President Obama has shown himself to be weak in his dealings with the Middle East, says Robert Fisk, and the Arab world is turning its back with contempt. Its future will be shaped without American influence
Yes, that Robert Fisk. Careful with that feather, you almost knocked me over. But Fisk gets there in a way you and I wouldn't.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/31/2011 00:00 ||
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Forget the nation-state: Europe would be much better off if it were fundamentally reorganised into powerful regions in the north and the Alps and picturesque bankrupts in the south
#2
Perhaps they need a single national bank to buy up the debt and a constitution saying member states must balance their budgets. Allow small wealthy regions (Bavaria and Tuscany for example) to become member states at the cost of a larger share of revenue going towards paying off that debt the national bank took on.
Or dissolve the union and turn into a free trade zone.
[Dawn] THE assault by hard boyz on a naval aviation base in Bloody Karachi has once again demonstrated the extent of the roots of terrorism in the country.
Even if the attackers did not have sympathisers and informants inside, the way they carried out the assault shows they had an active network in neighbouring areas and an operational cell through which they managed to procure heavy weapons and carry them into the naval base. The same can be said of other high-profile terrorist attacks targeting security forces throughout the country, including the October 2009 attack on GHQ in Rawalpindi.
The spread and reach of hard boyz in Pakistain has become a critical challenge for the state. The attacks that they have launched have shown that they are capable of striking anywhere in the country. And yet ambiguity remains pervasive in society on the issue of terrorism. The collective mindset reflects a state of out-and-out denial.
The conventional approach to threat perception in Pakistain is a major obstacle to understanding the gravity of the situation. Whether they publicly admit it or not, Pak security officials and policymakers consider madressahs and religiously inclined communities to be more receptive or vulnerable to absorbing violent tendencies. That approach is also reflected in the country's counter-terrorism strategies and is on display everyday at security checkpoints, where every bearded man is seen as a suspect. The madressahs indeed have a significant share in the ongoing wave of violence, and many analysts believe that between 10 and 15 per cent of them have direct or indirect links with terrorist organisations. But focusing on them alone amounts to taking a simplistic view of a wider problem.
A closer look at the cadre of bully boy organisations involved in Kashmire and Afghanistan finds mainly youth educated at formal educational institutions. Student wings of religious political parties as well as sectarian, charity, radical and bully boy organisations remain active in colleges and universities. Other wings of such organisations seek to influence various segments of society.
Almost every religious organisation, whether its ambitions are political, sectarian or bully boy, maintains wings with a specific focus on women, traders, lawyers, doctors and teachers, among others. These wings play a considerable role in promoting radicalisation and have an array of tools at their disposal to increase their influence. They consistently rely on radical literature and publications and disseminate the message not only through the usual printed word but also through CDs and DVDs. Militant organisations in Pakistain are increasingly using the Internet as an instrument to promote radicalisation and spur recruitment, with the youth as their specific target.
International terrorist organisations, such as Al Qaeda, have also benefited from this level of radicalisation, by generating financial and human resources as well as cultivating favourable perceptions among the populace in some parts of the country. According to an Asia Online report, several hundred students from Bloody Karachi affiliated with the student wing of an offshoot of a religious political party have joined Al Qaeda training camps in North Wazoo Agency in Fata. The report described that as a more dangerous development for Pakistain than any previous Al Qaeda alliance, as student wings can boast Al Qaeda's recruitment drive and enhance its political influence.
One of the most critical segments of society in the country includes government departments, mainly security institutions, where the infiltration of hard boyz and Death Eaters is increasing by all accounts. Former president Gen Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... admitted in 2004 that some junior officials of the Pakistain Army and Pakistain Air Force (PAF) had links with terrorist organisations. Later, 57 PAF employees were tossed in the slammer in connection with an liquidation attempt on Gen Musharraf. At least some of the tossed in the slammer PAF employees have also been convicted on the charge. Dr Usman, the criminal mastermind of the October 2009 GHQ attack, was a deserter from the army's medical corps.
The hard boyz have also penetrated other government institutions besides the security agencies. According to the Pakistain Security Report 2010 by the Islamabad-based think tank Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... government had constituted a committee to sack government employees found guilty of supporting bully boys. As many as 165 government employees were sacked on that ground.
The former divisional commissioner of Malakand, Syed Muhammad Jawed, who was taken into custody for suspected links with terrorists, may be one example of the terrorists' influence in high places. There are many more, which shows the vulnerability of state institutions. Last year, police in Islamabad tossed in the slammer an employee of the Council of Islamic Ideology, who had allegedly helped Faisal Shahzad, the New York bomb plot suspect who was convicted on terrorism charges.
The challenge is considerable by all means but it has become graver still because a coherent counter-terrorism and counter-militancy policy and the requisite vigilance by government agencies continue to remain absent. Accurate threat perception is the key to an effective response to terrorist threats. A clear approach that does not make distinctions on dubious grounds of good and bad snuffies is required. Vetting and security clearance of government officials, mainly in law-enforcement departments, is more crucial than ever.
Better policing and coordination among law-enforcement agencies must be the obvious first steps, but it is also abundantly clear by now that a one-size-fits-all security approach would not work in Pakistain anymore simply because of the dissimilar security challenges. For instance, security threats in the tribal areas and parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are inherently different from those in Punjab and urban Sindh. The tribal areas are in the throes of an bad turban militancy, which has a local and regional context and the snuffies have resorted to violent terrorism as a tactic against the security forces.
In mainland Pakistain, however, terrorism has its roots in the ideological, political and sectarian narratives developed by the religious parties, bully boy groups and, at times, by the state itself. The disparate nature of threats calls for an equally diverse and imaginative approach to counter them.
The writer is editor of the quarterly research journal Conflict and Peace Studies.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The latest incident of a massive kaboom outside the CID centre has exposed the hollow claims of police about controlling the movement of Islamic fascistiin the lovely provincial capital and increased security concerns for the denizens.
There was only five-day gap between the two blasts -- one at US Consulate staff vehicle and the other at CID centre -- and both were carried out through explosive laden vehicles.
In Cantonment, police have the advantage that personnel of security forces are regularly checking vehicles and pedestrians. Sometimes these security personnel even refuse to allow media persons to move ahead if they don't have original computerised national identity card.
The law enforcement agencies also have the required equipment to detect any kind of weapons and explosives.
Beautiful Downtown Peshawar has witnessed dozens of devastating kabooms including suicide and car blast and now police know better about the entry and exit points, used by terrorists, but even then such fatal incidents are taking place repeatedly.
Police have spent billions of rupees on purchase of arms, ammunition and bomb detectors but the situation is deteriorating with every passing day.
Police claim to have got information about possible sabotage attempts and movement of would-be jacket wallahs in the district but so far no pragmatic steps have been taken to arrest the terrorists.
It is worth mentioning that almost every day police issue press statements about seizure of hashish, a few cartridges, pistols, liquor and arrest of proclaimed offenders, unregistered Afghan nationals and gamblers. The police PROs mention every time that the action was taken on prior information but it is astonishing that their informers seem least bothered to give them tips about movement of suicide
bombers even in the sensitive areas.
Both the University Town and CID centre areas are located at a short distance from each others on the main Jamrud Road where police and security forces are supposed to check vehicles round the clock. Despite these measures entry of explosives-laden vehicles is beyond imagination.
In the prevailing circumstances the job of police investigation department has become very easy. In case of any terrorist act the final job done by police is registration of FIR and then the file is sent to cold storage.
There is no follow-up media briefing about the incidents. Dozens of terrorist incidents have taken place in Peshawar during the past three years but the officials never took trouble to share the information with media.
However, The ever-popular However... SSP Ijaz Khan is not ready to admit it as security lapse and says that security has been tightened across the district and coppers are regularly checking the movement of suspected people and vehicles as well.
He admits that intelligence service needs to be further strengthened. "We have established checkposts on all main and link roads both in urban and rural areas but even then beturbanned goons can manage to reach their targets and it is matter of great concern," he said.
The SSP says that in the past beturbanned goons used to enter via Frontier Road or Kohat Road into the city but now all the entry points have been plugged. They (terrorists) seem to have shifted to main population of Peshawar, he says.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2011 00:00 ||
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"The story of Iraq has yet to be told. It is too politically sensitive for the intelligentsia to handle just yet; passions need to cool before the professors and the pundits who worked themselves into paroxysms of hatred and disdain for the Bush administration can come to grips with how wrongheaded theyve been. It took decades for the intelligentsia to face the possibility that the cretinous Reagan-monster might have, um, helped win the Cold War, and even now they havent asked themselves any tough questions about the Lefts blind hatred of the man who did more than any other human being to save the world from nuclear war.
It may take that long for the truth about the war in Iraq to dawn, but dawn it will. Americas victory in Iraq broke the back of Al-Qaeda and left Osama bin Ladens dream in ruins. He died a defeated fanatic in his Abbotabad hideaway; his dream was crushed in the Mesopotamian flatlands where he swore it would win."
"Yet chief after chief, tribe after tribe and town after town, the Sunni Arabs of Iraq made a fateful decision. They chose America over Al-Qaeda. They took the measure of Americas officers and combat troops, and they took the measure of Al-Qaedas jihadis. They saw us warts and all and decided that the future lay with America rather than the woman-stoning bomb nuts. Our troops would secure the safety of their families better than Al-Qaeda could. Despite the immense religious and cultural differences between us, democratic America stood closer to their values than fanatical Al-Qaeda."
Not sure I agree with the conclusion, but the writer raises some interesting points.
A year after the failure of the Turkish flotilla to breach the Gaza blockade and the ensuing violence, Israel may face a similar attempt again. But recent developments in the region mean that a new flotilla may be met with different reactions on both sides of the Mediterranean.
FOUR MAJOR developments over the past year have decreased the political threat posed by a new flotilla.
The first is the simple fact that, despite much publicity and several announcements, no flotilla has sailed since the first was blocked exactly a year ago on May 31.
While the organizers rhetoric remains as viciously anti-Israel as before, the number of volunteers actually willing to brave the IDFs reaction was so far much smaller than the IHH hoped for and not enough for an impressive show of force. The IDF had a year to analyze and learn lessons from the last incident, in which nine people died, and prepare new and innovative methods to stop any ship. The novelty factor of such a flotilla is now smaller since it lost the surprise effect, while doomsday prophesies about adverse world reactions to Israels stopping of the flotilla quickly faded against the dramatic pictures from Tahrir Square and the streets of Syria.
The second development is Turkeys declining status in the Arab world as a result of the Arab Spring revolutions. Turkeys leaders sought to ally themselves with the more extremist elements in the Muslim world, especially Iran. However, the populations of many Muslim countries reject extremism and demonstrate instead for more freedom, democracy and openness.
The ousting of the Tunisian and Egyptian governments, NATOs attacks on Libya and the riots in Syria could bring similar demonstrations in Turkey against its radicalizing regime. By encouraging the first flotilla, Turkish authorities may have bitten off more than they could chew: While official European and American political reactions were mild, the Turkish economy is deteriorating as more firms are reluctant to invest in a country now perceived as increasingly radical and unpredictable.
Turkeys trade deficit with the European Union, its largest trade partner, more than doubled in the previous year, from 8 billion to over 19 billion euros, while inflation soared to almost 9 percent.
European leaders fear that further radicalization in Turkey could bring similar radicalization of the large Turkish minorities inside the EU, especially in Germany, and discreetly signal Ankara of the need to moderate its anti-Israel rhetoric.
The third development is the expanding strategic alliance between Israel and Greece. Under previous governments, Greece traditionally took a pro-Palestinian line, but this position is rejected by a younger generation of Greeks who view Israel, with its economic success and flourishing hi-tech industries, as an example to follow.
Over the past two years, Greece and Israel came closer than ever before, with cooperation extending from intelligence and security to the scientific and economic fields. Greek society suffers greatly under a massive austerity plan, higher taxes and a bureaucracy which throttles innovation and economic expansion. Sick of their ailing economy and IMF meddling, many Greeks see the Israeli model of economic growth as the one to emulate. While the Greek-Israeli alliance is not aimed specifically against Turkey, it does present Ankara with a new variable in its relations with Israel.
The fourth development is the recent official opening of the Gaza-Egypt border. Contrary to initial Israeli reactions, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. While the opening of the border has no security significance, since heavy weapons and Hamas activists are regularly moved through tunnels under the border, it undermines the main ideological argument of the flotilla planners that Gaza is under siege. The border crossing will serve as a societal safety valve to allow ordinary Palestinians to visit families or travel for business abroad. In addition, the spirit of democracy and peaceful revolution may seep into Gaza from other Arab capitals.
The Israeli government should bear these developments in mind when formulating its reactions to a new flotilla.
The writer is deputy head of the political studies department at Bar-Ilan University and senior research fellow at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies.
Not sure I agree with the conclusion, but the writer raises some interesting points.
A year after the failure of the Turkish flotilla to breach the Gaza blockade and the ensuing violence, Israel may face a similar attempt again. But recent developments in the region mean that a new flotilla may be met with different reactions on both sides of the Mediterranean.
FOUR MAJOR developments over the past year have decreased the political threat posed by a new flotilla.
The first is the simple fact that, despite much publicity and several announcements, no flotilla has sailed since the first was blocked exactly a year ago on May 31.
While the organizers rhetoric remains as viciously anti-Israel as before, the number of volunteers actually willing to brave the IDFs reaction was so far much smaller than the IHH hoped for and not enough for an impressive show of force. The IDF had a year to analyze and learn lessons from the last incident, in which nine people died, and prepare new and innovative methods to stop any ship. The novelty factor of such a flotilla is now smaller since it lost the surprise effect, while doomsday prophesies about adverse world reactions to Israels stopping of the flotilla quickly faded against the dramatic pictures from Tahrir Square and the streets of Syria.
The second development is Turkeys declining status in the Arab world as a result of the Arab Spring revolutions. Turkeys leaders sought to ally themselves with the more extremist elements in the Muslim world, especially Iran. However, the populations of many Muslim countries reject extremism and demonstrate instead for more freedom, democracy and openness.
The ousting of the Tunisian and Egyptian governments, NATOs attacks on Libya and the riots in Syria could bring similar demonstrations in Turkey against its radicalizing regime. By encouraging the first flotilla, Turkish authorities may have bitten off more than they could chew: While official European and American political reactions were mild, the Turkish economy is deteriorating as more firms are reluctant to invest in a country now perceived as increasingly radical and unpredictable.
Turkeys trade deficit with the European Union, its largest trade partner, more than doubled in the previous year, from 8 billion to over 19 billion euros, while inflation soared to almost 9 percent.
European leaders fear that further radicalization in Turkey could bring similar radicalization of the large Turkish minorities inside the EU, especially in Germany, and discreetly signal Ankara of the need to moderate its anti-Israel rhetoric.
The third development is the expanding strategic alliance between Israel and Greece. Under previous governments, Greece traditionally took a pro-Palestinian line, but this position is rejected by a younger generation of Greeks who view Israel, with its economic success and flourishing hi-tech industries, as an example to follow.
Over the past two years, Greece and Israel came closer than ever before, with cooperation extending from intelligence and security to the scientific and economic fields. Greek society suffers greatly under a massive austerity plan, higher taxes and a bureaucracy which throttles innovation and economic expansion. Sick of their ailing economy and IMF meddling, many Greeks see the Israeli model of economic growth as the one to emulate. While the Greek-Israeli alliance is not aimed specifically against Turkey, it does present Ankara with a new variable in its relations with Israel.
The fourth development is the recent official opening of the Gaza-Egypt border. Contrary to initial Israeli reactions, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. While the opening of the border has no security significance, since heavy weapons and Hamas activists are regularly moved through tunnels under the border, it undermines the main ideological argument of the flotilla planners that Gaza is under siege. The border crossing will serve as a societal safety valve to allow ordinary Palestinians to visit families or travel for business abroad. In addition, the spirit of democracy and peaceful revolution may seep into Gaza from other Arab capitals.
The Israeli government should bear these developments in mind when formulating its reactions to a new flotilla.
The writer is deputy head of the political studies department at Bar-Ilan University and senior research fellow at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies.
#1
And the most important point.
With the overthrow of Mubarak, all Israelis (except the psychotic fringe) understand that Peace with Arabs is impossible---this is a war to extinction. Different rules.
#2
The author is a poly-sci guy who observes four general recent trends in the mideast--none of which will directly prevent violence from occurring with the flotilla.
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.
Pervez 
[Dawn] The latest incident of a massive 
