President Zelaya of Honduras has just been kidnapped
[Note: As of 11:15am, Caracas time, President Zelaya is speaking live on Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica. He has verified the soldiers entered his residence in the early morning hours, firing guns and threatening to kill him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was forced to go with the soldiers who took him to the air base and flew him to Costa Rica. He has requested the U.S. Government make a public statement condemning the coup, otherwise, it will indicate their compliance.]
Caracas, Venezuela - The text message that beeped on my cell phone this morning read “Alert, Zelaya has been kidnapped, coup d’etat underway in Honduras, spread the word.” It’s a rude awakening for a Sunday morning, especially for the millions of Hondurans that were preparing to exercise their sacred right to vote today for the first time on a consultative referendum concerning the future convening of a constitutional assembly to reform the constitution. Supposedly at the center of the controversary is today’s scheduled referendum, which is not a binding vote but merely an opinion poll to determine whether or not a majority of Hondurans desire to eventually enter into a process to modify their constitution.
Such an initiative has never taken place in the Central American nation, which has a very limited constitution that allows minimal participation by the people of Honduras in their political processes. The current constitution, written in 1982 during the height of the Reagan Administration’s dirty war in Central America, was designed to ensure those in power, both economic and political, would retain it with little interference from the people. Zelaya, elected in November 2005 on the platform of Honduras’ Liberal Party, had proposed the opinion poll be conducted to determine if a majority of citizens agreed that constitutional reform was necessary. He was backed by a majority of labor unions and social movements in the country. If the poll had occured, depending on the results, a referendum would have been conducted during the upcoming elections in November to vote on convening a constitutional assembly. Nevertheless, today’s scheduled poll was not binding by law.
In fact, several days before the poll was to occur, Honduras’ Supreme Court ruled it illegal, upon request by the Congress, both of which are led by anti-Zelaya majorities and members of the ultra-conservative party, National Party of Honduras (PNH). This move led to massive protests in the streets in favor of President Zelaya. On June 24, the president fired the head of the high military command, General Romeo Vásquez, after he refused to allow the military to distribute the electoral material for Sunday’s elections. General Romeo Vásquez held the material under tight military control, refusing to release it even to the president’s followers, stating that the scheduled referendum had been determined illegal by the Supreme Court and therefore he could not comply with the president’s order. As in the Unted States, the president of Honduras is Commander in Chief and has the final say on the military’s actions, and so he ordered the General’s removal. The Minister of Defense, Angel Edmundo Orellana, also resigned in response to this increasingly tense situation.
But the following day, Honduras’ Supreme Court reinstated General Romeo Vásquez to the high military command, ruling his firing as “unconstitutional’. Thousands poured into the streets of Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, showing support for President Zelaya and evidencing their determination to ensure Sunday’s non-binding referendum would take place. On Friday, the president and a group of hundreds of supporters, marched to the nearby air base to collect the electoral material that had been previously held by the military. That evening, Zelaya gave a national press conference along with a group of politicians from different political parties and social movements, calling for unity and peace in the country.
As of Saturday, the situation in Honduras was reported as calm. But early Sunday morning, a group of approximately 60 armed soldiers entered the presidential residence and took Zelaya hostage. After several hours of confusion, reports surfaced claiming the president had been taken to a nearby air force base and flown to neighboring Costa Rica. No images have been seen of the president so far and it is unknown whether or not his life is still endangered.
President Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, speaking live on Telesur at approximately 10:00am Caracas time, denounced that in early hours of Sunday morning, the soldiers stormed their residence, firing shots throughout the house, beating and then taking the president. “It was an act of cowardness”, said the first lady, referring to the illegal kidnapping occuring during a time when no one would know or react until it was all over. Casto de Zelaya also called for the “preservation” of her husband’s life, indicating that she herself is unaware of his whereabouts. She claimed their lives are all still in “serious danger” and made a call for the international community to denounce this illegal coup d’etat and to act rapidly to reinstate constitutional order in the country, which includes the rescue and return of the democratically elected Zelaya.
Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela have both made public statements on Sunday morning condeming the coup d’etat in Honduras and calling on the international community to react to ensure democracy is restored and the constitutional president is reinstated. Last Wednesday, June 24, an extraordinary meeting of the member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), of which Honduras is a member, was convened in Venezuela to welcome Ecuador, Antigua & Barbados and St. Vincent to its ranks. During the meeting, which was attended by Honduras’ Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas, a statement was read supporting President Zelaya and condenming any attempts to undermine his mandate and Honduras’ democratic processes.
Reports coming out of Honduras have informed that the public television channel, Canal 8, has been shut down by the coup forces. Just minutes ago, Telesur announced that the military in Honduras is shutting down all electricity throughout the country. Those television and radio stations still transmitting are not reporting the coup d’etat or the kidnapping of President Zelaya, according to Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas. “Telephones and electricity are being cut off”, confirmed Rodas just minutes ago via Telesur. “The media are showing cartoons and soap operas and are not informing the people of Honduras about what is happening”. The situation is eerily reminiscent of the April 2002 coup d’etat against President Chávez in Venezuela, when the media played a key role by first manipulating information to support the coup and then later blacking out all information when the people began protesting and eventually overcame and defeated the coup forces, rescuing Chávez (who had also been kidnapped by the military) and restoring constitutional order.
Honduras is a nation that has been the victim of dictatorships and massive U.S. intervention during the past century, including several military invasions. The last major U.S. government intervention in Honduras occured during the 1980s, when the Reagain Administration funded death squads and paramilitaries to eliminate any potential “communist threats” in Central America. At the time, John Negroponte, was the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras and was responsible for directly funding and training Honduran death squads that were responsable for thousands of disappeared and assassinated throughout the region.
On Friday, the Organization of American States (OAS), convened a special meeting to discuss the crisis in Honduras, later issuing a statement condeming the threats to democracy and authorizing a convoy of representatives to travel to OAS to investigate further. Nevertheless, on Friday, Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, Phillip J. Crowley, refused to clarify the U.S. government’s position in reference to the potential coup against President Zelaya, and instead issued a more ambiguous statement that implied Washington’s support for the opposition to the Honduran president. While most other Latin American governments had clearly indicated their adamant condemnation of the coup plans underway in Honduras and their solid support for Honduras’ constitutionally elected president, Manual Zelaya, the U.S. spokesman stated the following, “We are concerned about the breakdown in the political dialogue among Honduran politicians over the proposed June 28 poll on constitutional reform. We urge all sides to seek a consensual democratic resolution in the current political impasse that adheres to the Honduran constitution and to Honduran laws consistent with the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”
As of 10:30am, Sunday morning, no further statements have been issued by the Washington concerning the military coup in Honduras. The Central American nation is highly dependent on the U.S. economy, which ensures one of its top sources of income, the monies sent from Hondurans working in the U.S. under the “temporary protected status” program that was implemented during Washington’s dirty war in the 1980s as a result of massive immigration to U.S. territory to escape the war zone. Another major source of funding in Honduras is USAID, providing over US$ 50 millon annually for “democracy promotion” programs, which generally supports NGOs and political parties favorable to U.S. interests, as has been the case in Venezuela, Bolivia and other nations in the region. The Pentagon also maintains a military base in Honduras in Soto Cano, equipped with approximately 500 troops and numerous air force combat planes and helicopters.
Foreign Minister Rodas has stated that she has repeatedly tried to make contact with the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens, who has not responded to any of her calls thus far. The modus operandi of the coup makes clear that Washington is involved. Neither the Honduran military, which is majority trained by U.S. forces, nor the political and economic elite, would act to oust a democratically elected president without the backing and support of the U.S. government. President Zelaya has increasingly come under attack by the conservative forces in Honduras for his growing relationship with the ALBA countries, and particularly Venezuela and President Chávez. Many believe the coup has been executed as a method of ensuring Honduras does not continue to unify with the more leftist and socialist countries in Latin America.
evagolinger@hotmail.com or evagolinger@gmail.com
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Mr. Asif Ali Zardari: Sold Out
Why is Mr. Zardari so eager to build ties with India at the expense of Pakistan? These are my sentiments in response to last week’s op-ed in Pakistani newspapers written by Mr. Asif Ali Zardari to commemorate Ms. Benazir Bhutto’s birthday. I am a young Pakistani woman residing in Canada. And, needless to say, I am not impressed.
By Sadia Khalid
Thursday, 2 July 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
OTTAWA, Canada—In this time of recession, when the people aren’t getting the rightful price of their property, there is only one commodity cheaper than anything else and ready to be sold out: Mr. Asif Ali Zardari
He is shamelessly confessing (in his article published on 20 June 2009 in daily Jang newspaper) that the events of 9/11, the attacks on Indian Parliament and Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel were somehow linked to Pakistan. The fact that even the Indians couldn’t come up with evidence to their allegations [they are battling with multiple separatist and freedom-fighting groups inside India] exposes Mr. Zardari’s slave mindset and how he is beholden to his masters.
The op-ed piece was supposed be about Benazir Bhutto. But Mr. President turned it into an attack on ‘radicals and extremists’ and on dictatorship, forgetting that he came to power thanks to the actions of one such dictatorship.
There are only two possibilities if we analyze this shameless confession; either his intellect is very poor or he is sold out to those who were behind those attacks. But an intelligent guess is: He is sold out and because of his poor intellect, he is unable to grasp the reality: He is President of Pakistan because of that ‘dictatorship’ and Pakistanis won’t his newfound love for democracy, especially one grew in the lap of dictatorship.
He is more eager to build a strong relationship between India and Pakistan then between him and people of Pakistan. He is forgetting that it is India who has failed to maintain the neighborly relationship not even with Pakistan but also its other neighbors like China, Nepal and Srilanka.
There is still time for Mr. Zardari to review his thoughts and stop acting like a prostitute. Otherwise he would be long gone leaving behind another name in the list of traitors of Pakistan. Pakistan is a sovereign country; the blood that runs in this nation’s veins is that of noble founders and faithful people. This sovereign country will soon rise. The people of Pakistan are eager to stand together to sing their national anthem. Mr. Zardari needs to make his place among such people, his own countrymen and not bet on foreign help.
Ms. Khalid can be reached at Sadia.kq@hotmail.com
By Sadia Khalid
Thursday, 2 July 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
OTTAWA, Canada—In this time of recession, when the people aren’t getting the rightful price of their property, there is only one commodity cheaper than anything else and ready to be sold out: Mr. Asif Ali Zardari
He is shamelessly confessing (in his article published on 20 June 2009 in daily Jang newspaper) that the events of 9/11, the attacks on Indian Parliament and Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel were somehow linked to Pakistan. The fact that even the Indians couldn’t come up with evidence to their allegations [they are battling with multiple separatist and freedom-fighting groups inside India] exposes Mr. Zardari’s slave mindset and how he is beholden to his masters.
The op-ed piece was supposed be about Benazir Bhutto. But Mr. President turned it into an attack on ‘radicals and extremists’ and on dictatorship, forgetting that he came to power thanks to the actions of one such dictatorship.
There are only two possibilities if we analyze this shameless confession; either his intellect is very poor or he is sold out to those who were behind those attacks. But an intelligent guess is: He is sold out and because of his poor intellect, he is unable to grasp the reality: He is President of Pakistan because of that ‘dictatorship’ and Pakistanis won’t his newfound love for democracy, especially one grew in the lap of dictatorship.
He is more eager to build a strong relationship between India and Pakistan then between him and people of Pakistan. He is forgetting that it is India who has failed to maintain the neighborly relationship not even with Pakistan but also its other neighbors like China, Nepal and Srilanka.
There is still time for Mr. Zardari to review his thoughts and stop acting like a prostitute. Otherwise he would be long gone leaving behind another name in the list of traitors of Pakistan. Pakistan is a sovereign country; the blood that runs in this nation’s veins is that of noble founders and faithful people. This sovereign country will soon rise. The people of Pakistan are eager to stand together to sing their national anthem. Mr. Zardari needs to make his place among such people, his own countrymen and not bet on foreign help.
Ms. Khalid can be reached at Sadia.kq@hotmail.com
My Graceless Indian Friends
I have to say that the Indians are as graceless in defeat as the Sri Lankans are gracious in defeat – and in victory. Some of them do nothing except read our articles and then have a seizure. I’m thinking of starting a website. If I do, I will seriously consider posting all the demented letters I have received from my “much-better-than-us-at-everything” Indian neighbors, except the ones with abuse and downright filth.
By Humayun Gauhar
Saturday, 4 July 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—I feel my readers expect me to write about Pakistan winning the Twenty20 World Cup at Lord’s last Sunday. There’s no denying it, I feel like writing about it too. It’s good to get away from the madding crises around us and talk of something nice for a change, especially when there is a humorous side to it as well.
One for the jealous ones!
Sure Pakistan needed some good news, as everyone is ranting on, but I find the contention rather overdone. After all, a cricket match is only a cricket match. It is not tantamount to defeating terrorists and ending foreign interference in our land much less ending all our problems. Have you ever thought about it though, that none of Pakistan’s security problems are homegrown but were begotten outside its borders and we have been left holding the baby every time like mutts? The freedom uprising in Indian subjugated Kashmir is a British-Indian creation but it is we who are landed with Kashmiri refugees and freedom fighters, including in their latest incarnation, the Lashkar-e-Tayba. The four million Afghan refugees living off us for nearly three decades are a Soviet creation. So are the Mujahideen to free Afghanistan from Soviet occupation. The Mujahideen-turned-Taliban – holy warriors of God turned terrorists in American eyes – are a creation of American abandonment and most recently of the US and NATO stepping into Soviet shoes and occupying and subjugating Afghanistan just like the Soviets did, though under different but equally facetious pretexts. The non-Afghan fighters that we are landed with that coalesced under the Al-Qaeda umbrella were created by their own countries – our Muslim brothers don’t forget – when they did not allow them back home and made them stateless non-persons. The mini-insurgency in Balochistan has historically been supported by the late Soviet Union and now Russia with India always in cahoots while our ‘great allies’ the Americans have looked the other way. I can go on and on but at the end of the day the fault, dear countrymen, lies not in our stars but in ourselves that we allow this to happen.
Let’s get back to cricket. For me the good aspect of the victory was that for a brief moment Pakistan showed that it is a nation with people celebrating in every nook and cranny of the country over a pleasant issue and not something as tragic as an earthquake or a war. Without wishing to make a big thing out of it, it does show that we are not as disunited as advertised. The only thing we lack is something good to unite around.
I have to say that the Indians are as graceless in defeat as the Sri Lankans are gracious in defeat – and in victory. So dignified, but that came through clear as crystal after the terrorist attack on them in Lahore. Not 24 hours after our victory I got a letter from a peculiar Indian without grace who writes to me and other columnists in Pakistan often (don’t these guys have anything better to do than to regularly read our articles and then have a seizure?) saying that Pakistan has copied India in everything. “We won the ODI World Cup first then you went and won it in 1992,” said this graceless Indian. “Then we won the T 20 the first time round and next you have gone and won it. Why don’t you follow our example in something that matters?” My graceless Indian correspondent forgets that India first unleashed nuclear terror in the subcontinent in 1974 and we perforce had to follow suit and acquired a fearful nuclear arsenal of our own.
Does that matter? Not to forget that India has some 79 percent of its people living in abject poverty on $2 a day or less and we have followed suit though have not yet been able to catch up with the neighbors that we’re landed with, with ‘only’ 73 percent of our population living in poverty. That must matter. But why labor the point in a happy moment?
Okay, let’s get down to cricket, but before I do so I have to mention this other graceless idiot – sorry Indian (same difference as the Indians would say) – who wrote to me only today saying that Shahid Afridi is graceless and doesn’t have a brain. Give me more brainless Afridis, I say! They are better than the brainy Indians. At least they bring the bear home. I must stress, though, that not for a minute do I mean that all Indians are idiots. Far from it. But the many that are do provide great diversion in difficult times. Thank God for them. Never would I wish them away. More power to their elbows.
India’s problem is frustration. It tried its best to isolate Pakistan from international cricket but we are still a cricketing force to reckon with after winning the T 20 World Cup. Considering that our boys hardly got an international game after 2007 they still became T 20 World Champions. India’s effort has gone down the drain. Chin up boys, next time round you might win again. Then you can start jumping and hopping and screaming “India Shining” or “Shining India” or whatever it is that you want us to believe.
Okay, finally to cricket. I promise you I will not get diverted this time, though I am waiting anxiously for the graceless and demented letters I am going to receive from my Indian neighbors in response to this article. “You don’t know anything. You don’t know India. We are much better than you in everything and anything. Why, we can even do the Indian rope trick. Can you?” And so on and so stupid forth. I’m thinking of starting a website. If I do, I will seriously consider posting all the demented letters I have received from my “much-better-than-us-at-everything” Indian neighbors, except the ones with abuse and downright filth. I might even reply to some, something I have never done, much to their chagrin. When they don’t answer my questions, why the hell should I answer theirs? For example, it has been quite a while since I asked them to explain how rubber dinghies brimming with terrorists could evade the might of the great Indian navy and coast guard in full cry during an exercise on the high seas aimed at thwarting just such an eventuality? That’s not the half of it. They managed to land at Bombay’s main pier, hail taxis under the noses of the great Indian police, load them with crates of weapons, go off and buy provisions from a market and then proceed to occupy the most high profile buildings in the city. It defies credulity. All I get in response is: “Your government has admitted that Ajmal Kasab is a Pakistani.” Okay, so he is a Pakistani. Big deal. We have many Indian terrorists in our jails as well but your government has never had the grace to admit who they are. And in any case, it doesn’t answer my questions. Was Kasab one of the passengers on one of the rubber dinghies or was he in situ already? When did he get to India? Who were the Indians who were helping them? Nothing. Not a squeak.
Yet, India’s two-time proxy prime minister (Sonia is the one they really want) goes on and on like a broken gramophone record, that we will not resume the dialogue for peace until you finish terrorism in your country first. Who the hell is going to explain to this otherwise educated gentleman that until his country finishes state terrorism, terrorism against India within our country or anywhere else will not finish? But it is our fault too for living the pipedream that India will one day agree to an acceptable Kashmir solution or that there will be peace between our countries in our lifetimes. The most we can hope for is the absence of war and needling one another – what they call ‘normalization’. We should forget about love, peace and friendship and stop wasting each other’s time. And we should stop being so stupid as to expect India to consciously shoot itself in the foot by agreeing to a Kashmir solution, causing further fragmentation.
This column appeared in The Nation on Sunday, 28 June 2009. Mr. Gauhar can be reached at humayun.gauhar@gmail.com
By Humayun Gauhar
Saturday, 4 July 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—I feel my readers expect me to write about Pakistan winning the Twenty20 World Cup at Lord’s last Sunday. There’s no denying it, I feel like writing about it too. It’s good to get away from the madding crises around us and talk of something nice for a change, especially when there is a humorous side to it as well.
One for the jealous ones!
Sure Pakistan needed some good news, as everyone is ranting on, but I find the contention rather overdone. After all, a cricket match is only a cricket match. It is not tantamount to defeating terrorists and ending foreign interference in our land much less ending all our problems. Have you ever thought about it though, that none of Pakistan’s security problems are homegrown but were begotten outside its borders and we have been left holding the baby every time like mutts? The freedom uprising in Indian subjugated Kashmir is a British-Indian creation but it is we who are landed with Kashmiri refugees and freedom fighters, including in their latest incarnation, the Lashkar-e-Tayba. The four million Afghan refugees living off us for nearly three decades are a Soviet creation. So are the Mujahideen to free Afghanistan from Soviet occupation. The Mujahideen-turned-Taliban – holy warriors of God turned terrorists in American eyes – are a creation of American abandonment and most recently of the US and NATO stepping into Soviet shoes and occupying and subjugating Afghanistan just like the Soviets did, though under different but equally facetious pretexts. The non-Afghan fighters that we are landed with that coalesced under the Al-Qaeda umbrella were created by their own countries – our Muslim brothers don’t forget – when they did not allow them back home and made them stateless non-persons. The mini-insurgency in Balochistan has historically been supported by the late Soviet Union and now Russia with India always in cahoots while our ‘great allies’ the Americans have looked the other way. I can go on and on but at the end of the day the fault, dear countrymen, lies not in our stars but in ourselves that we allow this to happen.
Let’s get back to cricket. For me the good aspect of the victory was that for a brief moment Pakistan showed that it is a nation with people celebrating in every nook and cranny of the country over a pleasant issue and not something as tragic as an earthquake or a war. Without wishing to make a big thing out of it, it does show that we are not as disunited as advertised. The only thing we lack is something good to unite around.
I have to say that the Indians are as graceless in defeat as the Sri Lankans are gracious in defeat – and in victory. So dignified, but that came through clear as crystal after the terrorist attack on them in Lahore. Not 24 hours after our victory I got a letter from a peculiar Indian without grace who writes to me and other columnists in Pakistan often (don’t these guys have anything better to do than to regularly read our articles and then have a seizure?) saying that Pakistan has copied India in everything. “We won the ODI World Cup first then you went and won it in 1992,” said this graceless Indian. “Then we won the T 20 the first time round and next you have gone and won it. Why don’t you follow our example in something that matters?” My graceless Indian correspondent forgets that India first unleashed nuclear terror in the subcontinent in 1974 and we perforce had to follow suit and acquired a fearful nuclear arsenal of our own.
Does that matter? Not to forget that India has some 79 percent of its people living in abject poverty on $2 a day or less and we have followed suit though have not yet been able to catch up with the neighbors that we’re landed with, with ‘only’ 73 percent of our population living in poverty. That must matter. But why labor the point in a happy moment?
Okay, let’s get down to cricket, but before I do so I have to mention this other graceless idiot – sorry Indian (same difference as the Indians would say) – who wrote to me only today saying that Shahid Afridi is graceless and doesn’t have a brain. Give me more brainless Afridis, I say! They are better than the brainy Indians. At least they bring the bear home. I must stress, though, that not for a minute do I mean that all Indians are idiots. Far from it. But the many that are do provide great diversion in difficult times. Thank God for them. Never would I wish them away. More power to their elbows.
India’s problem is frustration. It tried its best to isolate Pakistan from international cricket but we are still a cricketing force to reckon with after winning the T 20 World Cup. Considering that our boys hardly got an international game after 2007 they still became T 20 World Champions. India’s effort has gone down the drain. Chin up boys, next time round you might win again. Then you can start jumping and hopping and screaming “India Shining” or “Shining India” or whatever it is that you want us to believe.
Okay, finally to cricket. I promise you I will not get diverted this time, though I am waiting anxiously for the graceless and demented letters I am going to receive from my Indian neighbors in response to this article. “You don’t know anything. You don’t know India. We are much better than you in everything and anything. Why, we can even do the Indian rope trick. Can you?” And so on and so stupid forth. I’m thinking of starting a website. If I do, I will seriously consider posting all the demented letters I have received from my “much-better-than-us-at-everything” Indian neighbors, except the ones with abuse and downright filth. I might even reply to some, something I have never done, much to their chagrin. When they don’t answer my questions, why the hell should I answer theirs? For example, it has been quite a while since I asked them to explain how rubber dinghies brimming with terrorists could evade the might of the great Indian navy and coast guard in full cry during an exercise on the high seas aimed at thwarting just such an eventuality? That’s not the half of it. They managed to land at Bombay’s main pier, hail taxis under the noses of the great Indian police, load them with crates of weapons, go off and buy provisions from a market and then proceed to occupy the most high profile buildings in the city. It defies credulity. All I get in response is: “Your government has admitted that Ajmal Kasab is a Pakistani.” Okay, so he is a Pakistani. Big deal. We have many Indian terrorists in our jails as well but your government has never had the grace to admit who they are. And in any case, it doesn’t answer my questions. Was Kasab one of the passengers on one of the rubber dinghies or was he in situ already? When did he get to India? Who were the Indians who were helping them? Nothing. Not a squeak.
Yet, India’s two-time proxy prime minister (Sonia is the one they really want) goes on and on like a broken gramophone record, that we will not resume the dialogue for peace until you finish terrorism in your country first. Who the hell is going to explain to this otherwise educated gentleman that until his country finishes state terrorism, terrorism against India within our country or anywhere else will not finish? But it is our fault too for living the pipedream that India will one day agree to an acceptable Kashmir solution or that there will be peace between our countries in our lifetimes. The most we can hope for is the absence of war and needling one another – what they call ‘normalization’. We should forget about love, peace and friendship and stop wasting each other’s time. And we should stop being so stupid as to expect India to consciously shoot itself in the foot by agreeing to a Kashmir solution, causing further fragmentation.
This column appeared in The Nation on Sunday, 28 June 2009. Mr. Gauhar can be reached at humayun.gauhar@gmail.com
Chinese Develop Special "Kill Weapon" to Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers
U. S. Naval Institute
With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.
After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.
First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.
The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces.
The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.
Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.
Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.
While the ASBM has been a topic of discussion within national defense circles for quite some time, the fact that information is now coming from Chinese sources indicates that the weapon system is operational. The Chinese rarely mention weapons projects unless they are well beyond the test stages.
If operational as is believed, the system marks the first time a ballistic missile has been successfully developed to attack vessels at sea. Ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack.
Along with the Chinese naval build-up, U.S. Navy officials appear to view the development of the anti-ship ballistic missile as a tangible threat.
After spending the last decade placing an emphasis on building a fleet that could operate in shallow waters near coastlines, the U.S. Navy seems to have quickly changed its strategy over the past several months to focus on improving the capabilities of its deep sea fleet and developing anti-ballistic defenses.
As analyst Raymond Pritchett notes in a post on the U.S. Naval Institute blog:
"The Navy's reaction is telling, because it essentially equals a radical change in direction based on information that has created a panic inside the bubble. For a major military service to panic due to a new weapon system, clearly a mission kill weapon system, either suggests the threat is legitimate or the leadership of the Navy is legitimately unqualified. There really aren't many gray spaces in evaluating the reaction by the Navy...the data tends to support the legitimacy of the threat."
In recent years, China has been expanding its navy to presumably better exert itself in disputed maritime regions. A recent show of strength in early March led to a confrontation with an unarmed U.S. ship in international waters.
With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.
After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.
First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.
The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces.
The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.
Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.
Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.
While the ASBM has been a topic of discussion within national defense circles for quite some time, the fact that information is now coming from Chinese sources indicates that the weapon system is operational. The Chinese rarely mention weapons projects unless they are well beyond the test stages.
If operational as is believed, the system marks the first time a ballistic missile has been successfully developed to attack vessels at sea. Ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack.
Along with the Chinese naval build-up, U.S. Navy officials appear to view the development of the anti-ship ballistic missile as a tangible threat.
After spending the last decade placing an emphasis on building a fleet that could operate in shallow waters near coastlines, the U.S. Navy seems to have quickly changed its strategy over the past several months to focus on improving the capabilities of its deep sea fleet and developing anti-ballistic defenses.
As analyst Raymond Pritchett notes in a post on the U.S. Naval Institute blog:
"The Navy's reaction is telling, because it essentially equals a radical change in direction based on information that has created a panic inside the bubble. For a major military service to panic due to a new weapon system, clearly a mission kill weapon system, either suggests the threat is legitimate or the leadership of the Navy is legitimately unqualified. There really aren't many gray spaces in evaluating the reaction by the Navy...the data tends to support the legitimacy of the threat."
In recent years, China has been expanding its navy to presumably better exert itself in disputed maritime regions. A recent show of strength in early March led to a confrontation with an unarmed U.S. ship in international waters.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Pirates of the Mediterranean
Paul Craig Roberts
V Dare
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy in international waters illegally boarded the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children’s toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The “Spirit of Humanity,” along with the kidnapped 21 persons is being towed to Israel as I write.
Gaza has been described as the “world’s largest concentration camp.” It is home to 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven by force of American-supplied Israeli arms out of their homes, off their farms, and out of their villages so that Israel could steal their land and make the Palestinian land available to Israeli settlers.
What we have been witnessing for 60 years is a replay in modern times, despite the United Nations and laws strictly preventing Israel’s theft of Palestine, of the 17th, 18th, and 19th century theft of American Indian lands by US settlers. An Israeli government spokesman recently rebuked the President of the United States, a country, the Israeli said, who stole all of its land from Indians, for complaining about Israel’s theft of Palestine.
I knew the “Spirit of Humanity” would fall to Israeli piracy the minute I received on June 25 from an official of an Israeli peace organization a “public advisory” that the government of Cyprus had withheld permission for the “Spirit of Humanity” to leave for Gaza. The US State Department had advised that “The Israeli Foreign Ministry informed U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv that Israel still considers Gaza an area of conflict and that any boats attempting to sail to Gaza will not be permitted to reach its destination.” The “Spirit of Humanity” obtained permission to leave Cyprus when all aboard signed a waiver absolving Cyprus of all responsibility for the crew’s safety at the hands of the Israelis.
As President Obama has called for humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza, and as the International Red Cross has damned the inhumanity of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the question that immediately comes to mind is why did not the United States send sufficient US Navy escort to see the “Spirit of Humanity” safely through international waters to Gaza? We send ships against Somalian pirates, why not against Israeli ones?
We all know the answer. The US talks a good “human rights” game, but never delivers–especially if the human rights abuser is Israel. After all, Israel owns the US Congress and President Obama. Israel even has an Israeli citizen and former member of the Israeli Defense Forces as the Chief-of-Staff in Obama’s White House. Israel owns millions of American “Christian Zionists” and “rapture evangelicals.” When it comes to Israel, the American government is a puppet state. It does what it is told.
Macho Americans might stand tall, but not when Israel snaps its fingers.
Israel, of course, will get away with a mere act of piracy. After all, Israel has been getting away with its war crimes and violations of international law for 60 years. If the UN tries to do anything, the US will veto it, as the US has done for decades.
What will happen to the kidnapped foreign nationals? Most likely they will be released and sent back to their respective countries. Israel, of course, will keep the stolen “Spirit of Humanity” to foreclose any further attempts by human rights activists to run Israel’s inhumane blockade of Gaza.
On the other hand, Israel might declare its captives to be terrorists on the ground that the Gazans elected in a free election Hamas as their government. Hamas, unlike Israel, is declared to be a terrorist organization by the puppet American State Department in Washington. Thus the human rights activists onboard the “Spirit of Humanity” are aiding and abetting terrorists by delivering goods to them. The US Department of Justice (sic) prosecutes American citizens and charities for sending aid to Palestinians on the grounds that Palestinians, if not everyone a terrorist, are governed by terrorists.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a Nobel Laureate and a former member of the US House of Representatives, along with the rest of the crew, are handed over to the Americans for indefinite detention and for torturing and waterboarding in the American torture facility at Bagram. I am certain that “Homeland Security” and the US Government are desperate to be rid of all of critics, and knocking off a Nobel Laureate and a member of the House sets a precedent for getting rid of the rest of us.
Meanwhile, California, which has become a failed state, has been denied bailout money from Washington. Israel, which has been a failed state for 60 years, can, unlike the American state of California, always count of Washington to deliver the money and the weapons to keep Israel going.
The same week that “our” government in Washington told the Governor of California “not one red cent,” President Barak Obama handed over $2.775 billion to Israel.
Online Journal (June 29) reported that the handover to Israel of the unemployed Americans’ tax dollars took place in a “tiny Capitol room” to which members of the press were denied access. I mean, really, who wants the media writing about US taxpayer dollars for Israel’s nuclear weapons while Americans are being kicked out of their homes. Not that, of course, the “Christian” supporters of Israel would mind.
Unlike every other recipient of US military largesse, Israel is permitted to bypass the Pentagon and to deal directly with US suppliers. Consequently, the Israel Lobby’s influence multiplies, because military suppliers fight for Israel in congressional committees in order to get Israel’s business. This lets Israel turn the screws on Iran. According to Grant F. Smith writing in Online Journal, Republican US Representative Mark Steven from Illinois has received $221,000 in campaign contributions from Israel political action committees (PACs). Therefore, it was a sure thing that he would introduce legislation preventing the Import-Export bank from providing loan guarantees to countries doing business with Iran.
Americans think that they are a superpower, but in fact they are a stupor-power. A puppet state if truth be known.
There is a great deal of evidence, even in Time magazine that Israel is a child abuser. “God’s Chosen People” routinely abuses captured Palestinian children. The Israelis also abuse Palestinian children by shooting them down in the streets.
Don’t take my word for it. The Geneva-based Defense for Children International says, according to Time Magazine, that “the ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian child prisoners appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized, suggesting complicity at all levels of the political and military chain of command.”
According to Time Magazine, “Often, children suffer lasting traumas from jail. Says Saleh Nazzal from the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs, ‘When soldiers burst into a house and drag away a child, he loses his feeling of being protected by his family. He comes back from prison alienated from his family, his friends. They don’t like going back to school or even leaving the house. They start wetting their beds.’ Says Mona Zaghrout, a YMCA counselor who helps kids returning from prison: ‘They come out of prison thinking and acting like they are men. Their childhood is gone.’ And they often turn to another father figure–the armed militant groups fighting the Israeli occupation.’”
And so it goes. There’s no money for California, or for Americans’ health care, or for the several million Americans who have lost their homes and are homeless, because Israel needs it. Israel need the Americans’ taxpayers money to that it can create even more enemies, and, therefore, need more American money to spend with the American armament industries to oppress more Palestinians and to make more enemies, requiring more American money to protect Israel from its folly and its evil.
And the brainwashed American public goes along year after year
V Dare
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy in international waters illegally boarded the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children’s toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The “Spirit of Humanity,” along with the kidnapped 21 persons is being towed to Israel as I write.
Gaza has been described as the “world’s largest concentration camp.” It is home to 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven by force of American-supplied Israeli arms out of their homes, off their farms, and out of their villages so that Israel could steal their land and make the Palestinian land available to Israeli settlers.
What we have been witnessing for 60 years is a replay in modern times, despite the United Nations and laws strictly preventing Israel’s theft of Palestine, of the 17th, 18th, and 19th century theft of American Indian lands by US settlers. An Israeli government spokesman recently rebuked the President of the United States, a country, the Israeli said, who stole all of its land from Indians, for complaining about Israel’s theft of Palestine.
I knew the “Spirit of Humanity” would fall to Israeli piracy the minute I received on June 25 from an official of an Israeli peace organization a “public advisory” that the government of Cyprus had withheld permission for the “Spirit of Humanity” to leave for Gaza. The US State Department had advised that “The Israeli Foreign Ministry informed U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv that Israel still considers Gaza an area of conflict and that any boats attempting to sail to Gaza will not be permitted to reach its destination.” The “Spirit of Humanity” obtained permission to leave Cyprus when all aboard signed a waiver absolving Cyprus of all responsibility for the crew’s safety at the hands of the Israelis.
As President Obama has called for humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza, and as the International Red Cross has damned the inhumanity of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the question that immediately comes to mind is why did not the United States send sufficient US Navy escort to see the “Spirit of Humanity” safely through international waters to Gaza? We send ships against Somalian pirates, why not against Israeli ones?
We all know the answer. The US talks a good “human rights” game, but never delivers–especially if the human rights abuser is Israel. After all, Israel owns the US Congress and President Obama. Israel even has an Israeli citizen and former member of the Israeli Defense Forces as the Chief-of-Staff in Obama’s White House. Israel owns millions of American “Christian Zionists” and “rapture evangelicals.” When it comes to Israel, the American government is a puppet state. It does what it is told.
Macho Americans might stand tall, but not when Israel snaps its fingers.
Israel, of course, will get away with a mere act of piracy. After all, Israel has been getting away with its war crimes and violations of international law for 60 years. If the UN tries to do anything, the US will veto it, as the US has done for decades.
What will happen to the kidnapped foreign nationals? Most likely they will be released and sent back to their respective countries. Israel, of course, will keep the stolen “Spirit of Humanity” to foreclose any further attempts by human rights activists to run Israel’s inhumane blockade of Gaza.
On the other hand, Israel might declare its captives to be terrorists on the ground that the Gazans elected in a free election Hamas as their government. Hamas, unlike Israel, is declared to be a terrorist organization by the puppet American State Department in Washington. Thus the human rights activists onboard the “Spirit of Humanity” are aiding and abetting terrorists by delivering goods to them. The US Department of Justice (sic) prosecutes American citizens and charities for sending aid to Palestinians on the grounds that Palestinians, if not everyone a terrorist, are governed by terrorists.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a Nobel Laureate and a former member of the US House of Representatives, along with the rest of the crew, are handed over to the Americans for indefinite detention and for torturing and waterboarding in the American torture facility at Bagram. I am certain that “Homeland Security” and the US Government are desperate to be rid of all of critics, and knocking off a Nobel Laureate and a member of the House sets a precedent for getting rid of the rest of us.
Meanwhile, California, which has become a failed state, has been denied bailout money from Washington. Israel, which has been a failed state for 60 years, can, unlike the American state of California, always count of Washington to deliver the money and the weapons to keep Israel going.
The same week that “our” government in Washington told the Governor of California “not one red cent,” President Barak Obama handed over $2.775 billion to Israel.
Online Journal (June 29) reported that the handover to Israel of the unemployed Americans’ tax dollars took place in a “tiny Capitol room” to which members of the press were denied access. I mean, really, who wants the media writing about US taxpayer dollars for Israel’s nuclear weapons while Americans are being kicked out of their homes. Not that, of course, the “Christian” supporters of Israel would mind.
Unlike every other recipient of US military largesse, Israel is permitted to bypass the Pentagon and to deal directly with US suppliers. Consequently, the Israel Lobby’s influence multiplies, because military suppliers fight for Israel in congressional committees in order to get Israel’s business. This lets Israel turn the screws on Iran. According to Grant F. Smith writing in Online Journal, Republican US Representative Mark Steven from Illinois has received $221,000 in campaign contributions from Israel political action committees (PACs). Therefore, it was a sure thing that he would introduce legislation preventing the Import-Export bank from providing loan guarantees to countries doing business with Iran.
Americans think that they are a superpower, but in fact they are a stupor-power. A puppet state if truth be known.
There is a great deal of evidence, even in Time magazine that Israel is a child abuser. “God’s Chosen People” routinely abuses captured Palestinian children. The Israelis also abuse Palestinian children by shooting them down in the streets.
Don’t take my word for it. The Geneva-based Defense for Children International says, according to Time Magazine, that “the ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian child prisoners appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized, suggesting complicity at all levels of the political and military chain of command.”
According to Time Magazine, “Often, children suffer lasting traumas from jail. Says Saleh Nazzal from the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs, ‘When soldiers burst into a house and drag away a child, he loses his feeling of being protected by his family. He comes back from prison alienated from his family, his friends. They don’t like going back to school or even leaving the house. They start wetting their beds.’ Says Mona Zaghrout, a YMCA counselor who helps kids returning from prison: ‘They come out of prison thinking and acting like they are men. Their childhood is gone.’ And they often turn to another father figure–the armed militant groups fighting the Israeli occupation.’”
And so it goes. There’s no money for California, or for Americans’ health care, or for the several million Americans who have lost their homes and are homeless, because Israel needs it. Israel need the Americans’ taxpayers money to that it can create even more enemies, and, therefore, need more American money to spend with the American armament industries to oppress more Palestinians and to make more enemies, requiring more American money to protect Israel from its folly and its evil.
And the brainwashed American public goes along year after year
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