Declining security, terrorism affect Pakistani economy: UN

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s economy has been affected not just by the global economic crisis but also by the declining security situation and intensification of conflict linked to terrorism, local media reported Friday.

Industry, especially large-scale manufacturing, suffered the worst of all sectors from the drop in international demand, while also having to cope with acute shortages of electricity, said the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) report which was launched Thursday.

In Pakistan, GDP growth fell from 4.1 percent in 2008 to 2.0 percent in 2009 while inflation rose sharply from 12 percent in 2008 to 20.8 percent in 2009 mainly because of food price increases, it said…..

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The Goldstone Report – A Study in Bias

Israel is appalled and disappointed by the report published on 15 September 2009 by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Gaza Fact Finding Mission. The Report unfairly describes Israel’s defense of its citizens as war crimes, while ignoring the deliberate strategy of Hamas to operate from within or behind the civilian population. Read more

The Limits of Terrorism

Does terrorism work, meaning, does it achieve its perpetrators’ objectives?

With terror attacks having become a routine and nearly daily occurrence, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, the conventional wisdom holds that terrorism works very well. For example, the late Ehud Sprinzak of the Hebrew University ascribed the prevalence of suicide terrorism to its “gruesome effectiveness.” Robert Pape of the University of Chicago argues that suicide terrorism is growing “because terrorists have learned that it pays.” Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz titled one of his books Why Terrorism Works.

But Max Abrahms, a fellow at Stanford University, disputes this conclusion, noting that they focus narrowly on the well-known but rare terrorist victories – while ignoring the much broader, if more obscure, pattern of terrorism’s failures. To remedy this deficiency, Abrahms took a close look at each of the 28 terrorist groups so designated by the U.S. Department of State since 2001 and tallied how many of them achieved its objectives.

His study, “Why Terrorism Does Not Work,” finds that those 28 groups had 42 different political goals and that they achieved only 3 of those goals, for a measly 7 percent success rate. Those three victories would be: (1) Hezbollah’s success at expelling the multinational peacekeepers from Lebanon in 1984, (2) Hezbollah’s success at driving Israeli forces out of Lebanon in 1985 and 2000, and (3) the Tamil Tiger’s partial success at winning control over areas of Sri Lanka after 1990.

That’s it. The other 26 groups, from the Abu Nidal Organization and Al-Qaeda and Hamas to Aum Shinriko and Kach and the Shining Path, occasionally achieved limited success but mostly failed completely. Abrahms draws three policy implications from the data.

Guerrilla groups that mainly attack military targets succeed more often than terrorist groups that mainly attack civilian targets. (Terrorists got lucky in the Madrid attack of 2004.)
Terrorists find it “extremely difficult to transform or annihilate a country’s political system”; those with limited objectives (such as acquiring territory) do better than those with maximalist objectives (such as seeking regime change).
Not only is terrorism “an ineffective instrument of coercion, but … its poor success rate is inherent to the tactic of terrorism itself.” This lack of success should “ultimately dissuade potential jihadists” from blowing up civilians.
This final implication, of frequent failure leading to demoralization, suggests an eventual reduction of terrorism in favor of less violent tactics. Indeed, signs of change are already apparent.

 

 
At the elite level, for example the former jihad theorist, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif (a.k.a. Dr. Fadl), now denounces violence: “We are prohibited from committing aggression,” he writes, “even if the enemies of Islam do that.”

On the popular level, the Pew Research Center’s 2005 Global Attitudes Project found that “support for suicide bombings and other terrorist acts has fallen in most Muslim-majority nations surveyed” and “so too has confidence in Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.” Likewise, a 2007 Program on International Policy Attitudes study found that “Large majorities in all countries oppose attacks against civilians for political purposes and see them as contrary to Islam. … Most respondents … believe that politically-motivated attacks on civilians, such as bombings or assassinations, cannot be justified.”

On the practical level, terrorist groups are evolving. Several of them – specifically in Algeria, Egypt, and Syria – have dropped violence and now work within the political system. Others have taken on non-violent functions – Hezbollah delivers medical services and Hamas won an election. If Ayatollah Khomeini and Osama bin Laden represent Islamism’s first iteration, Hezbollah and Hamas represent a transitional stage, and Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, arguably the world’s most influential Islamist, shows the benefits of going legitimate.

But if going the political route works so well, why does Islamist violence continue and even expand? Because they are not always practical. Rita Katz of the SITE Intelligence Group explains: “Engaged in a divine struggle, jihadists measure success not by tangible victories in this life but by God’s eternal benediction and by rewards received in the hereafter.”

In the long term, however, Islamists will likely recognize the limits of violence and increasingly pursue their repugnant goals through legitimate ways. Radical Islam’s best chance to defeat us lies not in bombings and beheadings but in classrooms, law courts, computer games, television studios, and electoral campaigns.

We are on notice.

Imams to help police in bid to keep young Muslims away from gang culture

A NEW weapon will be unveiled this week in the war on teenage gangs: Muslim Imams.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that several Islamic clerics will join police and youth workers in an innovative new scheme to wean young Muslims away from trouble.

The Imams – most Scottish-born – will take to the streets starting this week, targetADVERTISEMENTing a dozen teenagers believed to be on the edge of the embryonic Asian gang culture on Glasgow’s Southside.

Their allies, including workers from Youth Counselling Services Agency (YCSA), a support group for young Asians, reckon the clerics will be able to command more respect from youngsters than other professionals, including the police.

They will launch their programme just days after the first serious youth disorder in Pollokshields, home to Scotland’s biggest Muslim community, since last summer. Four Asians – three young men and a youth – were last week charged with assault after an alleged attack on white men when a snowball fight reportedly escalated into serious violence.

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Pakistani president admits Taliban has “huge” presence in Pakistan

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Taliban has established itself across a large part of Pakistan, forcing the country to fight a war against the hard-line Islamist group that is about Pakistan’s own survival, President Asif Zardari told CBS News.

“(The Taliban) do have a presence in huge amounts of land in our side. Yes, that is the fact,” Zardari told “60 Minutes” in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, excerpts of which were released on Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama said this week there was no doubt terrorists were operating in safe havens in the tribal regions of Pakistan, and the United States wanted to make sure Islamabad was a strong ally in fighting that threat.

Obama and Zardari spoke by telephone on Wednesday, the Pakistani foreign ministry said. The two discussed the surge in violence by al Qaeda and the Taliban, which has stepped up its insurgency against U.S. forces and the Afghan government.

Zardari said Pakistan had been in denial about the Taliban in the past. “Our forces weren’t increased … . We have weaknesses and they are taking advantage of that weakness,” he said.
Another sign of changing attitudes is the increasing popularity of books, movies and documentaries that explore sex discrimination, rights advocates say.

“Women do not have a proper status in society,” said Mahnaz Mohammadi, a filmmaker. “Films are supposed to be a mirror of reality, and we make films to change the status quo.”

In a recent movie, “All Women Are Angels,” a comedy that was at the top of the box office for weeks, a judge rejects the divorce plea of a woman who walked out on her husband when she found him with another woman.
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British Muslim tells court he fabricated Islamist past

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – A British-born Pakistani man who said he had links to al Qaeda and had sent young men for terrorism training in Pakistan has told a court that he was lying about his past.

Hassan Butt, 28, told Manchester Crown Court he had fed stories to the media and that his portrayal of himself as a terrorist planner who later renounced violence in order to fight Islamist extremism was a fabrication.

He made the confession in December during the trial of a former friend, Habib Ahmed, who was subsequently convicted of belonging to al Qaeda. Restrictions on the reporting of the case have only now been lifted following the conclusion of another trial involving Butt’s wife.

“At no point have I ever been training, have I ever been a jihadi,” Butt told the court, according to a transcript of the proceedings.

Questioning Butt about his past, prosecutor Andrew Edis asked: “So, you were a professional liar then?”

Butt replied: “I would make money, yes.” He had, he said, told stories that “the media wanted to hear”.

The confession will come as a surprise to many as Butt was for years regarded as a leading Islamist who had subsequently turned himself into a proponent for “de-radicalising” young men in order to combat extremism.

He has been widely profiled in newspapers, magazines and in television documentaries, and even met members of the government to discuss his plans for combating radicalism.

In a Reuters interview in April last year, Butt said he had spent a decade inside Islamist factions, during which time he said he had sent recruits to Pakistan. He said he began questioning his beliefs after the July 2005 attacks by suicide bombers on London in which 52 people were killed.

“I financed terrorism, I recruited people to go to terrorist training camps, I myself have been to terrorist training camps,” he said in the interview. “I was involved in the whole world of radical Islam from the age of 16 onwards.”

Reuters does not pay for interviews.

Butt has been arrested five times by counter-terrorism officers, but was released each time without charge.

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Don’t attack us please, UK ads to say on Pak TV

London The British government will air ads on Pakistani television urging terrorists to not attack Britain.
Prominent British Muslims will star in the British Foreign Office-funded £400,000 (approximately Rs 2.9 crore)-campaign that is set to break on Pakistani television next Monday, ‘The Guardian’ reported on Tuesday.

The three-month public relations offensive, called ‘I Am the West’, will also include high-profile events in regions such as Peshawar and Mirpur, ‘The Guardian’ said. Seven in ten British Pakistanis are Mirpuris.

According to ‘The Guardian’, the first three ads in the project will feature British Communities Minister Sadiq Khan, UK manager of Islamic Relief Jehangir Malik, former England Under-19 captain and promising Worcestershire allrounder Moeen Ali, and the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Chaudry Abdul Rashid, a Mirpuri.

The campaign, the paper said, will be targeted at ‘15-25-year-old males who are less than well-educated and worldly wise, but potentially susceptible to extremist doctrines’. Nine 30-second commercials, supported by ads on radio, will be aired on PTV, Geo TV and Khyber among other channels. If the Pakistani campaign is successful, it will be extended in Egypt, Yemen and Indonesia.

The central theme of the campaign, ‘The Guardian’ said, “is to assert that there is no contradiction in being a Muslim and being British.” It has four key aims, the daily reported: ‘to ensure Pakistanis realise the west is not anti-Islamic, that British society is not anti-Islam, to demonstrate the extent to which Muslims are integrated into British society and to stimulate and facilitate constructive debate on the compatibility of liberal and Muslim values’.
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Al-Qaeda warns India against any attack on Pakistan

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid said in the video shown on Indian news channels that Indians suffered ‘humiliation’ in the November assault and more was in store if India decided to retaliate against Pakistan.

   ‘India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan,’ al-Yazid said in the 20-minute video in Arabic that was received by the BBC in Islamabad. ‘The mujahedin will sunder your armies into the ground like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan.’

   ‘We will bring mujahedin and suicide attackers from all over the Muslim world to confront you,’ he said. ‘We will target your economic centres and raze them to the ground.’

   Al-Yazid had been reported killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan last year. He is in charge of al-Qaeda’s operations in Afghanistan and is ranked behind number 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and top leader Osama bin Laden.

   Al-Yazid has been linked to a number of terrorist attacks, including last year’s Danish embassy bombings in Pakistan, and had claimed responsibility for assassinating former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

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Poland join another countries in accussing Pakistan of fomenting terror

WASHINGTON: Poland has joined the ranks of countries accusing Pakistan of inaction, if not outright complicity in terrorist activity, following the 
beheading last week of a Polish national by the Pakistani Taliban.
In a furious response that has stunned the international diplomatic community, Polish justice minister Andrzej Czuma on Monday blamed Pakistan’s ”apathy” in tackling terrorism for the killing of a Polish geologist who was kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban from Attock town in Punjab.

“The structure of the Pakistani government is behind this apathy. The Pakistani authorities encourage these bandits,” Czuma told a Polish news agency, even as the horrific killing recalled the similar beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

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India says Pakistan’s spy agency behind Mumbai attacks

NEW DELHI : India has for the first time directly accused Pakistan’s powerful military intelligence agency — the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) — of involvement in last year’s Mumbai attacks.

“The perpetrators planned, trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan, and the organisers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said in a speech in Paris on Thursday that was picked up by the Indian media.

In January, India handed Pakistan what it said was evidence linking “elements” in Pakistan to the November attacks on India’s financial capital, in which 10 gunmen killed 165 people during a 60-hour siege.

New Delhi has blamed the attacks on the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is active in Indian-ruled Kashmir, but the Pakistan-based organisation has denied responsibility.
India had previously blamed the ISI for a suicide attack on its embassy in Kabul last July, in which 60 people including India’s military attache and a diplomat were killed.

Menon said India had long suffered from “terrorist organisations, their support structures, official sponsors and funding mechanisms, which transcend national borders but operate within them.”

He also blasted foreign arms sales to Pakistan in the name of fighting terrorism, saying it was like selling “whisky to an alcoholic.”

Such transactions damage the “internal political balance, making the consolidation of democracy more difficult,” he added.

The United States has been one of Pakistan’s key military backers, providing F-16 fighter jets in return for political support for its operations in Afghanistan.

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