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Sunday, November 1, 2009

Fwd: [Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent] Prof. Rasul Amin-Obituary-B...







A great friend of mine , more than a father , more than a teacher,guide,mentor,confidant died in Australia yesterday.Rasul Amin was not a man but an instiution and his death is a loss not only for his friends , family and relatives but for Afghanistan,Pakistan and the entire West and Central Asian region.

A renowned Afghan political thinker and at a later stage of his life ,politician , a word that he did not like ,Rasoul Amin breathed his last yesterday morning in Australia. He was 72.

Born on May 10 1939 at Watapur in Kunar Province ,Rasul Amin was son of a prominent Khan and his mother was from Chitral.He got his primary education from Kabul and joined the Islamia College Peshawar in 1956.He did his B.A. from Islamia College, Peshawar, was elected as a General-Secretary of the students union, named Khyber Union,a unique , unprecedented honour for an Afghan student and got the colour of best debater in 1963. He completed his MA in political science from Peshawar University in 1966 and then pursued an illustrious career in teaching at the Kabul University where he rose to the post of chairman of department of philosophy and social sciences in May 1976.His illustrious academic career was interrupted in 1979 when he sought refuge in Pakistan.Many of his close relatives were Khalqi leftists and he also is said to have leftist sympathies but all this changed when he was placed under arrest by Hafeezullah Amin regime in May 1979 for a short time.He crossed into Pakistan from a remote mountain pass on foot on 4th January 1980 alongwith his family members , he told me in June 2004.




In Peshawar his political affiliation was Professor Gillanis National Islamic Front of Afghanistan.He initially worked with renowned Afghan intellectual Professor Majrooh in the Afghanistan Information Centre.






He founded WUFA , writers union of free Afghanistan on 21 March 1985.The idea was intellectual warfare against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Konard Adenauer Foundation (Germany), USIS, Asia Foundation (USA) Royal Ministry for foreign Affairs, Denmark financed all the WUFA and ASC activities. Director of Afghanistan Study Centre. In order to meet the requirements of new circumstances the Executive Body of Former Writers Union of Free Afghanistan (WUFA) drastically changed the wartime manifesto of the WUFA and replaced it by Afghanistan Study Centre (ASC) with a new Charter. Minister of Education in Interim Administration of Afghanistan, representing the Rome process initiated by H.M the Former King of Afghanistan.






His blunt views were not liked by many in the Afghan Government and his President Karzai was no exception to this.In 2002 he resigned his post of minister of education and decided to devote himself fully to the intellectual regeneration of Afghanistan and to Afghan Pak friendship.

Every evening and many times after lunch we met without a day of absence from 29 June 2004 till 15th April 2008 unless he was out of Kabul or in Australia.I saw in him a combination of Jamaluddin Afghani ,Francis Bacon and Mirza Ghalib .As the evening transformed into darkness Rasul Amin became somber and somewhat gloomy and the discussion always centred around the epic tragedy of Afghanistan.One day he told me he wanted to be buried next to Jamaluddin Afghanis grave in Kabul University.We differed over the Soviet and American invasions of Afghanistan.I thought that the American sabotage of Afghanistan sponsored by tinpot Zia and later Pakistani regimes was the real cause of the tragedy of Afghanistan and he differed.His first cousin Professor Dr Qasim Jamdar was a diehard Khalqi and so was his brother ,an accomplished Mig 21 pilot of the DRA.Finally when all was concluded with last drops of Stlichnaya or Grants drowned in we departed as immortal and eternal friends.

I state with immense pride that he selected me as editor of Journal Of Afghanistan Studies in June 2004.

Rasul Amin saw Afghanistan and Pakistan as conjoined twins and realised that friendship was the only way out of the Afghan Pak quagmire.His views were not liked by many at the highest position .However it appears that after many years now Afghan politicians realise that Afghan Pakistan friendship is the only way out of the present crisis.Let this be a vindication of his views and all he stood for.

Rasul Amins mortal soul has gone but his ideas are immortal and a source of inspiration for all who knew him or read him.May Allah bless his soul.

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Posted By Agha H Amin to Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent at 11/01/2009 08:51:00 PM



--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."  --
Albert Einstein !!!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Afghanistan -Taliban Groups plotted on map-CLICK ON TOP OF MAP TO ENLARGE




This article is an attempt to understand the Taliban phenomenin in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 
 
The Taliban have various categories (1) Drug Mafia Taliban (2) Tribal Taliban sponsored by a particular tribe in an area CONTRACTOR TALIBAN (3) Criminal Taliban (by profession mixing religion with business (4)Pk sponsored Taliban or GOOD TALIBAN (5) US sponsored Taliban  CONTRACTOR TALIBAN (6) Iran sponsored Taliban (7)Indian sponsored (through third or fourth party) Taliban or ANTI PAKISTANI STATE  TALIBAN OR RUSSIA/CIS LINKED TALIBAN  (7)Al Qaeda sponsored Taliban and so many.The USA has nothing against Pk sponsored Taliban.The operation in Waziristan is against Taliban who may fall in category other than category (5) and category (4).
 
The Taliban are not a single group but a mosaic.It appears that this is not by design but for various complex socio political reasons.
 
Drug mafia Taliban are the old drug mafia in Afghanistans south and east who have joined the Taliban fold in order to carry on their drug business.
 
Every province and district has taliban centering around the major tribe in that particular area.In Afghanistans south the taliban are sub tribes of Durranis i.e Nurzais,Popalzais,Barakzais etc.In the east they have a Zadran heavy component centering around Jalaluddin Haqqani a Zadran.In Pakistan the Mehsuds and the Wazirs are the leading Taliban components.
 
Criminal elements have also joined the Taliban in significant number.In some areas criminal elements pose as Taliban while in some areas they have actively joined the Taliban.This suits both parties operationally as well as economically.Guerrilla warfare and crime overlap.
 
The USA has also sponsored or supported many Taliban groups.In south Afghanistan major US sub contractors are Taliban.A small example would illustrate the point.You may take a 40 foot container truck from Karachi to Peshawar for 120,000 Rs, some 2000 Km.You have to take a container from Quetta to Camp Dwyer some 500 Km and you pay between 500,000 Rs to 800,000 Rs.
 
Then there are the so called GOOD TALIBAN.These are the ones who have their base in Pakistani Balochistan or the Pakistan Afghan border,do not attack Pakistan Army and also have links with US/NATO as CONTRACTOR TALIBANS.
 
There are third party sponsored Taliban possibly penetrated by Iranian,Russian/CIS,Indian or any other state intelligence.They have a client state specific agenda.Iranian linked and Russian linked would attack NATO/US.Indian sponsored or third party linked may attack Pakistan Army and so on.
 
AL QAEDA linked Taliban attack US/NATO as well as Pakistan Army.
 

The USA has hardly troops to seal any border.They have no troops sealing the border of Helmand and Kandahar from where maximum Talib infiltration is taking place.Pakistan Army has no troops sealing Afghan border to support USA on Kandahar and Helmand border either other than the FC who cheer Taliban crossing into Afghanistan.
 
The  taliban operating in Helmand ,Kandahar ,Nimroz,Farah and Zabul to a significant extent depend on pakistani balochistan for logistics, traffic drugs through pakistani balochistan , and heavily dependent on pakistan hence their cooperation with TTP , or the very thought of it is absurd.Interestingly they are being groomed both by USA and Pakistan and are getting lucrative logistic and construction contracts from US Army.It appears that Pakistan and USA sees them as good future auxillaries for China (USA) Iran (USA) and India (Pakistan).Their existence and activities in Pakistani Balochistan are well known but not a single drone attack there.
 

About Taliban fighting in the south I would say having seen them as sub contractors that some one who depends on pakistani largesse will not bite the hand that feeds it.in baluchistan main US auxillaries are the baloch militants.if trouble starts in balochistan it would be from baloch side.traditionally the pashtuns in balochistan and kandahar/helmand have been strategic vassals of pakistani establishment.only a man who has lived in quetta can understand this.

The taliban signify an ideolgy which has the potential at some stage to overwhelm Pakistan,if not fought with immense skill and determination..

 
What the USA is doing is busying time and adjusting its position to destroy Pakistans nuclear assets at the right time.Pakistani nuclear weapons are a serious strategic (one pint of view regarding it as a valid concern) concern for USA.However the Pakistan Army and the Pakistani establishment are USA's tactical and operational tools to do that.There will be a moment in history when the USA will be forced to go for the kill.The nuclear assets.We live in turbulent times.Already if you study the Taliban grand propaganda orchrestrated and masterminded by Al Qaeda portrays Pakistan Armys generals as Dr Najib and others , i.e tools of non Muslim powers.Its a subtle battle and by using Islam the Al Qaeda and Taliban have divided all pillars of Pakistani society

There is nothing inevitable in history.The Waziristan Taliban are the odd man in the game.They attack Pakistan Army and targets in Afghanistan ( debatable).Hence the Pakistani operation.The USA has no problem with other Taliban.They do business while allowing USA to stay in Afghanistan.I would say that the USA has nothing against anti Indian Taliban sponsored by Pakistan also.USA is happy with Pakistan Army as a useful subsidiary vassal doing the tactical garbage collecting.At some stage however the USA may attempt denuclearisation of Pakistan.Once that is done the irregularities in the sculpture would be removed and USA would be happy.At the pentagon level USA and Pakistani generals are one.Only the congress and the senate has to be fooled.

A word about the US troop induction in helmand and kandahar is in order to have a strong upper hand in case pakistani or irani balochistan is destabilised.it appears that the USA has realised the usefulness of Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan.From what I have observed the USA rhetoric aside does not regard the Kandahar/Helmand/Farah Taliban as a serious threat.There has not been much fighting in this area other than IED attacks,possibly linked to Iranian sponsored or criminal Taliban.
 
To conclude its a complicated mosaic and each group has to be dealt with , using a specific strategy and tactics.The key idea being not to let any or all of them unite at some stage.A temporary union perhaps like KMT and Red Army in pre 1945 against Japan.Each type can be countered by sponsoring similar groups and above all by introducing confusion of principle as a strategy.The central issue in this war is intelligence and assasination (covert operations) and not firepower or pitched battles.These are professional assasins and cut throats and indoctrinated fanatics.They only understand the language of violence or money.Let there be no doubt about it.Seen in this context Mc Crystal is an ideal choice to deal with them.PROVIDED HE IS GIVEN WHAT HE WANTS.


 



--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."  --
Albert Einstein !!!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Bill Gates's Rules


This should be posted in every school!
 
cid:1.1675459201@web113202.mail.gq1.yahoo.com
Love him or hate him , he sure hits the nail on the head with this!
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
 
Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!
 
Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your
self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
 
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
 
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
 
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault , so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
 
Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
 
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
 
Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
 
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
 
If you agree, pass it on..
If you don't agree stick your head in the sand and take a deep breath!
If you can read this -Thank a teacher!
 



--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."  --
Albert Einstein !!!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

MOST HATED MAN IN IRANIAN BALOCHISTAN

RAVI RIKHYE ON THE IRANIAN ASSASINATION FROM WWW.ORBAT.COM

Blaming Pakistan For Iran Terror Attack Is Absurd



The prime duty of an analyst is to seek the truth. Anything else makes a person not into an analyst, but a propagandist. India is the main victim of Pakistani terrorism. You cannot count Afghanistan as the main victim because Pakistan's support of the insurgency there is not terrorism. Its insurgency. Sure Pakistan backs certain terror acts in Afghanistan. But usually its target is India and Indian interests, and in any case the sheer number of terror incidents against India in the last 25 years far exceeds anything Pakistan has done in this line in Afghanistan.

But whatever the Editor's personal opinion on Pakistan - and this has remained unchanged for 4-decades, that Pakistan is an inalienable part of India and it is in a state of illegal secession - at Orbat.com we have to be fair. This requires us to point out Iran's accusations about Pakistan being behind the attack on the Revolutionary Guards are the purest hogwash, that don't stand up to the least rigorous examination. The same goes for other allegations that Pakistan acted at the behest of Britain and the US, which is even more absurd.

The incident A delegation of Revolutionary Guards was enroute to meet with tribal leaders in separatist Sis-Baluchistan, the huge eastern province of Iran that is populated by Baluch Shias with no love for the government. A suicider got into the RG convoy, 42 people were killed, including six senior RG officers, including a general,

First, pardon our failure to issue the ritual denunciations of terror. The Iranian RG has killed and maimed thousands of American soldiers in Iraq and it supports insurgent groups in Afghanistan that are fighting America and NATO. What goes around, comes around.

Next, Jundallah, the Army of God, which has claimed responsibility for the attack, is a Pakistani secessionist group. It is certainly supported by the UK, US, and India in varying degrees, but it seeks the secession of Baluchistan from Pakistan and union with Iranian Baluchis. We might add with Afghan Baluchis too. Crippled as it is by the secession of East Pakistan, any further secessions could well spell the death of Pakistan. To suggest the Pakistanis, who are Iranian allies in Afghanistan, is involved in supporting Jundallah is beyond absurd. You may as well Pakistan supported the terror attack on GHQ the other day.

The Iranians must be forensic masters of the universe. A man blows himself up and hours later the Iranians have figured out he has come from Pakistani and wants Pakistan to hand over his co-conspirators. No doubt the Iranians, who make Sherlock Holmes look like an IQ 60 retard, already have the names of the others.

But we mere mortals may be forgiven for suspecting the Iranians have not the least clue of what they speak, and like Casablanca's immortal Captain Renault, want the usual suspects rounded up. (BTW, perhaps inspired by our Klasse Klowne Awarde, longwarjournal.org has instituted a Captain Renault Award.)

The Iranians have reason to accuse the US/UK. We leave India out of this because while India wants to hurt Pakistan, it has the best relations with Iran. At the same time, Occam's Razor requires us, in the absence of information to the contrary, to look for the simplest explanation.

Iran's habit, on capturing Jundallah members, is to torture and execute them. Iran and the group have been engaged in a running battle for years. Indeed, the London Times says Iran is holding the brother of the Jundallah leader and he is slated for execution. This has been deferred because the Iranians want further information from him. And the Iranians being the Iranians are unlikely to be waterboarding the man, or making him dress in pink panties, or playing American country music at 120 decibels, or forcing him into stress positions. These acts are mere love endearments compared to Iran standard - SAVAK may be dead but it's children live on, swearing fealty to a new set of masters, but utilizing the same uniformly murderous methods of "interrogation", as we have seen with the democracy demonstrators in Teheran.

Surely Iran understands it is not the US habit, at least, to hire suicide bombers. The US wants live Iranian generals, not generals who are spattered across half an acre of terrain.

Given Jundallah operates on both sides of the Iran border, and that both the Pakistani and Iranian Baluch have serious issues with Teheran, it is best Iran look to itself as the cause of what happened, and not blame everyone else in sight.

Especially not Pakistan.





THE MOST HATED MAN IN PAKISTANI BALOCHISTAN PAKISTANI PRESIDENT AYUB KHAN THE FATHER OF BALOCH GENOCIDE



THE MOST HATED MAN IN PAKISTANI BALOCHISTAN MUSHARRAF


BALOCH NATIONALISTS ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY IRANIAN OR PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT NEAR TURBAT



THE MECHANICS OF THE BALOCH INSURGENCY IN MAND PISHIN AREA




THE MOST HATED MAN IN IRANIAN BALOCHISTAN KILLED IN THE SUICIDE ATTACK


A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others in an area of southeastern Iran that has been at the center of a simmering Sunni insurgency, state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the dead included the deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial Guard commander for the area, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. The other dead were Guard members or local tribal leaders. More than two dozen others were wounded, state radio reported.

The commanders were on their way to a meeting with local tribal leaders in the Pishin district near Iran's border with Pakistan when an attacker with explosives around his waist blew himself up, IRNA said. The explosion occurred at the entrance of a sports complex where the meeting was to be held.

Top provincial prosecutor Mohammad Marzieh was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying that a militant group from Iran's Sunni Muslim minority called Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility.

The region in Iran's southeast has been the focus of violent attacks by Jundallah, which has waged a low-level insurgency in recent years. The group accuses Iran's Shiite-dominated government of persecution and has carried out attacks against the Revolutionary Guard and Shiite targets in the southeast.

That campaign is one of several ethnic and religious small-scale insurgencies in Iran that have fueled sporadic and sometimes deadly attacks in recent years -- though none have amounted to a serious threat to the government.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to strike back at those behind Sunday's attack, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"The criminals will soon get the response for their anti-human crimes," IRNA quoted him as saying. Ahmadinejad also accused unspecified foreigners of involvement.

Iranian officials have often raised concerns that the United States might try to incite members of Iran's many ethnic and religious minorities against the Shiite-led government, which is dominated by ethnic Persians.

The Guard commanders targeted Sunday were heading to a meeting with local tribal leaders to promote unity between the Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

In April, Iran increased security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province, at the center of the tension, by placing it under the command of the Guard, which took over from local police forces.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Yet another Danish Atrocity


 
El link para ver la pagina es el siguiente
 
Every year from 2,000 t0 3,500 pilot whales are corralled by men in boats and forced into bays in the Faeroe Islands, a North Sea Danish Protectorate mid-way between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. Although the Islands are a protectorate of Denmark, they have their own government and regulations governing the pilot whale hunt or "grind" as it is known.

For centuries Faroe Islanders have hunted pilot whales, driving entire schools into killing bays, where they are speared or gaffed from boats, dragged ashore and butchered with knives.
 
 DINAMARCA: UNA VERGUENZA, HAY QUE DIFUNDIRLO.

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AUNQUE PAREZCA MENTIRA AÚN HOY EN DÍA SE SIGUE REALIZANDO CADA AÑO ESTA BRUTAL, DANTESCA, SANGRIENTA MASACRE EN LAS ISLAS FEROE, QUE PERTENECEN A DINAMARCA. UN PAÍS SUPUESTAMENTE 'CIVILIZADO' Y QUE PERTENECE A LA UNIÓN EUROPEA. PARA MUCHOS ES DESCONOCIDO ESTE ATENTADO A LA VIDA, A LA SENSIBILIDAD, A TODO. EN ESTA MASACRE SANGUINARIA PARTICIPAN LOS MOZOS PARA 'DEMOSTRAR' QUE ENTRAN EN LA EDAD ADULTA (¡!) ES ABSOLUTAMENTE INCREÍBLE QUE NO SE HAGA NADA PARA EVITAR ESTA BARBARIE QUE SE COMETE CONTRA LOS CALDERONES, UN DELFÍN INTELIGENTÍSIMO QUE TIENE LA PARTICULARIDAD DE ACERCARSE A LAS PERSONAS POR PURA CURIOSIDAD.
DIFUNDELO POR TODAS PARTES, POR FAVOR
 
001 - Luis Gattás - Mendoza - Argentina
002 - Damian Belot - Mendoza - Argentina
003 - María Botta - Mendoza - Argentina
004 - Carlos Sánchez - Mendoza - Argentina
 
 
 
 




--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."  --Albert Einstein !!!

israeli beauty
















Saturday, October 3, 2009

Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent: birdbrain: Radovan Karadzic: Not A Liar After All

Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent: birdbrain: Radovan Karadzic: Not A Liar After All