New London play looks at roots of Afghan conflict

LONDON: A new play uses the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Cold War “Great Game” it triggered, to look at why the West is mired in seemingly endless conflict there today.
Blood and Gifts”, by U.S. playwright J.T. Rogers, has opened at London’s National Theatre and won strong early reviews for its dramatic analysis of what has gone wrong in Afghanistan.

Rogers, who wrote Rwandan drama “The Overwhelming” which appeared at the same theatre in 2006, said he opted for a behind-the-scenes look at the 1980s conflict, rather than a recreation of the fighting.

“It is more about safehouses, embassies and CIA headquarters in Washington DC,” Rogers told Reuters in an interview just before the play opened.more

Nato Succumbs to pak pressure

ISLAMABAD: Nato reversed its position on aerial strikes by its helicopter gunships inside Pakistan on Monday after Islamabad warned the US-led forces in Afghanistan of counter-measure
s. International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), which had earlier defended the aerial engagement as an action ‘under the right of self-defence’, later in the evening, according to military sources, informed Pakistani commanders that they were trying to establish that their helicopters during the operation did not cross into Pakistani territory.
The strongly-worded protest communicated by Pakistan to Nato headquarters in Brussels reminded the military alliance that its mandate for operations in Afghanistan ended at Afghan border and there were no hot pursuit rules agreed with Pakistan.

Describing the cross-border air raids as ‘violation of its sovereignty and the UN mandate for coalition operations in Afghanistan’, the protest statement issued by the Foreign Office said: “In the absence of immediate corrective measures, Pakistan will be constrained to consider response options.”more

Israel’s Muslims reach out: strategy, desperation or appeasement?

In last month’s two things happen which could be interprerated as strange things to some extent. Ambassador of Israel to India Mark Sofer visited an Islamic shrine in Ajmer shrine of a sufi chisti and there he was greeted and warmly welcomed by local Muslim worshippers and encouraged with his warm welcome ambassador told the audience how Jews and Muslims are very much similar in their various traditions and they are twin sisters in some way or the other. This statement was marked with greater caution among others not only among Non-muslims but even larger part of Urdu news papers did not share the feelings of Mark Sofer as it may have anticipated by him. Usually Urdu press is always filled with medieval conspiracy theories for Jews and it was not less than shocking for them to witness an Israel diplomat visiting Islamic shrine and igniting the debate of some religious similarities between them. On the other hand other Non-Muslims in India, who don’t care much about Arab-Israel politics more than having a perception about it imposed by media outlets, were neither curious nor disappointed. But being a critique of Middle Eastern politics and political observer I thought it my duty to decipher the reasons and repercussions of this gesture. Read more

Hair calls Pakistans tour players cheats

LONDON: Darrell Hair, the former Test umpire, has branded the Pakistan cricket team “cheats” and criticised the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body, for refusing to act despite apparent evidence that Shoaib Akhtar tampered with the ball during the one-day international between Pakistan and England at the Rose Bowl last Wednesday. Read more

Time to policy shift not to bleed and weep

The full blown crisis in Kashmir has not been averted but we are being shown that Government of India had been managed it from going out of Hand but if we try to see the realities on the ground we would be highly disappointed on the facts. Today again news came from some sections that CCS ( Cabinet committee on security) is going to sit to formulate a possible strategy to gradually cut down the special powers of army personnel in Kashmir by scaling down the famous AFSPA ( Armed forces special power act) . It seems the all party delegation in J&K has somehow has succumbed to the propaganda of Islamists and non performing Omar Abdullah government that the crisis in Kashmir in some way is related with special powers of Army. Before this all party delegation was designated for Kashmir visit one unilateral effort from cabinet was unable to move on as consensus was not being made on this issue as defense minister had to take care of Armed forces who are facing a war like situation in Kashmir with stone pelters targeting them and on other hand these stone pelters seems hand in glove with those groups who have vested interest in Kashmir for a long time.  Due to this fuss cabinet had not been able to come to any conclusion and an all party delegation was designated to visit the J &K to assess the ground situation there. Now news are coming out that CCS will explore the options for gradual withdrawal of special powers of Army. Read more

Shahzad linked to Yemeni cleric: Report

NEW YORK – Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bombing suspect, told investigators that he drew inspiration from Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric whose militant online lectures have been a catalyst for several recent attacks and plots, according to a leading American newspaper.
The 30-year Shahzad, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, was inspired by Awlaki, The New York Times said, citing an unnamed official, who would speak of the investigation only on condition of anonymity.
“He listened to him, and he did it,” the official said, referring to Saturday’s attempted bombing on a busy street in Times Square.
Friends of Shahzad have said he became more religious and somber in the last year or so, and asked his father’s permission in 2009 to join the fight in Afghanistan against American and NATO forces. Investigators believe he was trained by the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group that previously focused mainly on Pakistani government targets.
A senior military official said Thursday that Shahzad has told interrogators that he met with Pakistani Taliban operatives in North Waziristan in December and January. Later he received explosives training from the same operatives, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
Counterterrorism officials want to know how Shahzad, who had earned an M.B.A., married and had children and worked in several corporate jobs, came to embrace violence……

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China to provide $180 mln aid to Pakistan: Malik

ISLAMABAD: China will grant US$180 million aid to Pakistan for enhancing the capacity of its law enforcement agency.

Interior Minister Rehman A. Malik Friday held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Meng Chiang in Chinese capital, said a message from Beijing.

The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere in which matters of mutual interest came under discussion.

In addition, Beijing also offered training facilities for Pakistani LEAs personnel and RMB (Chinese currency) 2 million for police equipments…..

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Why Would Anyone Want to Blow Up Times Square?

When news comes of Muslims engaging in violence, the triad of politicians, law enforcement, and media invariably presumes that the perpetrator suffers from some mental or emotional incapacity. (For a quick listing of examples, see my collection at “Sudden Jihad or ‘Inordinate Stress’ at Ft. Hood?”). Read more

Security at Places of Worship: More Than a Matter of Faith

By Scott Stewart and Fred Burton

In recent months, several high-profile incidents have raised awareness of the threat posed by individuals and small groups operating under the principles of leaderless resistance. These incidents have included lone wolf attacks against a doctor who performed abortions in Kansas, an armed forces recruitment center in Arkansas and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Additionally, a grassroots jihadist cell was arrested for attempting to bomb Jewish targets in the Bronx and planning to shoot down a military aircraft at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.

In addition to pointing out the threat posed by grassroots cells and lone wolf operatives, another common factor in all of these incidents is the threat of violence to houses of worship. The cell arrested in New York left what they thought to be active improvised explosive devices outside the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Community Center. Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed in the lobby of the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. Although Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad conducted his attacks against a Little Rock recruiting center, he had conducted preoperational surveillance and research on targets that included Jewish organizations and a Baptist church in places as far away as Atlanta and Philadelphia. And while James von Brunn attacked the Holocaust Museum, he had a list of other potential targets in his vehicle that included the National Cathedral. Read more

Fawning Media will Ignore Obama’s Pakistan Disaster

The Obama Administration continues to say all the “correct” things about Pakistan and its fight against the Taliban.  Yet, knowledgeable observers in South Asia give the country no more than twelve months to stave off the terror group’s inevitable takeover of that nuclear Islamic Republic.  In a New York Times piece in early April, David Kilcullen, former adviser to United States military commander General David Petraeus, predicted Pakistan’s fall to the Taliban “within six months.” Shortly afterwards, his former boss agreed that the current Taliban “insurgency” could “take down” Pakistan.  Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted later that month, “I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists.”

Yet, the Administration continues to push its program of propping up the ineffective Pakistani government courtesy of US taxpayers.

The US should have two priorities for Pakistan:  secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal; and lead an international effort to protect the country’s remaining minority populations on both sides of the Indo-Pak border, as they have been fleeing Taliban persecution in droves at least since February.  The administration seems committed to doing neither.  Thus, when Pakistan, along with its nukes and remaining minorities, falls to the Taliban; we can expect it to say that it tried everything it could, but that things were too far gone given the policies of its predecessor.  And when it does, expect the media to fall behind it lock step, even though the same reporters gleefully blamed President George W. Bush for 9/11 and refused even to entertain the notion that the policies of the previous, Clinton, administration were the primary cause. Read more

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