Priceless!

Does Rupert Murdock have a consulting contract with India's government?

From GEO Pakistan.....

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Former Pak air chief in Indian govt advertisement

NEW DELHI: The Indian government was left red-faced Sunday after a full-page advertisement it issued as part of a women's rights campaign included the photograph of a former Pakistan Air Force chief.

The newspaper advertisement issued by India's federal Ministry of Women and Child Development was aimed at raising public awareness of the killing of female foetus [sic] in the mother's womb.

"Where would you be if your mother was not allowed to be born?" the advertisement asks and alongside photographs of two famous Indian cricketers and Pakistan's former air chief marshal Tanvir Ahmed.

[...]

Government advertisements are routinely handed over to private creative agencies after which they are issued by the government's Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity. All advertisements are cleared by the respective ministries.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to voice its criticism as television channels played up the blunder.

"This is a very serious thing if our government officials and politicians do not know who our top military officials are," senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

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Should we start running around with our hair on fire over the recent dire pronouncements about Pakistan?

every time we find our government making pronouncements about the dangers to world peace due to what's happening in another country, we would be well advised to stay calm, NOT start running around with our hair on fire, and start looking for more rational and informed perspectives... the u.s. public has been duped so often and so thoroughly over the years, you'd think we would be much more discriminating consumers of our leaders' propaganda and a great deal more suspicious of their motives... sadly, even though i consider myself to be one of the more discriminating, because i wasn't stopping to think about what i was reading over the past few days, i was falling prey myself to the dire picture of pakistan that the media is spooning down our collective throats...

juan cole, one of the more astute observers of this part of the world (i am typing this at my desk early sunday morning in kabul, a mere 100km from the pakistan border), begs to differ from the official line...

Readers have written me asking what I think of the rash of almost apocalyptic pronouncements on the security situation in Pakistan issuing from the New York Times, The Telegraph, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in recent days.

[...]

What I see is a Washington that is uncomfortable with anything like democracy and civilian rule in Pakistan; which seems not to realize that the Pakistani Taliban are a small, poorly armed fringe of Pushtuns, who are a minority; and I suspect US policy-makers of secretly desiring to find some pretext for removing Pakistan's nuclear capacity.

All the talk about the Pakistani government falling within 6 months, or of a Taliban takeover, flies in the face of everything we know about the character of Pakistani politics and institutions during the past two years.

My guess the alarmism is being promoted by Pervez Musharraf, who wants to make another military coup; and by civilian politicians in Islamabad, who want to extract more money from the US to fight the Taliban that they are secretly also bribing to attack Afghanistan.

Advice to Obama: Pakistan is being configured for you in ways that benefit some narrow sectional interests. Caveat emptor.

the one thing professor cole barely touches on is pakistan's relationship with and impact on afghanistan... afghanistan is, in many ways, caught in a tug of war with its powerful neighbors, india, iran, and pakistan, and i'm sure china and russia are active behind the scenes as well... pakistan sees afghanistan as not only a territory to be influenced if not outright dominated, but also as a valuable captive market... given the heavy u.s. involvement in afghanistan and pakistan's heavy involvement with afghanistan as well as the u.s., it's hard to imagine that recent u.s. pronouncements about pakistan don't have a plan for afghanistan lurking somewhere in the background...

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Dubai ain't immune to the global financial meltdown

from daijiworld via juan cole...

Local police have found at least 3,000 automobiles -- sedans, SUVs, regulars -- abandoned outside Dubai International Airport in the last four months. Police say most of the vehicles had keys in the ignition, a clear sign they were left behind by owners in a hurry to take flight.

The global economic crisis has brought Dubai's economic progress, mirrored by its soaring towers and luxurious resorts, to a stuttering halt. Several people have been laid off in the past months after the realty boom started unraveling.

On the night of December 31, 2008 alone more than 80 vehicles were found at the airport. "Sixty cars were seized on the first day of this year," director general of Airport Security, Mohammed Bin Thani, told DNA over the phone. On the same day, deputy director of traffic, colonel Saif Mohair Al Mazroui, said they seized 22 cars abandoned at a prohibited area in the airport.

Faced with a cash crunch and a bleak future ahead, there were no goodbyes for the migrants -- overwhelmingly South Asians, mostly Indians - just a quiet abandoning of the family car at the airport and other places.

While 2,500 vehicles have been found dumped in the past four months outside Terminal III, which caters to all global airlines, Terminal II, which is only used by Emirates Airlines, had 160 cars during the same period.

i've been through dubai several times... wherever i am, i always make it a point to talk to taxi drivers... i like to hear their thoughts on things because they usually have their fingers on the pulse of what's going on locally... every single taxi driver i've spoken with in dubai has been either from india or pakistan, most having been recruited by the government, most there without their families, most there trying to earn some money to send home, and most not caring much for dubai, the locals or how they're treated... they come on two-year, renewable contracts with a one-month paid home leave at the end of the first year... some had already renewed, some were thinking about it, and some said "no way"... it's interesting to know that, now that dubai has at long last fallen on hard times, many are simply saying "to hell with it"... can't say as i blame them...


Dubai from the east bank of Deira Creek
29 November 2008

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Promoting fear of (choose one: biological, nuclear, terrorist, conventional weapons) attack - it's good for business

a friend sent me this article with the following question...

the question...

What's your read on this having spent time near the country mentioned?

the article...

The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.

[...]

Al-Qaida remains the only terrorist group judged to be actively intent on conducting a nuclear attack against the United States, the report notes. It is not yet capable of building such a weapon and has yet to obtain one. But that could change if a nuclear weapons engineer or scientist were recruited to al-Qaida's cause, the report warns.

The report says the potential nexus of terrorism, nuclear and biological weapons is especially acute in Pakistan.

"Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan," the report states.

my response...

i think 90+ percent of these stories are designed as fear-mongering, pure and simple... a population living in fear is, by definition, easier to control...

however, if sophisticated biological attacks become part of the arsenal of ANY group, it will because the technology and skill required for their development became available in some manner, intended or otherwise, through the incessant research on same being done by countries like the u.s., in precisely the same way that nuclear weapons technology became available to pakistan and, now, india...

don't think for a moment that a new weapons race such as that announced today by russia in response to the u.s. plans to position missiles in poland and the czech republic isn't planned as a means to increase defense research and weapons systems spending... likewise, nuclear and biological weapons systems proliferation is equally good for business... as always, follow the money...

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Thanksgiving day in Kabul

i was just walking in the door of the office here in kabul this morning when i heard the blast... needless to say, the cell phone networks immediately went gridlock as everyone was trying to find out what was going on... the mother of one of my afghan friends lives near the square where it took place and, when she first tried to call, her mother wasn't picking up the phone... it took about three tries, but then she answered and all is ok...

Afghan Police Say Bomb Explodes Near U.S. Embassy

Afghan police say a suicide car bomb has exploded about 200 yards outside the main entrance to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, killing at least one.

i had come from the hotel where i was watching the news reports on the mumbai situation, so this on top of that wasn't good news, for sure...

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Why does a reference to the originator of the "BIG LIE" generate such outrage?

people around the world have been subjected to the "BIG LIE" for decades, and one of them has certainly been that "free trade" agreements between wealthy nations and poorer nations are mutually beneficial... what is it about referring to someone like goebbels and the nazi era that sets people to foaming at the mouth...? sure, comparing someone to a notorious nazi isn't exactly a compliment, but, fercryinoutloud, the BIG LIE is still the BIG LIE, right...? RIGHT...?

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the U.S., Europe and other wealthy economies have so frequently misrepresented the talks launched in Qatar's capital in 2001 that public perception has become totally warped.

"Goebbels used to say if you repeat a lie several times it becomes a truth," Amorim told reporters at the World Trade Organization, where top negotiators from over two dozen countries are expected Monday for the official start of the talks.

Poorer countries have demanded cuts in the farm tariffs and subsidies used by wealthy countries, saying they hinder Third World development. In exchange, rich countries have insisted on better market access in developing countries for their manufacturers and service providers.

Amorim implied that rich countries were employing Goebbels' lying tactics in describing the agricultural concessions they claim they are willing to make, while criticizing poorer countries for refusing to liberalize their industrial markets.

"I am reminded of Goebbels," said Amorim, whose country has co-led with India a broad coalition of developing countries at the WTO talks.

yeah, i'm reminded of goebbels TOO...

cue the outrage...

Sean Spicer, spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said he was horrified by the "personal venom" of Amorim's words.

"We came here to Geneva to negotiate on substance," Spicer told The Associated Press. "For him to make remarks like this is so incredibly wrong. They are insulting."

cue the apology...

In an interview with the AP, Amorim's spokesman Ricardo Neiva Tavares said the minister "regrets if Susan Schwab or anyone else was upset by his comments on a historical fact. He certainly did not intend to hurt anyone's feelings, which he deeply respects."

i repeat... a BIG LIE is still a BIG LIE, right...?

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The Indian Embassy blast in Afghanistan hits a little close to home for me

the indian embassy is directly across the street from where i regularly held meetings...

from reuters...



and, needless to say, our worthless u.s. news media doesn't bother to give us the full background...

juan cole...

[A] suicide bomber struck at the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing 28 persons and wounding 141. The Indian ambassador was not there at the time, but Indian embassy guards and possibly other Embassy personnel appear to have been killed.

India has 3,000 nationals doing reconstruction work in Afghanistan. Since the neo-Taliban want to pull down the Karzai government, trying to scare the Indians into leaving would be a way of removing one foreign pillar of support from the edifice of state.

Since the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence is alleged to be secretly backing some Taliban elements, there is a danger that New Delhi will read this assault on its embassy in Kabul as an indirect strike by Pakistan. Pakistan had long considered Afghanistan its sphere of influence (which the military called its 'strategic depth' against India). Pakistan exercised its regional hegemony through the Taliban in the 1990s. The Northern Alliance gradually allied with India, Russia and Iran. The Taliban were mostly Pushtun, while the Northern Alliance was Tajik (Persian-speaking) , Hazarah (ditto but Shiite) and Uzbek. So from a Pakistani and Pushtun Taliban point of view, when the US put the Northern Alliance in charge of Kabul in late 2001, it more or less turned Afghanistan into an Indian sphere of influence. Pakistan and the Taliban are fighting back against this change.

The bombing in Kabul came after allegations over the weekend that the US had mistakenly bombed a wedding party and earlier had also killed civilians in another area in an air strike aimed at militants.

virtually every afghan i talked to when i was there made the same point - that pakistan is working diligently to destabilize afghanistan and has been the force behind the most deadly attacks... meanwhile, the u.s. continues to pour billions of dollars into the pakistan military, knowing full well what's going on...

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Internet cable cuts

given what's now up to five cuts to internet cables serving the middle east, egypt, and the indian subcontinent and the rampant speculation that's gone with it, the uk guardian obliges by offering this most informative graphic detailing undersea communication cables around the world, their capacity, and internet usage by country, among other interesting details...


Click on graphic for larger version

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The business of America is business - $1.6B in arms sales to Iraq (and $3.5B to Pakistan and $1B to Egypt and...)

it seems i post all too frequently on u.s. arms sales (here, here, here and here just since this past march)... with all the attention going to pakistan, egypt, saudi arabia and india, the 800-lb. gorillas of u.s. arms sales, i had completely neglected to consider the possibility that iraq was now an official member of that club... silly me... but OF COURSE they would be... we didn't invade just for their oil...

from salon...

The Pentagon confirmed that this fiscal year, the United States has finalized $1.6 billion in arms sales to Iraq, placing the country in an elite club of weapons buyers. For example, in recent one-year periods Saudi Arabia bought $800 million and Egypt bought $1 billion in arms from the U.S., while Pakistan spent $3.5 billion, including the purchase of jet fighters. "This would put [Iraq] right up there with the top handful of arms buyers," said William Hartung, a weapons proliferation expert at the New America Foundation.

In fact, the numbers Petraeus presented on Iraq were the tip of the iceberg. According to data obtained by Salon from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency at the Pentagon, which manages the arms sales, the military has alerted Congress to up to $4.3 billion in arms sales that have been under discussion since at least 2006 between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

gotta keep that military-industrial complex cranking along at full capacity, dontcha know...

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Three billion liters of untreated waste every single day

Daniel Pepper
A young girl pushes her raft along New Delhi's polluted Yamuna river.
She and a handful of others trawl the river for loose change tossed in
for good luck.

into one river from one city...

Fully three billion liters of waste are pumped into Delhi's Yamuna River each day.

[...]

80 percent of urban waste in India ends up in the country's rivers, and unchecked urban growth across the country combined with poor government oversight means the problem is only getting worse.

[...]

Much of the river pollution problem in India comes from untreated sewage. Samples taken recently from the Ganges River near Varanasi show that levels of fecal coliform, a dangerous bacterium that comes from untreated sewage, were some 3,000 percent higher than what is considered safe for bathing.

another unbelievably polluted river, the riachuelo, runs along the southeastern edge of buenos aires... i've walked along its banks, holding my nose the whole time...

The [Riachuelo] receives a significant quantity of industrial waste from the numerous factories along it, especially the leather processing facilities, which makes the Riachuelo one of the three most polluted rivers in the world. Among the most dangerous contaminants are heavy metals and sewers' water from all the saturated layers of the basin.

Junked ships line the banks of the Riachuelo in Buenos Aires

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45,000% increase in military aid to Pakistan

that's a staggering amount...

In the three years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.2 billion, compared to $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks — a 45,000 percent increase — boosting Pakistan to the top tier of countries receiving this type of funding.

More than half of the new money was provided through a post-9/11 Defense Department program — Coalition Support Funds — not closely tracked by Congress.

This is a key finding of an investigative study by the Center for Public Integrity, using data assembled through Freedom of Information Act requests. Pakistan received $2.3 billion of post-9/11 aid from CSF money in fiscal years 2002 through 2004, a total that surpassed $3 billion in 2005. Not only did this earn it the No. 1 rank among nations receiving CSF money, but Pakistan's take was nearly four times as much as all other countries combined received by 2005.

"With the possible exception of Iraq reconstruction funds, I've never seen a larger blank check for any country than for the Pakistan CSF program," Tim Rieser, the majority clerk on the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, told the Center.

i follow u.s. arms sales off and on... i posted on this back in november...



and this last june...

The Bush administration's nuclear accord with India seems on track to easy passage in Congress, as the White House also proceeds with plans to equip Pakistan with F-16 fighter jets.

and this back in august 2005...

33.5% of all weapons contracts worldwide and 31.6% of contracts to the developing world are inked by our peace-loving nation... our hypocrisy is evidently limitless... oh, and by the way, $1.5B of that went to Pakistan and almost $5B to India...

and this in may of the same year...

the $1.3B u.s. weapons sale to pakistan, paid for by the u.s. department of defense, no less...

so, here's the question... how much of this money, arms, planes, weapons, and other equipment is going into the hands of people who shouldn't have it...? general musharraf certainly doesn't seem like the kind of democratic leader we are so fond of saying we want to see emerge in the islamic world...

(thanks to TPMmuckraker...)

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Well, duh, Vladimir

vlado isn't my favorite world political figure, but that doesn't mean he can't occasionally hit the nail on the head...

- QUOTATION OF THE DAY -

"Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations - military force."

- VLADIMIR V. PUTIN, President of Russia, on the U.S.

here's the details...

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia accused the United States on Saturday of provoking a new nuclear arms race by developing ballistic missile defenses, undermining international institutions and making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war.

In an address to an international security conference, Mr. Putin dropped all diplomatic gloss to recite a long list of complaints about American domination of global affairs, including many of the themes that have strained relations between the Kremlin and the United States during his seven-year administration.

Among them were the expansion of NATO into the Baltics and the perception in Russia that the West has supported groups that have toppled other governments in Moscow’s former sphere of influence.

“The process of NATO expansion has nothing to do with modernization of the alliance,” Mr. Putin said. “We have the right to ask, ‘Against whom is this expansion directed?’ ”

He said the United States had turned the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which sends monitors to elections in the former Soviet sphere, “into a vulgar instrument of ensuring the foreign policy interests of one country.”

you can be sure that, given the source, even liberals and progressives will be tempted to dismiss such criticism as merely global political posturing... however, it's worth looking at the nuggets of truth in putin's statements... while all of the above ring true in many ways, the most disturbing one is this...

He expressed alarm that an effective antimissile shield over the United States would upset a system of mutual fear that kept the nuclear peace throughout the cold war. “That means the balance will be upset, completely upset,” he said.

with the u.s. resuming nuclear weapons research and development and considering the resumption of underground nuclear testing, the prospect of re-igniting a nuclear arms race is a chilling prospect, particularly given our sharing of nuclear technology with india, pakistan's instability, iran's bid to join the nuclear club, israel's nuclear stockpile, and the ticking middle east time bomb...

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