This is from the blog of the U.S. Naval Institute -- interesting read
After being forwarded about a dozen times, this email describing the pirate attack on the MAERSK ALABAMA reached my email inbox. It contains a couple good points to keep in mind if you need to prepare your ship against pirate attack.
(extract)...
I wanted to let you know some of the lessons we learned so you guys can better prepare yourselves for something similar.
The only guys actually captured by the pirates were on the bridge: Capt, 3/M, and 2 AB's. I don't really know why they stayed on the bridge until the pirates got up there. Then they had keys to everything and were able to unlock everyone's rooms.
The pirates got up to the bridge very quickly once they were onboard. We had a locked cage door over the ladder well from main deck, but it only took a second for them to shoot it off. They then got to the bridge up the outside ladders. By that time we had taken control of the engine and steering down below.
xxx stayed in the ECR and the C/M was out on deck tracking the pirates' movement. We kept swinging the rudder side to side. The pirates' boat capsized, though I'm not sure exactly when or what caused it. After about 20 minutes the engine was killed, I don't know by whom. At that point I shut off the air bottles and xxx killed power. He was also able to get outside and trip the fuel shutoff for the EDG. I think this was critical. The pirates were very reluctant to go into the dark. We will be looking at a way to shut off the EDG from the ECR in the future.
All the crew had been mustered and secured in the steering gear. Our pirates didn't have any grenades, so they would have never been able to break in there. The previous day we had welded a padeye on the inside of the hatch to the fantail so it was secured from the inside. The only problem with the steering gear was the heat and the shortage of water. In the future we will store food and water in various spots for emergency usage. I think we will also run a fresh water line into the steering gear. We were able to make a run from the steering gear to the E/R water fountain and fill up some empty oil sample bottles we had back there. The C/M was also able to get some fruit and sodas from the galley and drop them down the line standpipe.
The pirates sent the 3/M unescorted to go look for crewmembers, so he was able to get away. One of the pirates then went with an AB down to the E/R to look for people. xxx was able to jump him in the dark and we took him prisoner in the steering gear. No one else came down into the E/R.
As the day went on the pirates became desperate to get out of there. There boat was sunk, and they couldn't get our ship moving. The Captain talked them into taking the MOB boat. The three remaining pirates went down in the MOB boat with Phillips. We were then able to negotiate with them over the radio. We dropped some food, water and diesel to them. We started getting the plant back on line. Unfortunately, the MOB boat wouldn't start.
A couple of guys got in the lifeboat and dropped it. They motored over and traded the lifeboat for the MOB boat. We were supposed to exchange their guy for the Captain, but they ended up keeping him. They motored off in the lifeboat. They had no way of getting back aboard, so we followed them. The Navy showed up a few hours later. We stayed close by for some time, but then the Navy asked us to head out. I heard that several other pirate vessels were heading our way and the Navy wanted us out of the way. That's about it. I'll give you all the details some other time.
Just to reiterate the most important points:
- Have a well fortified location with food and water supply.
- Kill all the lights.
- Leave the alarms going, the noise helped cover our movements through the house.
- Flashlights and radios are very handy, as well as the sound-powered phone.
Anyway, it was a pretty stressful situation. I have to say I am impressed with how the entire crew responded. We didn't have anybody who wanted to give up. I'm pretty confident that Phillips will end up ok. They have to know that if they kill him they'll be done....(continues)
Back in the '90s I took a ship security course and it included a piracy drill. We tried to take the ship back and all ended up dead. In the debriefing, the pirates, who were former-seals, mentioned that the hardest area of the ship to take control of was the engine room...
#1
Navy SEALs Special operators lethal after seven years at war By Louis Hansen
VIRGINIAN-PILOT
NORFOLK
One thing is certain about the Navy SEALs' takedown of three Somali pirates this week - it took a lot more than three shots.
SEAL snipers fire thousands of rounds from ships, boats and ranges before rejoining teams and honing their craft.
The snipers aboard the Norfolk-based destroyer USS Bainbridge may have had another advantage - their teams have been at war for seven years. They're mature, poised and lethal.
"You have a very seasoned group of special operators," said Cmdr. Greg Geisen, spokesman for Naval Special Warfare near San Diego. "Today's SEAL cadre is very, very experienced."
About half of the Navy's 2,500 SEALs are based in Virginia Beach at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base and Dam Neck Annex. West Coast teams are based at Coronado Naval Amphibious Base near San Diego.
Cmdr. Geisen declined to specify where the snipers were based. On any given day last year, he said, SEALs were deployed to 30 or more foreign countries.
Becoming a sniper is a coveted role on SEAL teams, Cmdr. Geisen said. SEALs selected for sniper duty have at least one combat deployment - and usually more - under their belts before they undergo a rigorous 12-week course in California. A typical candidate has spent four to six years in the teams, deployed twice and advanced to petty officer first class, Cmdr. Geisen said. The three-month course begins with two weeks working with digital cameras, learning photography and how to transmit images from the field.
They spend four weeks learning the tactics and techniques of reconnaissance and scout missions. They learn to hide, track and gather intelligence on enemy targets.
For example, in Operation Redwing in 2005, four SEALs were tracking an insurgent warlord when they were overwhelmed by enemy forces. The ensuing battle and rescue mission cost the lives of 19 special forces commandos, several from Hampton Roads. Only one, SEAL Marcus Luttrell, survived the mission.
The final piece of SEAL sniper training is six weeks of shooting and learning the techniques of a sniper team.
SEAL snipers shoot thousands of rounds, often traveling to train in difficult or unique circumstances. Cmdr. Geisen said snipers regularly practice shooting in conditions similar to the pirate operation last Sunday - from a moving platform to another moving target.
By the time they face an operation like the one on the deck of the Bainbridge, he said, "They have practiced it many, many times."
Cmdr. Geisen said the SEAL community is proud they completed the mission. He added that while the intense visibility of the operation was rare, the challenges the snipers faced were less so.
"This is public and of note," he said, "but not unique."
Lots of religious references in this Charles Moore commentary out of the UK. Including an Islamic one.
On Tuesday, at Georgetown University here in Washington, Mr Obama spoke about the economy. I was told that the White House, hypersensitive to conveying the wrong visual message, insisted that the university's device, which includes the initials IHS, the traditional, particularly Jesuit, abbreviation for Jesus Christ, be obliterated from the backdrop. But the President invoked the Sermon on the Mount all the same.
He reminded his audience of how the well-meaning attempt to spread home-ownership in America had been perverted into forms of debt so ill- or unsecured that they had provoked the world financial crisis. He repeated Jesus's parable of the two houses. One was built on "a pile of sand", and so fell when the rain came. The other was built upon a rock. "We must build our house upon a rock," said the President.
The house that Barack wants to build is architecturally grand. It will have five pillars, he announced. The first is that Wall Street will have new rules to reward "drive and innovation, not reckless risk-taking". The last is that "new savings in the federal budget... will bring down the debt for future generations". Sandwiched between these pillars are the other three. Each of these involves "new investments" -- education, renewable energy, and health care. This, said Mr Obama, would be the "new foundation".
rtwt
#1
"...the well-meaning attempt to spread home-ownership in America had been perverted into forms of debt so ill- or unsecured that they had provoked the world financial crisis.
Was that some kind of apology for previous Democrat administrations' Community Reinvestment social engineering irresponsibility? And who does he expect to believe the he won't do, and isn't already doing, the same sort of lame-brained, thing, albeit probably on a much greater scale, during his own presidency?
THE growing threat of violent extremism in different parts of Pakistan including Fata and Malakand Division is a matter of serious concern.
The harrowing factor is that the writ of the Taliban is solidifying both in the north and the south not only in the Pashtun belt but also in the heartland of Pakistan.
That a high-level provincial official posted in Swat should write a letter to the NWFP home department implying the complicity of the commissioner of Malakand Division in the ever-expanding influence of the Taliban in the region is an illustration of what is happening and how.
An alliance of extremist forces in Kashmir, Punjab, Fata and the NWFP and their strategy for Pakistans disintegration in the near future have virtually paralysed the administrations in the different settled districts of the NWFP not to mention the threats made by extremists to invade Islamabad very soon. After the February peace deal between the NWFP government and the banned Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) chapter of Swat started a three-pronged assault on the state.
Firstly, the Swat chapter of the TTP started recruitment and the construction of bunkers on a large scale in different parts of Swat while the military and security establishment and the government maintained control in different ways. The security establishment and the Pakistani government seem to be oblivious of the fact that the Taliban movement is far more agile than the security establishments response to their onslaught from different directions.
Secondly, the Swat chapter of the TTP, in line with the Taliban alliances in Fata and the rest of Pakistan, were readjusting and relocating therein and have started expanding their assaults from the north to the south of the NWFP. The present onslaught by the Taliban on Buner and Dir is part of this strategy.
Thirdly, the Taliban have started consolidating their positions vis-à-vis the security establishment by controlling strategic passes and side valleys of Swat, Buner, Shangla and Dir. In this scenario, reports that a part of the civil bureaucracy in the NWFP, Fata and elsewhere in Pakistan facilitates the process of Talibanisation is likely to be a worrisome factor for elements within and outside the country.
The present commissioner of Malakand Division is said to have been posted in lower Dir in the early 1990s when the TNSM was in the process of becoming a formidable extremist organisation with a jihadi ideology. The commissioner was said to have been a frequent visitor of Maulana Sufi Mohammads madressah and allegedly worked behind the scenes with the initial support of the local khans for the TNSM in 1994 when it brought the whole administration of Malakand Division to a standstill.
Many who saw the 1994 uprising of Malakand Division bear testimony to the fact that the present commissioner of the latter provided all-out help to the insurgents coming from Dir to Swat.
In the early era of Fazlullahs rise in Swat, again the present commissioner of Malakand Division was posted as the district coordination officer. He was the one, according to local residents, who facilitated the establishment of Fazlullahs FM radio. He was the one who convinced the local jirga of Mamdherai and Mingora to allow the FM radio to function. It was reported in 2006-07 in the local press that when the Taliban in Swat started destroying CD shops and barber shops and the owners would go to the DCO office for complaints, the DCO would tell them to close the shops because, according to him, running the business was un-Islamic. The present commissioner was also seen by the locals visiting Mamdherai markaz (centre) for Friday prayers frequently.
On April 5, 2009 a battalion of the Taliban militia with heavy weaponry crossed over the hills from Swat to Buner to avowedly supervise the implementation of the Nizam-i-Adl. The local residents of Buner had been resisting the inflow of the Taliban for a long time. The local elders intervened and tried to convince the Taliban to return but the latter opened fire at them, leaving several injured. Later the Taliban captured three policemen and two civilians, and killed them.
The local residents, the people of lower Buner and Sultanwas, gathered to move upward to face the Taliban while the people of upper Buner provided reinforcements. Fighting began and in the ensuing gun-battle some 17 members of the Taliban are said to have been killed. The questions on the minds of the local people were: why would the Taliban come with heavy weapons if they did not want to control Buner? And why were the Taliban allowed by the commissioner to move from Swat to Buner with heavy weapons?
On April 6, a delegation of the TNSM along with the commissioner Malakand Division went to Buner to negotiate with the local elders. They tried to convince the local elders to allow the Taliban to enter the valley. While the delegation engaged the local administration and the elders of Buner, the Taliban started getting reinforcements. In the context of the Taliban expansion to Buner, it is interesting to note the ideological role played by the relatively less known Jamaati Ashaatutoheed WaSunna, the creation of Maulana Tahir Panjpiri, the father of the infamous Major Amir, a well-known IB and ISI operative in the past and allegedly behind the notorious Operation Midnight Jackal. Major Amir, Syed Mohammad Javed (the present commissioner Malakand Division) and Maulana Sufi Mohammad are said to have been quite close since a long time.
According to eyewitnesses, during the recent stand-off between the Taliban and the people of Buner, the commissioner of Malakand Division made efforts to convince the people to allow the Taliban to enter Buner. The commissioner is said to have become annoyed with the superintendent of police in Buner for informing the people about the impending onslaught by the Taliban on the former.
The present commissioner of Malakand Division belongs to a religious family in Shergarh, Malakand Agency. The provincial government of the NWFP deemed it a better solution to the problem to ask for his services during the peace deal with the militants of Swat recently. This seems to be a matter of concern for all those who want to resist the Taliban and preserve a modern civilisation as opposed to adopting a mediaeval way of life.
The fact is that parts of the civilian administration in Fata, the NWFP and the rest of Pakistan is infested with the jihadi ideology and connected to the sympathisers of the Taliban in one way or the other.
The writer works with a research organisation.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2009 12:52 ||
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The Fluttering Flag of Jehad
By Amir Mir - Mashal Books Lahore 2008 Pp306; Price Rs 700
Amir Mir has developed into an informed commentator on the state of jihad with an uncomfortable inside track with those who are supposed to counter it in Pakistan. Of course jihad has unfortunately become another name for terrorism and those who have taken it out of the roster of the functions of the state and privatised it are to blame for this development.
Amir Mir was able to interview Benazir Bhutto just before she fell to the terrorism of Al Qaeda or whoever it was who assassinated her in December 2007. She thought Pervez Musharraf was secretly in league with the terrorists and had tried to kill her in Karachi in October 2007, and was sure he would get terrorists like Abdur Rehman Otho of Lashkar-e Jhangvi and Qari Saifullah Akhtar of Harkat Jihad Islami, protégés of the ISI, to do the job. She named Brigadier Ijaz Shah and Brigadier Riaz Chibb etc. in her final writings. She predicted her death and blamed it on the army; months later, Major General Faisal Alvi too predicted his own death at the hands of the army and was shot down in Islamabad.
Musharraf claimed that Benazir was killed by Baitullah Mehsud through his suicide-bombers whose minder was taped talking to him on the phone about the achievement. Evidence in place was destroyed by the establishment, and questions arising from her murder could not be answered although Al Qaeda was at first quoted in the press as having taken care of the most precious American asset in the words of Mustafa Abu Yazid, the Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan. Benazir had her moles inside the ISI (p.28); but Amir doesnt accept that Baitullah Mehsud killed her and gives a convincing critique of the findings of Scotland Yard.
Now a lot of writers use inside information from the US government to claim that Musharraf was sympathetic to the Taliban as they fled from the US attack in 2001. Amir Mir tells us that Corps Commander Peshawar General Safdar Hussain, who signed the peace accord with Baitullah Mehsud at Sararogha near Wana in February 2005, had called him a soldier of peace even as Mehsuds warriors shouted Death to America. Major General Faisal Alvi was to accuse some elements in the army high command of being on the side of the Taliban before his assassination in 2008. Baitullah rewarded General Hussain with 200 captured Pakistani troops in August 2007.
Benazir believed Qari Saifullah Akhtar was involved in the attempt on her life in Karachi in October 2007 (p.43). Qari was in prison for trying to kill Musharraf in 2004 and was sprung from there to do the job on Benazir. Musharraf was outraged when he got to know that an ISI protégé had tried to kill him from his safe haven in Dubai after fleeing from Afghanistan in 2001. Qari was special because he was rescued by the spooks after he was found involved in trying to stage a military coup in league with Islamist fanatic Major General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi in 1995. He along with his Harkat Jihad Islami was to become the favourite of the Taliban government.
The place to be mined for leadership talent was Karachis Banuri Mosque where the Qari and that other protégé Fazlur Rehman Khalil had received their Deobandi orientation. The third Banuri Mosque protégé of the state was Maulana Masud Azhar, who formed Jaish-e Muhammad and was rescued from an Indian jail together with Omar Sheikh, the man who later helped kill Daniel Pearl in Karachi. Qari was recalled from Dubai and kept in custody, and the Lahore High Court did not release him on a habeas corpus petition. But he was released quietly before Benazir arrived in Pakistan in October 2007 (p.45).
After Benazir named him in her posthumous book, Qari was arrested again in March 2008. The reaction came in the shape of a suicide attacks on the Naval War College and the FIA office in Lahore where Qaris terrorists were being kept for interrogation into the War College attack (p.47). A Karachi terrorist court heard the case against Qari and freed him on bail because the proof with which the prosecution could have proved him guilty had disappeared. Later he was rearrested but then quietly released by the Home Department because the spooks wanted him freed (p.48).
Fazlur Rehman Khalil is the sort of person who can some day get Pakistan into trouble after which Islamabad will have to say he has mysteriously left the country and cannot be produced. He is Osama bin Ladens man and his Harkatul Mujahideen was prominent among the jihadi organisations in Kashmir and ran training camps for warriors in Dhamial just outside Rawalpindi
Fazlur Rehman Khalil is another protected person who lives in Islamabad but governments hardly know what he has been saying to the American authors who visit him. When Islamabad got into trouble with its own clerics in Lal Masjid, it was Khalil who was taken out and made to negotiate with them (p.109). He is the sort of person who can some day get Pakistan into trouble after which Islamabad will have to say he has mysteriously left the country and cannot be produced. He is Osama bin Ladens man and his Harkatul Mujahideen was prominent among the jihadi organisations in Kashmir and ran training camps for warriors in Dhamial just outside Rawalpindi, at least that is what an American suspect Hamid Hayat told the FBI after visiting it (p.108).
It is not only Dr AQ Khan whom Pakistan has to save from being kidnapped by the anti-proliferationist West, there is also Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the top scientist who enriched uranium at Khushab and then conferred with Osama bin Laden about building a nuclear bomb when he was in Kabul looking after his charity organisation called Umma Tameer Nau (p.111). He is the crazy bearded man who once presented a paper to General Zia saying Pakistan could make electricity from jinns. He also thought he could use a nuclear bomb to clear up a silted Tarbela Dam. Daniel Pearl was on to him, but he got killed when he got close to another protected person.
there is also Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the top scientist who enriched uranium at Khushab and then conferred with Osama bin Laden about building a nuclear bomb when he was in Kabul looking after his charity organisation called Umma Tameer Nau (p.111). He is the crazy bearded man who once presented a paper to General Zia saying Pakistan could make electricity from jinns. He also thought he could use a nuclear bomb to clear up a silted Tarbela Dam. Daniel Pearl was on to him
The other person was Mubarak Shah Gilani, a scion of the great Sufi of Lahore, Mianmir, who actually controlled jinns and ran a jihadi organisation named Al Fuqra still alive and doing well in the UKs Londonistan. He had recruited Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber terrorist who was caught before he could blow up an aircraft. Daniel Pearl had traced Mubarak Shah Gilani to Karachi and was going to interview him when he was tricked by Omar Sheikh into going with Lashkar-e Jhangvi gunmen who then handed him over to Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, who confessed at Guantanamo to personally beheading him (p.116). Omar Sheikh, who got involved in planning the 9/11 strike, was finally made to surrender after sheltering in home secretary and ex-ISI officer Ijaz Shahs residence in Lahore for a week.
The book says on page 122 that the ISI chief General Mehmood was later investigated by FBI for sending $100,000 to plane hijacker Atta, who led the 9/11 strike on the World Trade Centre. The conduit for Mehmood was Omar Sheikh. The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearls paper, reported that an examination of Omar Sheikhs telephone record showed him talking to General Mehmood, proving also that the money sent by General Mehmood through Omar Sheikh was funding for the New York strike (p.122). General Musharraf in his book reported, as if in rebuttal, that Omar Sheikh was first recruited by the British spy agency MI6.
the ISI chief General Mehmood was later investigated by FBI for sending $100,000 to plane hijacker Atta, who led the 9/11 strike on the World Trade Centre. The conduit for Mehmood was Omar Sheikh. The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearls paper, reported that an examination of Omar Sheikhs telephone record showed him talking to General Mehmood, proving also that the money sent by General Mehmood through Omar Sheikh was funding for the New York strike
The book also reports that the hijacking done by Masood Azhars brother Abdul Rauf and brother-in-law Yusuf Azhar of an Indian airliner that led to the release of Omar Sheikh and Masood Azhar from an Indian jail was linked to the ISI because its Quetta-based officers talked to the hijackers on the wireless set at Kandahar (p.128). Masood Azhar then went on to attack the Parliament in New Delhi in 2001, a month after 9/11. ISI chief Javed Ashraf Qazi on March 6, 2004 admitted that Jaish was involved in the New Delhi parliament assault (p.134). Later Jaish militants were to be housed in Lal Masjid during its siege by state troops in 2007 (p.141).
An interesting chapter is included on the infiltration of the Pakistani cricket team by the Tablighi Jamaat. As a result, the team under captain Inzamam-ul Haq lost its playing ability to its obsession with tabligh and conversion. Media manager PJ Mir accused the team of neglecting the game during the 2007 World Cup and spending all the time trying to convert the innocent people of the West Indies (p.204).
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2009 00:00 ||
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By 2112 all Pakistani males over the age of 15 were without right hands, these having been chopped off by well-intentioned holy men of the Taliban Brigade (TB) which was by then the undisputed power in Pakistan. Because piety was central to its code of thinking though some wags questioned whether harebrained ideas could be even remotely labelled 'thinking' the chopping was to cleanse society. The Brigade's motto, 'Flog Flog-Chop Chop' was wildly popular though the men could no longer clap to show their support. One hand clapping was still a thing of the future in 2112.
By 2115, the world had quite forgotten that there was once a country called Pakistan. No one had been there, no one had come from there and by all accounts, no one lived there any more. Of course, this was facilitated by the fact that all the women were eventually killed off. In the end, all that was left was a bleak and windswept desert but even this was not confirmed since no one had seen it and returned to share the news.
There were other changes. All vehicles had been confiscated and taken off the roads. Instead, other than the top leaders of TB who travelled in convoys of 4x4 'Dallaas' everyone else had to make do with camels or simply foot it. This was not too difficult because the visible part of the country only comprised of one handed male adults and children.
The last sighting of a woman had been in the autumn of 2111 but it was later discovered that this was not so. Some experts were of the opinion that perhaps the Yeti had made an unscheduled trip to Pakistan and was snapped by a fidgety cameraman. Women had been banned from all public places and were confined to the four walls of their homes. However if they had more than four walls, the TB had no problem with that at all as long as they remained put. 'Out of sight, out of mind' was the cornerstone of TB's thinking on this subject. With women no longer part of the equation, the sin graph took a nosedive and was replaced with other pleasures which cannot be listed here since this is a family newspaper.
All educational institutions had been torched or demolished and in some cases where they were too large to be brought down, like the big universities and colleges, had been converted into wheat godowns. However since Pakistan could no longer grow wheat one armed wheat planting still a science Pakistani men had not mastered, they were used to hold lectures on beard growing. This was necessary because no male could go out without wearing a luxuriant beard and nationwide beard contests were very popular. The last one had been won by a man who had a beard that stretched from Peshawar to Kandhar and back but he was not able to get to a newspaper office because he couldn't see a thing. So the news remained confined to Pakistan.
In any event, even Ripley's wouldn't have believed it. Blades having been banned by the middle of 2009, the resultant savings considerably boosted the nation's economy and was hailed by the TB as one of its most significant achievements. Such was the popularity of beard-displays that young males from the age of six months were adorned with false beards pasted on by adoring parents. Kids wore these till they were able to replace them with the real thing, which was no longer Coke's slogan. The Coca Cola company plants had been torched because a Qazi in Buner ruled that the drink was alcoholic so it really didn't matter to Coke one way or another.
In sartorial matters since the Taliban were pretty groovy aping the latest fashions in six yarder harem pajamas often called 'shalwars' there were regular fashion shows with young and old male models strutting on the stage to the beat of right-handed drums. No other instruments were allowed to be played and in fact had been gathered and burnt long ago. Regular bathing was frowned upon. Special frowners had been trained whose job it was to arrive at any place where an objectionable activity might be taking place and frown till all fled. The venue would then be torched and the party would move on.
Justice for all remained the cornerstone of the Taliban till someone discovered that the cornerstone had been stolen. Efforts to find it were all in vain. It had simply vanished. Justice was freely dispensed and special dispensing machines were installed at street corners. These were originally Nescafe dispensing units but nobody had drunk coffee since it had been banned because it contained alcohol. So freely was justice administered that there was a nationwide shortage of hanging posts and rope. These could no longer be made locally because there were no trees left. Gallows made from date palms broke easily and were seen to be detrimental to the national hanging average which showed a steady and promising upwards growth day after day.
Since justice was now largely one sided there was no longer any need for defence councils. All such councils were gathered and drowned in the Tarbela Dam which was no longer functional because electricity was banned, oil lamps were the rage and because a leading cleric had said that the dam water contained alcohol. The happy brigade which had blown the Bamiyan Buddhas pleaded to blow up the sinful dam but were prevented from doing so. To vent their frustration, they blew up Karachi Harbour which was not such a loss since ships neither came nor went anymore. At the airports the scene was the same. PIA had been grounded which was not a bad idea. Foreign airlines refused to land here. Those intending to go for pilgrimages to holy lands were asked to use camels.
In terms of sports, things got a bit worse then they were at the start of the 21st century sorry 15th century or was it 16th? Any way the Pakistan cricket team was unable to do very well because not only had they to contend with playing with one hand but the grounds were desert surface and that might have been good for camel polo but not conducive to cover drives. Eventually the Taliban banned all sports as being a waste of time. Only cock-fights were allowed which had a rousing effect on all and sundry. Dr Nasim Ashraf cooked up another scheme to popularize desert cricket but found that the only payments for his hard work would be provided in round earth stones for his personal use. This the doctor declined politely and slipped away in the still of the night to try his luck in Swaziland.
By 2115, the world had quite forgotten that there was once a country called Pakistan. No one had been there, no one had come from there and by all accounts, no one lived there any more. Of course, this was facilitated by the fact that all the women were eventually killed off. In the end, all that was left was a bleak and windswept desert but even this was not confirmed since no one had seen it and returned to share the news.
The writer is a Lahore-based columnist
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The problem with this, optimistic account, is that they aren't content to stay within their borders and wreak Sharia on each other.
#2
Congratz. Masood Hasan is the first Muslim to be nominated for the Iowahawk Award fo Snarling Satire. Of course, he can only win as long as the things he posits don't actually happen.... jury is out.
'Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains' thus said Karl Marx. His call to arms became the signature slogan of Communism, and if we substituted 'People of Pakistan' for 'workers of the world' it would encapsulate the socio-political philosophy that has brought the Taliban to power. It is possible to analyse the rise of the Pakistani Taliban, and their success, in terms of a class struggle as has been recently done in an article in the New York Times. The essence of the article is that the Taliban have exploited the divide between rich and poor, landed and landless, in such a way as to give a sense of empowerment to those long disempowered. Pakistan remains a feudal society, and is in many ways unchanged since partition.
That was one of the reasons for partition - Nehru and the Congress were going to outlaw the feudal Zamindari system in India - the Muslim elite of the Punjab backed Jinnah and the Muslim League so they could retain their property, serfs, privileges
No government has ever successfully implemented a programme of land reform and there has never been a popular revolt against feudalism until now.
The Pakistani military has protected their feudal allies until now - landowners still have their own private jails where their serfs are punished. The Army itself is a major landowner
The sophistication of the Taliban strategy is becoming clearer. They were unlikely ever to come to national power via the ballot box, but they may come to it via popular revolution.
Examining the way in which they took hold of Swat tells us that they targeted a group of key landowners and landlords, as well as several local politicians who were also landowners or landlords. Disaffected peasants were organised into armed groups, pressure was applied either through direct intimidation or indirectly by the publication of 'the list' of people disapproved of by the Taliban. 'The masses' were promised swift transparent justice for their grievances, a redistribution of wealth the landlords and landowners having fled and an end to corrupt and inefficient governance. To a landless peasant or daily-wager this was an attractive proposition; even if it did come loaded with a different version of tyranny. The result is what we see today with Swat existing as a state outside of Pakistan and ruled by the Taliban. Swat is the prototypical model, the 'proof of concept' that the Taliban needed in order to replicate their success outside of their Pashtun homelands. They are now self-sustaining, less reliant on foreign aid, and have the rudiments of governance at their fingertips. They also make plain that the conquest of the rest of the country is their end-goal.
the peasantry sees a dwindling income from the land and endless years of bonded labour ahead, and in the cities the pool of uneducated or ill-educated and unemployed urban youth is an unruly character in search of an author. Punjab will be the Swat model writ large
As recently as two years ago we might have laughed this off such is its improbability. Not today. Today there is no shortage of Doomsday scenarios for Pakistan emerging from various think-tanks and commentators. Some of them are far-fetched the suggestion that the state will collapse in six months for instance - but others less so and we have to consider them as a possibility. There is a ring of credibility about the New York Times analysis that should give us pause for thought, and it cannot be dismissed as the musings of a crackpot. The state is extremely vulnerable not only because of the ramshackle politics and corruption, but also at the hitherto untouchable feudal end of the spectrum. And where is the great stronghold of feudalism? Punjab. Punjab is populous, wealthy and provides most of the power-elites that have run the country since partition periodically aided and abetted by Sindhi feudals. Punjab is clearly in the sights of the Taliban. They have power-bases in all the major cities and the conscientisation and mobilization of a disaffected peasantry, albeit on a far larger scale than in Swat valley, is possible. They are tilling fertile ground the peasantry sees a dwindling income from the land and endless years of bonded labour ahead, and in the cities the pool of uneducated or ill-educated and unemployed urban youth is an unruly character in search of an author. Punjab will be the Swat model writ large; and it may be that the failure to implement land reform from the outset of the state, choosing instead to perpetuate feudalism, will be its downfall.
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04/19/2009 00:00 ||
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I am a resident of Malakand and I have no shame in saying that I would want the US drones to now fly over my land and bomb the Taliban
Now after the passage of the so-called Nizam-e-Adl regulation in Swat and Malakand I understand fully the proverb "My enemy's enemy is my friend". I am a resident of Malakand and I have no shame in saying that I would want the US drones to now fly over my land and bomb the Taliban -- after all since our own government and military are not willing to take them on, we have to turn to our enemy's enemy.
I am a girl who lives in Swat -- and I have a question for the Taliban. Will I be allowed to become a doctor? If not tell me now -- so I can commit suicide.
We the people of Buner have a very civilised and proud heritage. We have been peaceful for decades, we have never indulged in any sort of unlawful or inhumane activity. We are passing through a critical period now in our entire history with the Taliban knocking on our doorstep. It is critical because our district is developing, it is peaceful and because we have developed a strong faith in women's emancipation and rights. The Taliban, if they succeed and have their way, will clearly change all of that.
Our forefathers were progressive: they never denied us our culture, which includes art, poetry and all other essential aspects of what makes a civilisation human and alive. I can still remember those sweet reverberating sounds of dolkay (drums) at our hujras, on the occasions of our marriages. Our elders never kept women in the four walls of their houses after all who can deny that our villages have 'gudhars' (a place where women would go and fetch water for the household). Also, we all remember 'talona' (seesaws) in our graveyards, where young girls would go during Eid.
We should never let this great culture of our ancestors go away off our hands and we should show zero tolerance against all those who try to grab this great culture from us under the garb of implementing Sharia. We can and will succeed if we remain firm and united in our resolve to fight off these monsters. However, if we remain divided on this then we will have to face horrible consequences and proof of this is what happening in our neighbouring district Swat.
A concerned Buneri
Karachi
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The residents of the Nazi concentration camps prayed that the Allies would bomb them and/or the trains bringing more, quite willing to sacrifice their own living death if that would quicken the end of the Nazi war machine.
WHEN faced with a frightening civil war and reeling from repeated blows from a ruthless and determined foe, how does our government react? It puts the countrys clocks forward by an hour. I suppose this is one of the few things it can do to show it exists at all.
The rest of us can be excused for doubting the presence of an administration, given the slide and drift we have been seeing over the last year. As the Taliban have made rapid inroads, and now strut about with greater impunity to say nothing of immunity than ever before, it has been painful to watch how ineffective the PPP-led coalition has been.
When her widower, Asif Zardari, signed that infamous instrument of surrender known as the Nizam-i-Adl, Benazir Bhutto must have turned in her grave. Whatever else she might have been accused of in her lifetime, even her worst enemies concede she was a courageous fighter. And although the original demand for Sharialaw in Malakand surfaced during her tenure in 1994, I doubt very much that she would have surrendered the states writ as easily as this government has done.
Another major politician who would have thoroughly disapproved of the turn of events in Swat and elsewhere is Khan Abdul Wali Khan. The late father of ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, a member of the ruling coalition, was an avowed secularist. His National Awami Party was committed to Bacha Khans democratic ideals and struggled to keep religion separate from politics. The sight of his son cravenly handing over Swat (with the NWFP to follow) to the Taliban would have broken the tough old Pashtun leaders heart.
To their credit, a handful of politicians did not roll over as the Nizam-i-Adl was propelled smoothly through the National Assembly. My old friend Ayaz Amir made sure this law did not pass without some serious doubts being expressed. And the MQM lived up to its secular credentials, although I would have been happier if they had resisted rather than boycotted the proceedings. By contrast, the PPP succumbed and feebly maintained the party line of surrender.
But the deed is done, and we are left to face the consequences of the governments gutless display. However, we must also accept the fact that we are where we are because the army refused to fight the Taliban in Swat. It can be argued that due to this lack of military resolve, the provincial and federal governments had few options. But surely, given political will, the administration had enough resources at its disposal to confront around 5,000 militants.
This resounding defeat is the cumulative result of years of pandering to extremists. Partly, this happened because the army thought it expedient to use them to further its agenda in Afghanistan and Kashmir. But mainly, it is due to the massive confusion about the true nature of the threat.
This resounding defeat is the cumulative result of years of pandering to extremists. Partly, this happened because the army thought it expedient to use them to further its agenda in Afghanistan and Kashmir. But mainly, it is due to the massive confusion about the true nature of the threat.
A After my column (The high cost of defeat) appeared in this space last week, I must have received at least a score of emails accusing me of, among other things, not wanting a dialogue with the Taliban. Several readers asked why I did not wish to treat the militants as errant brothers, and reason with them.
I wrote back saying that if any brother of mine went around blowing people up, and chopping off the heads of innocent people, I would want him locked up and tried for murder. No society anywhere advocates negotiations with known killers, whatever their stated motives.
This exchange goes to the heart of the muddled thinking that has thus far characterised our response to the Taliban threat. TV channels are full of so-called religious scholars and conservative pundits who have tried to justify the deal, assuring us that it would bring peace to Swat. While the gullible might buy this line, I paid more attention to a recent statement by Muslim Khan, the Swat Taliban spokesman. He is quoted as saying that Muslims should take up arms instead of laying them down. Thus, he has already broken a key provision of the deal that called for the militants to disarm.
Asif Zardari has declared that the deal brings Islamic justice, and not the Sharia, to Swat. Tell that to the women who can no longer leave their homes without their husbands permission and to the thousands of young girls deprived of an education. And just to remind the government whos in charge, Maulana Sufi Mohammed has declared that under the deal, those militants who terrorised Swat during their year-long campaign, cannot be tried for the murders and other atrocities they committed. So much for swift justice.
Over the last year, as the Taliban have edged closer to seizing control of the state, the countrys rulers have been indulging in irrelevant power plays. First it was about the reinstatement of the chief justice; then it was the Punjab government being sacked; and now the government and the opposition are squabbling over the implementation of the Charter of Democracy. Meanwhile, Gen Kayani is travelling the globe instead of seeing to the countrys defence.
And as the economy falters and stalls, the rest of the world is being asked to rescue us yet again. We are telling the Americans that we will not accept any strings to their assistance, while the Friends of Pakistan are being told that the country will collapse without a bailout. In some ways, we are holding a begging bowl in one hand, and a raised middle finger in the other. If we had a third hand, it would be holding a gun to our head. In fact, this is now our preferred negotiation mode.
In some ways, we are holding a begging bowl in one hand, and a raised middle finger in the other. If we had a third hand, it would be holding a gun to our head. In fact, this is now our preferred negotiation mode.
It would help a lot if the government had a coherent plan to combat the militant menace. In fact, Pakistanis as well as the international community would welcome some sign that somebody in the government is doing some serious thinking. So far, we have been fed with clichés and idiotic waffle. Perhaps this absence of any sensible policy is even scarier than the continuing inaction. It seems the government is sleepwalking its way to disaster, with our leaders more interested in scoring political points than doing their duty, and fighting the Taliban threat.
We have been told that somehow, the government will separate the moderate Taliban from the really bad guys and talk to the former, while using force against the latter. I wonder if the abandoned and terrorised people of Swat can tell the difference.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Fascinating article. For those, like me, that only have a passing understanding of the situation there since the partition, what are the roots of modern anti-American Pakistani feelings? Is this a new phenomenon, or something more deep-rooted? I'm ignorant on this matter.
I know this is simplistically put, but it would seem to me that with our historic chilly relations with India during the Cold War, that Pakistanis would see us as more a natural ally than the root of all their evil.
#2
It has built up steadily, as the tide of Islamist fervor rose.
Many Pakistanis express disappointment with their attempts to ally with the US. While they hosted US aircraft at their airbases, joined SEATO, and received billions in military aid, they expected more.
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Hat tip Jerry Pournelle for this 1939 article
Most people--certainly most laymen--would be apt to think that the chief business of the schools is to give pupils at least a modest working knowledge of the subjects of the curriculum. Not a few students of education, it is true, consider that this is a misconception, and that the true purpose of schools is to bring about an adjustment to social demands for which the various subjects are at best only means. Nobody, however, who surveys the conventional working apparatus of courses of study, textbooks, recitations, examinations, and marks can have much doubt that in practice the schools are making the mastery of the curriculum an end in itself. Whether in theory they ought to or not, this in fact is what they are manifestly trying to do.
But they are not succeeding. About that there is no room for theorizing. Nor is their failure sporadic, and confined to a few places where management is unusually bad. It occurs almost universally, in the cities and in the country, in large institutions and in small. The schools go through an elaborate, costly, and exasperating set of motions called teaching natural science, foreign languages, English, and so forth. Yet what is contained in textbooks and syllabi obstinately refuses to transfer itself to the minds of the patrons and stay there. In the grand struggle to get subject matter off the page and into the head, the schools are suffering a spectacular and most disconcerting defeat.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
