Taking American Public for a ride

'A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.

The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops.' - The Guardian.

The White House response to the leaks has been stunning.'Irresponsible leak','risk to National security'..!!


''These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan,'' President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor Jim Jones said in a statement.


It's time the American public decide,what is risky to America.Continuing to live in a fools paradise and providing massive aid to a country (pakistan),which is directly involved in the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan or a leak which provides the public an opportunity to understand the truth.


The truth of the blatant double game being played by America's trusted 'War on Terror' ally.Other things in the leak are peripheral.The most important factor to consider here is why on earth a rouge nation is being rewarded for it's back-stabbings..'


Deccan Herald reports :
"
A massive cache of leaked Pentagon documents on the Afghan war highlights the role that Pakistan's intelligence service plays in destabilising Afghanistan, Afghan president's spokesman said Monday.

Kabul has long accused Islamabad of providing support and sanctuary for militant groups that plan, fund and carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

The whistleblowing website Wikileaks made public 92,000 Pentagon files and field reports about deaths of innocent civilians, Pakistani agents meeting the Taliban and Iran secretly furnished it with money, arms and training.

The Kabul government welcomed the leaks, saying the documents on Pakistan's activities in Afghanistan could help "raise awareness on the sanctuaries" Islamabad provides for militant groups.

"Since 2006, since the first suicide bombing, we have talked about the role of (Pakistan's) intelligence services," Waheed Omar, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, told reporters.

"We need more understanding and awareness on the sanctuaries and I hope the leaked documents can raise the level of awareness on that question," he said.

"We hope they (Pakistan) will take practical steps that convince everyone they don't support them," he said, referring to militant groups that include the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network.

Omar said the Kabul government had been "shocked" at the volume of documents but had found nothing new in their content.

Afghanistan's national security adviser this month called on the Pakistani government to "take serious measures" against Islamist groups launching attacks on Afghan targets from secure havens inside Pakistan.

Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that throughout nine years of Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities had failed to take action against the groups taking refuge on their side of the porous border.

Afghan officials have blamed a number of major attacks on Pakistani-based groups whom they say are supported by Pakistan's intelligence and military.
Such militants were blamed for blowing up the Serena Hotel in Kabul in 2008, attacking the Indian embassy, other Indian targets and a UN guesthouse in October that led to a mass withdrawal from Afghanistan of UN staff.

"

The Guardian reports :
"
Hamid Karzai is said to be shocked by the massive leak of classified military documents, but to be hoping further allegations of links between Pakistan and the Taliban will support his claim that Islamabad is directly supporting the insurgency.

Waheed Omar, the Afghan president's spokesman, told journalists the Afghan government would not seek to exploit revelations of previously unknown incidents in which Nato troops have killed Afghan civilians, even though in the past Karzai has publicly berated the US and its allies after high-profile tragedies.

Omar said: "As far as the substance of these leaked documents, the president's reaction was that most of this is not new and has been discussed in the past, and has often been raised in the past with our international partners."

Omar praised the "good progress" made over the last 18 months to lower the number of civilians accidentally killed.

General Stanley McChrystal, the recently sacked US commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan, took the issue particularly seriously and introduced tough rules of engagement restricting the use of force by foreign soldiers.

Meanwhile, William Hague, the foreign secretary, speaking in Brussels, said the leaks would not harm international efforts in Afghanistan. "A good deal of progress is being made, in building up the capacity of the Afghan state and in Afghanistan working together with so many nations in the world," he said.

"So I hope any such leaks will not poison that atmosphere, and I don't think they will."

But observers in Kabul warned that allegations of Pakistani involvement – while not new – could heighten tensions with Afghanistan's neighbour. .

Haroun Mir, a political analyst, Karzai critic and parliamentary candidate, predicted that the intelligence documents alleging skulduggery by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency (ISI) would make it harder for the coalition to tolerate anything less than full Pakistani support in fighting the Taliban.

"For us, this is no secret – it is something we have been talking about since day one. But now there is no secret left. These are no longer allegations; these are facts," he said.

"It is up to the US and the UK to do something about it. Every day we see Nato soldiers die and Pakistan is very clearly linked to these killings, but there is no reaction. The west just rewards bad behaviour by the Pakistanis."

He said that when the details are re-reported by Afghan media, they will fuel popular conspiracy theories that the western powers are not serious about beating the Taliban and instead are looking for excuses for the permanent occupation of Afghanistan.

Any anti-Pakistani uproar will probably disrupt the detente between Karzai and Pakistan's leadership.

For months now Karzai has pointedly dropped his old anti-Pakistani rhetoric, and has held a series of meetings with Pakistan's army chief, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of the ISI – the very organisation cited in the documents as being part of an alleged plot to assassinate the Afghan president.

Mir said: "We have all been trying to warn President Karzai that you cannot trust the Pakistanis. They are not co-operating with the US and the UK, so why should they co-operate with Afghanistan?"

"

No India visit for leisure trip

"I do not want to visit India for a leisure trip. I want to go for meaningful, constructive and result-oriented talks if the right atmosphere prevails and if they are fully prepared (for talks)".

These are words of the Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a news conference.He is very much in the news these days.[Read my preceeding post.]

Hope India answers qureshi's wishes not by doing any thing else,but by simply not inviting this fellow.May be he is upset that he is not invited to visit The Taj.[Remember musharaff visited Taj when he made his 'leisure trip' to India earlier].

Any way qureshi should rethink and should some how visit India,other wise the whole of India will be disappointed.Political parties might even declare a 'Bharat Bandh'.For making the visit,how about using the infiltration routes used by your terrorists to India,Mr.qureshi??
Do some thing like that,some thing refreshingly different,so that the talks could succeed.

As for the Indian Government,as an alternative to not inviting,they should conduct research studies and symposiums and make sure that the 'right atmosphere prevails',which qureshi wants for coming.

Or is it possible for qureshi to bring some 'right atmosphere' from pak itself??
That could be a good idea..

Well,these are my thoughts,there could always be other innovative ways for bringing in this legend to India.

Believe it or not,he is also reported to have said that,"If you (India) are answerable to your people on terrorism, we too are a democracy and have to satisfy our people".

pakistan is missing some thing here.Here is a person capable of being a very good education minister for them.Did any body in pak knew,or for that matter any body the world over knew that this
country,pakistan is a democracy????

The dreamworld of India pakistan peace talks

Those who are stunned,astonished,surprised,amazed at the pak foreign minister shah mehmood qureshi's personal insult of India's Foreign Minister S M Krishna should understand that this was normal.

India's Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj  said, "qureshi must learn the basic lesson of diplomacy."
Perhaps India's Opposition Leader is talking like this because of her lack of International affairs.She should understand that Mr.qureshi is an expert in diplomatic affairs;diplomacy pak-style.

Nobody should have any doubt about pakistan's ability of playing a perfect host.After all they have been more than a perfect host to world dignitaries like osama bin laden,mulla omar etc.
Not to speak of their own international stars like hafeez saeed,syed salauddin etc and sundry.In fact osama and mulla omar are so impressed with pak's 'infrastructure and facilities' that they have made pak their homeland.

And we have seen that when ever America gets irritated with pak's increasingly open support for terror groups,pak produces some low class terrorists or the other, like pulling a rat out of the hat.It's like the script of one of those flop Hollywood movies.When the monster comes,people of the remote town try and assuage it by sacrificing a human to keep the monster away for the time being :)
Classic stuff.


Now coming back to what qureshi said :
He said he did not step out of the talks to "attend any phone calls", but the "Indian foreign minister received foreign policy directions from New Delhi repeatedly during our meeting".

"I led Pakistan's team and I didn't need to make even a single phone call (to Pakistan leaders) during the day-long talks. Krishna is the principal for giving direction to foreign policy (but) why were directions being sent repeatedly from Delhi?".

"Who is the top foreign policy adviser for India?", Qureshi asked.

For your information mr.qureshi,Indian foreign ministry is not as lucky as yours,because we don't have individuals like what you have in ISI and in your army to advice our FM.Very sorry.[Any help from you on this is welcome,I hope ?].

A few words about current India pakistan talks :
Well,nothing new.same very old story.India is back again to talk to pak.Even after repeatedly getting stabbed in the back,front,and in the sides,be it with the Kargil treachery or with the Mumbai terror attacks or the other numerous attacks in India actively sponsored by the pak government,we will try and talk them out of this.That's our determination.

Remember the old nursery song? 'Hum Honge Kamyab,Hum Honge Kayab,ek din'..
[Means :One day we will succeed..]

Let's try some thing different during the next peace talks,like giving them lolly-pops and beg them to switch-off the terror tap.May be some Bollywood song and dance as well in between.Ideally pak should agree :|


Few days before the talks, pak occupied Kashmir's so-called prime minister is reported to have said in a terror rally attended by pak assets like syed salauddin,that every Kashmiri house will become a bunker against India.!! salauddin said India will be brought to it's knees.

It's funny to note that pak was putting the mask of being extremely upset at Indian Home Secretary's comments that pakistan's terror intelligence agency ISI planned and executed the Mumbai terror attack end-to-end.Well,the Home Secretary Mr.Pillai also said that he was quoting the confessional statements of the pak based LeT  terrorist Headly (who is currently in US custody).And after all what he said is nothing new.

As a humble citizen of India,I would like to know what prompts Indian governments,be it led by right-wing BJP or the Congress or the Third Fronts,to continue to seek talks with pak,even when it's absolutely clear as day light that there will be ZERO progress.And that pakis will continue to do what ever it takes to continue the terror attacks in India and to bleed India by a 1000 cuts..

Is it American pressure?
Is it to create an impression world over that we are reasonable and that we continue to try to talk peace,even after grave provocations??
Trying to occupy the moral high ground?? [Doesn't make any sense when we are repeatedly being attacked and our fellow Countrymen are being martyred for nothing.The funny thing is,in the recent terror attacks ,be it in Mumbai or against the attacks against India in Afghanistan,the evil hands of pak's ISI is out in the open and they are not even trying to hide their trails.Evidences are all out there in the open,even other Nations acknowledge this.It's bizarre]

So if some body could explain why we are ever willing to take body blows,[more apt word is back-stabs] and still indulge in farce peace talks,I will be very grateful.It could only be a case of understanding issue with me.

I guess,even pakis themselves know that the world now knows that the comical eagerness they show for peace talks with India is only for a cover-up for their evil deeds.And this winning policy of theirs will continue as long as India continue to do absolutely nothing against pak.Even if an open war is ruled out,'come on' there are still lot of options available for an astute,proud,patriotic,caring Indian Government.
The problem is Indian Governments till date lacked the four adjectives I mentioned above...!!!!!
And,yes,a solid backbone is missing some where..

As a parting comment,few words of appreciation for pak :
It's amazing how they continue to churn out such beautifully arrogant,stubborn,foolish,'specialists-in-eating-own-words' kind of individuals as their foreign ministers like qureshi,kasuri etc.
Of course the icing on the cake is their ability to tell blatant lies in front of the media with an absolutely straight face.But then they had such veteran lie-masters like parvez musharaff as their president,who incidentally is living like a fugitive in UK at present!

Army not needed,will defeat naxals in seven years !!

Union Home Secretary G K Pillai, who is on a visit to review the situation in Chhattisgarh, said there was no need to deploy army personnel at present in the Maoist-hit regions.

Speaking to reporters at the district headquarters at Kanker, Pillai said that it could take between three and seven years to get rid of the Naxal menace in the country.

Sorry,as a humble citizen of this Country,I fail to understand this strategy?
By the way,is there any 'strategy' at all in tackling the naxal menace??

Doesn't look like,we are having one.

Mr.Pillai says Army is not needed.Fair enough.But what's the plan to prevent poor CRPF men from being butchered like chickens,in large numbers??

Is the government and the CRPF taking care of the poor families of those jawans who are getting killed??

And finally what's the funda about this 'between 3 to 7 years' ??
Is it exactly 7 years or 7 years and one month or 6 years and 11 months which he rounded-off to 7 or some thing else??
Will be really interesting to know the formula used to arrive at the number "7".

Time China had a hard look at it's pak policy

Against all international opposition,China is going ahead with its own version of a nuclear deal with pakistan.If one day all this nuclear tech reaches any of the numerous terror group in pak,hope  pak and china will be the only sufferers.

pakistan from the 80's onwards has been using terrorism as an instrument of state policy against India.Now the Frankenstein monster they have created has started eating the hands of it's creator itself,what with all the terror attacks these groups are conducting in pak itself.

Below is a report from rediff.If even after knowing details like what's mentioned in the report,if china continue to view pak as an all-weather friend,well good luck to them.

The report in rediff is pasted below :

An increasing number of militants of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement fighting for the separation of China's Muslim majority Xinjiang province were "fleeing to Pakistan and settling down there for future plots," a state-run newspaper reported on Monday.

According to latest reports, the ETIM has been in close collaboration with the Taliban and Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden ," the China Daily said in its lead story on the first anniversary of the bloody riots in Xinjiang capital Urumqi, in which an estimated 200 people were killed.

It said an ETIM leader is also reported to be hiding in Pakistan and there are also reports of a 'Chinese battalion' comprising nearly 320 ETIM members in the Taliban forces. It said a number of ETIM fighters were "fleeing to Pakistan and settling down there for future plots".

"It is not hard for them (ETIM members) to hide in Pakistan. They have similar religious beliefs, appearances and languages as the locals," the report said.

The report about ETIM militants settling down in Pakistan came a day before the visit of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari , who during his week-long stay is expected to firm up the deal with China to finance and build two 650 mw nuclear reactors.

Xinjiang Autonomous province, the home of ethnic Uyghur Muslims of Turkish origin, observed the first anniversary of last year's riots, in which over 200 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Chinese troops virtually converted the province into a veritable fortress, deploying hundreds of soldiers and over 40,000 surveillance cameras to prevent any recurrence of violence coinciding with the first anniversary. The same daily earlier carried a report that the Chinese and Pakistani armies are holding anti-terrorism exercises in China and may conduct joint operations in the future against the ETIM militants.

The newspaper speculated that the recent arrest of 10 members of the ETIM was accomplished with the help of the Pakistan army . Uyghurs of Turkish-origin went on a rampage, protesting the increasing settlement of Hans, who constituted over 90 per cent of the majority in mainland Chinese provinces.

The protests were also attributed to some hard-line policies pursued by the provincial government including mandatory learning of Chinese. The Chinese government subsequently introduced the two language policy to give a lift to the local Turkic language.

Two Strikes Within Two Week for One Reason

Back with my Harthal wishes.

Harthal wishes to all my Countrymen.Many many happy returns of the day.

For the kind information of those from outside Kerala,my home state :
This is our second harthal in roughly 10 days in Kerala.The earlier one,which we celebrated last saturday was called by the ruling Left-front of Kerala against the Central Government's decision to hike fuel prices.As usual,as part of the festivities associated with it,violent incidents were reported from parts of the state.

This time around,I mean today;today's strike is :
A Nation-wide Bharat Bandh by the main opposition party,the BJP.
And surprise,surprise,an all India harthal by Left-front.

The reason given by the BJP,Left for the strike?
Fuel price hike.

So effectively,as far as the state of Kerala is concerned,Left parties had 2 harthals,one on 26th June 2010 and the other today,5th july 2010,protesting against the same issue,THE FUEL PRICE HIKE.Howzzaatt...

1 issue = 2 strikes.

Only sour thing about today's strike is that the BJP and Left chose the same day for their strike.They could had a mutual discussion and could have arrived at two different dates.This is a wastage of a strike !!

If one of the parties agreed for a different date,we could have had another strike quickly..hmm.

Just watched a News report,where-in it's reported that 72 buses in Mumbai are damaged by striking shiv sainiks.Well,not only BJP,the whole NDA + SP + other sundries in Indian politics are also striking,in-addition to the glorious Left,ofcourse.

By the time today's strike ends,hope more buses will be damaged,more public property will be destroyed.

Hope,atleast after this strike,all the sky-rocketed prices will come down,latest by tomorrow (6th july 2010) evening.This is not to say that the Left Harthal of 26th June 2010 had no effect on Kerala.It had the desired impact.Public property was destroyed in many places,you know :|