its myopic policies, destroyed growth & development of the glorious game of cricket.

If nations and organizations start succumbing to the threats of black mail or security concerns, then nothing will stop their decay into wilderness. Look how serious security threats were posed by the Mumbai 26/11 attack, but English cricketers continued their tour of India, sending a clear message of solidarity and steadfastness with freedom, peace and liberty.

Timidity, only gives longevity to the nefarious designs of the evil. And this was the reason England never surrendered in the Second World War to the mighty German onslaught, despite unbearable sufferings sustained for many years. Similarly, Pakistan as a front line state in war on terror is standing for more than a decade, like a rock of Gibraltar, to protect world from the spread of terrorism. As such, Pakistan deserves more than any other country in the world to be supported, even out of the way, for its sacrifices for the peace of the entire world.

So come on ICC, show some true spirit of cricket, as it is not the game for timid perons, stand up and be counted for freedom, peace and liberty.

The planned tour of Bangladesh cricket team to Pakistan in April 2012, will be a great opportunity to promote peace through sports/cricket.

However, as reported on TV last night that Bangladesh cricket team’s coach Stuart Law, who is of Australian origin, has declined to tour Pakistan with the Bangladesh cricket team, for it’s impending tour being scheduled next month in April. This news if correct, raises many questions with serious ramifications for the cricketing world.

Nevertheless, before dwelling with the consequences of the above mentioned news, the following facts should also be kept in mind, to have a better prospect of the whole issue.

1. Newly appointed coach of Pakistan cricket team Dev Whatmore, is also a former Australian Test and international cricket player, who had no qualms ever for staying in Pakistan. In fact, he was one of the coaching candidates for the Pakistani cricket team, when another very famous former Australian international cricketer Lawson, was selected as coach for Pakistan. We understand that when he was removed to appoint Waqar Younis, Lawson never himself wanted to quit the job. And Lawson stayed in Pakistan (and also wanted to stay further) during much worse war conditions in Afghanistan and it’s spill over impact of very serious law and order conditions, then prevailing in Pakistan.

2. To say that Stuart Law is taking refuge under travel advisory of Australian government, is also a very weak argument, which does not hold water, as many Australian professionals are continuing to visit Pakistan and they even stay here for longer durations, without any fear of violence. As compared to this situation, we hear very regular news of violence against Asian migrants in Australia, but then again no body stays away from traveling there.

3. One isolated incidence against the SriLankan cricket team, can’t be made an excuse to stop international cricket in Pakistan forever. No foreign team ever stopped visiting SriLanka during it’s 25 years civil war, where matches continued even during bombings and explosions. Also no one stopped visiting New York or USA after 9/11. Pakistani players were once mugged in South Africa. One off incidents or accidents happen everywhere, so why to single out only Pakistan. People don’t stop air travels, just because airplanes do meet accidents every now and then.

4. Now, if today Bangladesh cricket board succumbs to the blackmail tactics of their coach or support staff, this matter will not stop here. Indiscipline and black mail if not nibbed in the bud, spreads like cancer. Tomorrow, other boards should be ready to face much worse pressures for even more ridiculous demands. This situation may even force the boards to consider putting new clauses of conditions in the agreements, to safe guard their national interests with iron clad wordings.

5. Above all, the planned tour of the Bangladesh cricket team shall be arranged after clearance of double security checks by the BD government and the the ICC, with security cover equal to the head of the state. Believe me, this security may not even be available to Stuart Law, neither in BD nor any where else in the world. And the planned tour is going to be over in just few days with only three matches, it will not last even few weeks.

5. Last but not the least, this tour will tremendously help the cause of cricket in this part of the world. It will also prove the resolve of the world that terrorism threat can’t hold for ransom, the game of international cricket in Pakistan. In fact, this epoch making tour will highly contribute to the cause of peace in the world. These people must not forget that Pakistan stood like a rock before the terrorists, for more than a decade, so that this menace does
not spread to any other parts of the world. And many
Australian troops also gave their lives in Afghanistan, for the same cause. So, today if with the decision of an ill informed Australian, the terrorists gains strength, it will be a great betrayal with the cause, for which the Australian troops shed their blood.

6. So come on Bangladesh, let us give peace a chance through cricket and let the posterity record that Bangladesh was the first great nation which revived international cricket in Pakistan.

Peace prize and war crimes
By: Jalees Hazir | February 05, 2012 | 0
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and President of the United States, Barack Obama, confirmed last week that his country uses unmanned aerial vehicles to bomb targets in Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Though this has been an open secret, it was the first time that the international crime was publically admitted. He didn’t stop there and went on to defend these attacks that have killed thousands of innocent people in FATA. According to him, the US carries out these attacks to avoid more intrusive military action, that the bombing is carefully targeted and that these precision strikes are carried out to kill Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. He was not put on the spot about the innocent civilians, including women, children and the elderly, who have been killed by the US drones; not that it would have made him uncomfortable. Representatives of the wicked superpower have coined a standard term to justify that kind of thing. Very conveniently, they call it collateral damage.
The streets, fields and graveyards of Iraq and Afghanistan would give a good idea about what that collateral damage means. They are not the only examples of countries that have been ravaged by large scale death and destruction at the hands of the US, all in the name of high-flying principles like democracy and human rights and catchily-named fake bogeys like the war on terror and weapons of mass destruction. The badmash superpower doesn’t mind killing large numbers of people in whose name they wage these wars, people whose rights it seems so eager to defend and fight for. It doesn’t mind creating terror for millions of people on a daily basis to wage its spurious war on terror. It spends hundreds of billion dollars waging war in distant lands, killing innocent people, destroying their homes and cities, turning their lush fields to charred earth, but it has no money for its poor, no money for its citizens who might need the help of their country, supposed to be the richest on earth.
It is said that with great power comes great responsibility, but power seems to have produced strange results for the sole superpower that, instead of using it to create a peaceful and prosperous world, is hell bent to utilise that power to ride roughshod over the entire planet. And as it hurtles along on its dangerous mission, killing and destroying everyone and everything that stands in its way, manipulating societies to foment unrest and divisions so that the situation could be used to its advantage, it lectures the world about civilised behaviour and all that comes with it. In the case of the US, great power has brought with it hypocrisy and arrogance. The self-proclaimed torchbearer of humanity and human values has no qualms about saying one thing and doing another. It has the audacity to talk glibly about millions of precious innocent lives lost as collateral damage.
Of course, the US is made possible with more than a little help from accomplices in the targeted countries, whether they come in the form of pliant governments or disenchanted groups that are funded and armed to serve as tools of imperialism. In Pakistan, the most important ally of the US is the so-called democratic government. While we condemn the deaths and destruction, the loot and plunder, perpetrated by the US, it is important not to forget the support that it gets from those in charge of our destiny. According to confidential cables sent by the US Embassy in Pakistan and released by Wikileaks, President Asif Zardari is reported to have told US officials in a private meeting that they should carry on with their drone strikes and not worry about innocent lives lost. He is quoted to have said that collateral damage does not bother him. Officially, our stand is that these strikes are unlawful, counterproductive and unacceptable.
When a CIA agent posing as a US diplomat killed two Pakistanis in broad daylight on a crowded square in the centre of Lahore, our leadership engineered his escape from the country. When US commandos conducted their get-Osama raid deep inside Pakistani territory without so much as informing the so-called ally, our President congratulated the US in an op-ed piece published the very next day in a major American daily. What kind of signals are we sending to the US? The military leadership seems to have come out of the US hypnosis, but the government is obviously still ready to serve the two-faced master. Despite the unwillingness on part of the US to apologise for the death of Pakistani soldiers killed in the attack on the Salalah checkposts, or to even guarantee that it won’t happen again, government ministers are talking about re-opening the Nato supply routes after taxing the containers.
An elderly friend says that we should not blame the foreign invaders and colonialists for their crimes and exploitation, as they could not have been successful without help from local players. He is well versed in history and quotes many battles and intrigues to prove his point; the betrayals and selling out of insiders that made it possible for imperialism to thrive. Naturally, it gets worse if those willing to sell out the interests of their people are not few but an entire political elite, an elite that is so hopelessly sold out that it sees its own country and its people through the eyes of the imperialists, an elite weaned on loans and hemmed in by the framework of those who want to control what goes on in the country that it is supposed to govern, an elite that parrots what the master says and has no narrative of its own. We cannot hope to break the stranglehold of the global badmash with people like that calling the shots in Pakistan.
However, my elderly friend is only partially right. While citizens of Pakistan continue their struggle to rid themselves of colonial stooges pretending to be the leaders of a free country, and to put in place a government that will work for their interests, they must not turn a blind eye to the slithery machinations of imperialism that have been perfected over the years, complete with new divisions that it must sow to rule and new burdens of democracy and human rights that it must carry to the ends of the world. Whatever the crimes of our own elite, it does not absolve the leaders of the so-called free world of their crimes against humanity. President Obama’s drone attacks are a crime too big to be hidden by his Nobel Peace Prize.
The writer is a freelance columnist.
Email: hazirjalees@hotmail.com
This is a cross post from PakPotpouuri

Dear Mr. Barack Obama,

Salaam.

Pakistan still remembers that you said “Pakistan was an enormous country”, during your last visit to India and now Mr. Leon Panetta, has very rightly said that stable Pak-US relations are critical to Afghan success.

In my opinion, after you Excellency, your Secretary of Defense, is the only man in the world, who can restore the snapped relations with Pakistan, provided he is given the ultimate authority to negotiate new terms of engagements, which in the end, must be a win win situation, for both the parties.

However, it must be remembered  that stability of our relations won’t come over the blood of our martyred soldiers. Muslims are never taught to offer the other cheek, if slapped on one.

US and the NATO must understand our psyche, before even thinking of building stable relationship with Pakistan.

The only way to reach out Pakistan, for it’s cooperation and friendship, is to first recognize what it has sacrificed, for the imposed war and then deal on mutual and equal terms. Else, acrimony will stay permanently, even if some ad-hoc measures, diffuse the situation for the time being.

Wishing you, your family and all Americans, a very happy Christmas and Seasons Greetings.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore – Pakistan.

This has reference to the news published on November 04, 2011 in the daily “Pakistan Today” under the heading ” Pakistan going after extremists will be a ‘real wild card’: Rice” Link :-  http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/11/pakistan-going-after-extremists-will-be-a-real-wild-card-rice/

Ms Condoleezza Rice let me tell you that your words Calling Pakistan “a continuing problem” for both the US and Afghanistan are very offensive, uncalled for and an insult for a nation, who gave more sacrifices in men and material, than combined losses of 49 NATO countries, fighting your sown and harvested terrorism in Afghanistan.

And don’t forget Ms C. Rice that Pakistan and this region is suffering, just because your agencies failed to stop 9/11 plotters, who got training in aeroplane flying right inside your country; and none of them belonged to Pakistan.

America has a habit of waging wars on innocent people on false pretexts.

We in Pakistan wonder, what wrong we have done over the last 64 years, in looking after your needs and helping you as a friend e.g. in Korean war era under various pacts, allowing overflights for your U2 planes to spy over USSR, connecting USA with China, bringing down USSR in Afghanistan war in 80s, saving American soldiers from being lynched by Somalian war lords, saving US staff from burning Islamabad Embassy,  making America a single super power and fighting so called American war on terror  imposed on this region that too because of sheer incompetence of US intelligence agencies, in stopping 9/11 attacks in the first instance.

Ms Condoleezza Rice, the fact is that America has time and again proved, with its betrayal in its friendship with Pakistan, that you people are and never were worthy of Pakistan’s friendship and all the sacrifices we gave for you. Moreover, now there is no doubt that you understand one and only one language, learnt in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

And the moral of the story is, that a nation may survive being not a friend of America but, it can’t survive, being a friend of America. 

Pakistan is calling for its Anna Hazare not for anti-corruption bill but for saving the innocent humanity in Karachi carnage.

Come on just one person from the huge crowd of President, Prime Minister, Ministers, Chief Ministers, Governors, Speakers & Deputy speakers, MNA’s & MPA’s.

Is there  not even one person in this nation of 18 crore people, to just stand up and protest like Anna Hazare, against the unabated killings of innocent perons in Karachi?

The silence of the entire nation and all the organs of the state on Karachi Killings is deafning, but all of us must remember, that if today we fail to move individually & collectively, to stop the daily carnage of humanity in Karachi, then be ready to face the situation, where even our names will be scratched from the annuls of the history.

Na Samjho Gay Tou Mit Jago Gay Aay Pakistan Walo

Tumahari Dastan Tak Bhi Na Ho Gi Dastanon Mein.

The deadly terrorism violence in Karachi has reached the stage where even to think that any civilian government can control the situation will be a folly. Now restoration of permanent peace will not be an easy task even if civilian government calls the armed forces to help Karachi back to normalcy.

However, Karachi can not and must not be left at the mercy of warmongers & terrorists  who are hell bent in their nefarious designs to make this part of Pakistan another case for the world community to interfere with an excuse they made in the case of Libya.

The situation in Karachi is not grave rather it is ultra grave. The solidarity of the country is not just threatened, it is under a direct attack.

As such, the government is urgently advised to immediately order a full fledged military operation or impose limited martial law, whichever is allowed under the constitutation (without wasting a moment) in the selected areas of Karachi, which are badly affected in the ongoing lawlessness. In this regard, the military authorities may be given a fixed time frame to achieve peace, like they did in Swat, by getting rid of all such criminals, responsible for the current lawlessness and also to make the city an arms free area.

THANK YOU AMERICA

By: Col Khawar Munir Haroon(Retd),Sitara-e-Imtiaz(Military)

Thank you America, you did what you are capable of doing. You should have done it much earlier. You have unnecessarily put your people, the tax payers, under relentless pressure. Your “war on terror” expenditure has crossed $ 4 Trillion dollars. Expenditure on maintaining your troops in Afghanistan has crossed $ 100 Billion dollars. Your budget deficit is touching $ 1.645 Trillion dollars. You are under debt of over $ 14 Trillion dollars. Your economy is standing on the moving sands. A bubble, which your own economists are predicting, is about to burst. Very rightly so you have put strings to your support to Pakistan.

It is always good to run away from the theater of war. You did it in Korea, then in Vietnam. Prior to that, you buckled in front of Cuba, when Castro and Che Guevara kicked out your prodigy, Batista. You are running out of Afghanistan now. Do it fast, lest your poodle stops wagging its tail. This time your exit should be forever.

An exceptional article publised in the daily ” The Nation ” dated May 22, 2011 titled ‘Osama’s Killing: A Drama or Reality” by Mr. Khawar Munir Haroon, is reproduces below for the benefit of readers who are keenly interested in resolving the mystery of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Quote. ” According to Dr Steve R. Pieczenik, a psychiatrist who has treated CIA employees, “Osama was dead in 2001” and 9/11 was, in any case, a farce. When a person with the inside knowledge of the American intelligence system says so it is hard not to believe him.

Mr Pieczenik cannot be dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. He served on important posts with Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush Sr. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State with the first three and also as senior policy planner under Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance and James Baker. The former US Navy Captain still works as a consultant for the Department of Defence and is recipient of two prestigious Harry C. Solomon awards at the Harvard Medical School, as he simultaneously completed a PhD at MIT. He has a long list of credentials that can be found through the internet. He says: “Osama was suffering with Marfan syndrome”, and he died in 2001, “not because the Special Forces had killed him, but because as a physician I had known that the CIA physicians had treated him and it was on the intelligence roster that he had Marfan syndrome. The US government knew he was dead before they invaded Afghanistan. Bush Jr knew about it, the intelligence community knew about it. CIA physicians had visited bin Laden in July 2001 at the American Hospital in Dubai.”

Marfan syndrome is a degenerative genetic disease for which there is no permanent cure. The illness severely shortens the lifespan of the sufferer.

Then why to dramatise Osama’s capture, his murder and then throwing the dead body in the sea? What is the message sent out? Who gained and who are the losers?

The CIA failed on 9/11 or did it? It is a Zionist plan that is gradually unfolding. It is a pity that the poor Americans are so naive that they cannot read between the lines. They are mechanised robots.

They do not have time to go through the political jigsaw. Most of them only understand what is fed to them by the media, which is primarily owned and operated by the Jews. They are fleecing the people of America who are being practically controlled by Israel. Don’t we know who controls the American economy? Don’t we know about the owners of US gold reserves? Why moves aimed at destabilisation are under way in our part of the world? Who are the actors behind the stage? Who are the supporters of the terrorist groups operating in Pakistan? Are we not aware of the funding channels of these plunderers? The answer is short and crisp. It is the Israeli perpetrators. They are there in the guise of our so-called religious brethren and friends.