India’s Tower of Shame

The youth of India, who were already avers to joining the armed forces, will now keep away India`s Tower of Shame has indeed defiled its rank and file and depicted how low humanity can sink only to satisfy its lust and greed.
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The scandal involving the former Indian Armed Forces Chiefs, who had illegally acquired flats in Mumbai. Several generals and admirals were lured to become members of the illegally sanctioned building of Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society, which was built on an illegally acquired plot of land. The building has been declared illegal, as it has been constructed in violation of the environmental laws and FSI regulations. Former Chief of Army Gen N C Vij, former Chief of Army Gen Deepak Kapoor, former Chief of Navy Admiral Madhavendra Singh own flats in the Adarsh Society. Three close female relatives of ex-Chief Minister Ashok Chavan also own flats in Adarsh Society. Each flat has a market price of Rs.8 crore. The reputation of the Armed Forces of India was put at stake, just to serve the interests of the extremely greedy senior Indian armed forces officers, politicians, bureaucrats and their cronies. The now sacked Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, along with many other top leaders of Maharashtra, did not hesitate to use the names of the top defence officers even when they flouted all the rules and regulations to get the high-rise building constructed in the restricted coastal regulation zone. In this process, they have tarnished the reputation of the Armed Forces of India, for whom the building of Adarsh Society has become a massive Tower of Shame. The flats in Adarsh Society were originally meant for the families of servicemen, ex-servicemen, and the widows and orphans of the Kargil War martyrs. It seems that many politicians and bureaucrats have suddenly been turned into living Kargil martyrs, and their female relatives have been declared as Kargil war widows, in the Greatest Miracle of India produced and directed by the top leaders of Maharashtra. It is the allotment of flats in the 31-storey building of Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society at Colaba, Mumbai, which has produced a Great Miracle of widows who have living husbands like the politicians and bureaucrats. The politicians and bureaucrats are really the most wonderful Miracle Makers who have converted themselves into living Kargil Martyrs, and whose families consist of Kargil War widows and orphans! Is that not the Greatest Miracle of Modern India performed by the top leaders of Maharashtra who have shamelessly stolen the rights of war widows and orphans? Defence minister A.K. Antony will find it hard to probe the case, as he now promises. Adarsh was cleared by two of Anthony’s Cabinet colleagues: power minister Sushilkumar Shinde and heavy industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. In 2003, Shinde dodged all questions on Adarsh; he continues to do so. The contentious Deshmukh just says he doesn’t remember. The Daily Mail’s exposé lifted the lid off the boiling cauldron of greed, sleaze and perfidy of India’s senior military officers and politicians, who did not even for a moment stop to think that they were desecrating the holy blood of India’s martyrs, who had sacrificed their lives in the defence of the country and their widows, orphans and dependents needed a shelter. No wonder that the morale of the Indian troops is so low that their rate of suicide is raising concern in the Indian higher defence command. Additionally, fratricide or murdering their own senior officers in cold blood as well as the rate of mental depravation among the Indian armed forces has caused jitters down their defence planners. After the Adarsh scandal hit the media, thanks to Christina Palmer of the Daily Mail, the youth of India, who were already averse to joining the armed forces, will now keep away. India’s Tower of Shame has indeed defiled its rank and file and depicted how low humanity can sink only to satisfy its lust and greed.

Naxalite-Maoists Insurgency in India

Maoist uprising which has taken the from of armed struggle is indigenous. It has become an unending insurgency due to the injustices and state terrorism perpetrad by the rich Hindus and Indian security forces.

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By Sajjad Shaukat

Failed in coping with the Maoist insurgency, new operations of the Indian security forces have exposed the helplessness of India. In this regard, in the recent past, Home Minister P. Chidamabram said that the Indian government “welcomes peace talks with Maoist rebels.” On the other side, the CNN-IBN news channel quoted Ramanna, a Maoist leader in Chhattisgarh state, as saying over the phone that the government should first withdraw thousands of paramilitary soldiers, deployed to fight the rebels and create peaceful conditions for talks.

However, peace talks have been offered by the New Delhi after the Maoist insurgents ambushed a bus on May 17, this year that killed 45 police officers and civilians who were returning after an operation, killing two Maoists. The event has highlighted the Maoists’ strength despite a government offensive aimed at ending one of Asia’s longest militancy.

Besides, on May 26, Maoist militants sabotaged a high-speed train in eastern India, killing at least 65 people after it smashed into the path of a goods train.

In fact, Maoist uprising which has taken the form of armed struggle is indigenous. It has become an unending insurgency due to the injustices and state terrorism perpetrated by the rich Hindus and Indian security forces.

Maoist movement initially started  by its leader, Mupala Luxman Rao in 1969 in the form of peasant uprising in West Bengal, protesting against big Hindu landlords who left no stone unturned in molesting the poor people through their mal-treatment such as forced labour, minimum wages, maximum work, unlawful torture and even killings the evils one could note prior to the Frech Revolution of 1789 when fedual lords had practised similar injustices on the farmers. 

Nevertheless, instead of redressing the grievances of the peasants and workers, Indian security forces in connivance with the rich-dominated society used the forces of state terrorism in crushing the Maoist movement. The Maoists had no choice, but to launch an armed struggle for their genuine rights.

The Naxalite-Maoists, as they call themselves, are the liberators, representing landless farmers and the downtrodden masses who have been entangled into vicious circle of poverty, misery and deprivation. The Indian indiscriminate social order treats them resentfully, setting aside human dignity and self-respect. It is owing to the continued inequalities that Maoists have appealed to the sentments of the helpless poor, who found their future dark under the susequent regimes led by so-called democratic forces of India. According to a report, “Out of total 1.17 billion populations, over 39% of dispossessed Indians, living below poverty line are hopeful that Maoists would bring a change in their wretched lives.”

Ideologically, the Naxalites are against the current Indian state. They believe that Indians have yet need freedom from hunger and deprivation, and from the exploitation of the poor by the rich classes of landlords, industrialists and traders who control the means of production. Due to these reasons, Maoists target all representatives of the state like politicians, the police and other officials. At local level, they target village functionaries and landlords.

Having its voice unheard, Maoist movement which had been raging in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkand, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, has expanded to Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Now, it is a popular movement which has massive support of people for its ideology.

In the recent months, Maoist insurgency has intensified enveloping new areas. An Indian government assessment admits that the Naxalite influence has extended over a third of the country.

Notably, Maoist movement has become a violent struggle because of the use of undue force by the Indian security forces. In this regard, on October 31, 2009, The New York Times wrote,  “India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers…violence erupts almost daily.” The Times explained, “If the Maoists were once dismissed as a ragtag band of outdated ideologies, Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign to hunt down the guerrillas in some of the country’s most rugged terrain…the Maoists represent the dispossessed of Indian society, particularly the indigenous tribal groups, who suffer some of the country’s highest rates of poverty, illiteracy and infant mortality…India’s rapid economic growth has made it an emerging global power but also deepened stark inequalities in society. Maoists accuse the government of trying to push tribal groups off their land to gain access to raw materials and have sabotaged roads, bridges and even an energy pipeline.”

BBC had reported on October 12, 2009, “In response to the atrocities of the Indian police, Maoist rebels had blown up culverts and cut electricity to railways in various regions during two-day strike.”

Naxalite insurgency known as Red Corridor has become so popular that India is actively considering shifting 23 battalions of para-military forces from occupied Kashmir to the Maoist affected areas.

Surprisingly, in the recent past, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted in a meeting of police chiefs saying: “his country is losing the battle against Maoist rebels…violence is increasing” and “Maoists have growing appeal among a large section of Indian society including tribal communities, the rural poor and the intelligentsia.”

While on the one hand, Indian rulers realise the real causes of Maoist uprising,  but still accuse China of backing the Maoist guerrilla warfare. They have started a series of allegaion against Beijing in this connection. Some Indian high officials misperceive that China supplies armes and ammuniton to Maoists in neighbouring Nepal where Chinese command strong influence. According to some recent Indian accusation, New Delhi believe that Nepali Maoists and Indian Maoists have formed a nexus duly supported by Beijing. With the covert support of Indian secret agency, RAW, Indians also propagate that there are secret training camps in China, which teach tactics of guerrilla warfare to the Maoists, and then they are being despatched to India.

There is no doubt that Maoists of India are fighting for the basic rights of lower and middle classes, which have been usurped by the upper classes supported by the Indian government. Just as we have noted in case of some other states of India, especially in the occupied Kashmir where struggle of liberation continues in one or the other way when people take to arms, there is going to be all kinds of violence by the freedom fighters and the revolutionaries. So Indian so-called democratic system is responsible for the drastic situation it has created.

Moreover, Maoist guerrilla commanders have been providing basic military training to local youths in West Bengal. They use weapons which they have snatched from the installations of Indian security forces. Since their struggle, they have kidnapped a number of personnel of the armed forces. Some poor persons, serving in the Indian forces have also provided them with arms and ammunition.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

SCO summit Pakistan eyes full member status

Tajik girl presents a bouquet to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani on his arrival at Dushanbe Airport, Tajikistan.


Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and his counterpart from Tajikistan Okil Okilov met here Wednesday and discussed the ways and means to further strengthen their bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields for mutual benefit.

The two leaders, who met here in the Tajik capital on the sidelines of the 9th SCO Heads of Government Council meeting being hosted by Tajikistan on Thursday, also discussed the situation in the region as well as other matters of regional and international importance.

During the meeting which was held here at Dacha (State Guest House), Prime Minister Gilani was assisted by Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Dushanbe Khalid Usman Kaiser and senior officials.

The two Prime Ministers agreed to further strengthen their existing bilateral relations through increased cooperation in diverse fields including trade and economy, energy, defence, infrastructure, transportation and communication.

Prime Minister Gilani thanked the government of Tajikistan for providing humanitarian assistance in the wake of recent devastating floods.

He said the present democratic government in Pakistan attaches great importance to its bilateral relations with Tajikistan and has given new impetus to its ties with the brotherly country.

“We are keen to further strengthen and deepen our relations and look forward to President Emomali Rahmon’s visit to Pakistan next year,” he maintained.

The Prime Minister said the quadrilateral summit in Socjhi provided an excellent framework for regional cooperation.

He said Pakistan is glad to witness continuous economic progress under the able leadership of President Emomali Rahmon, adding, Tajikistan has a key role in stability and peace in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan is looking forward to an early implementation of the CASA-1000 project.

He said Pakistan-Tajikistan current bilateral trade at $ 6.5 million in 2009 was still far below the actual potential and the two sides to take measure to boost it.

About the cooperation in the area of defence, Gilani said Pakistan wanted to assist its Tajik brothers in developing defence capabilities of its armed forces and provide training facilities at Pakistan’s military institutes.

Prime Minister Okil Okilov said developing relations with Pakistan was one of the main stays of Tajikistan’s foreign policy.

He recalled the visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to Tajikistan last year and said it opened a new chapter of bilateral relations and hoped that the MoUs and agreements signed during that visit would be implemented by both sides.The Tajik Prime Minister also called for establishment of Joint Business Forum as agreed in the last Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) meeting to expand the commercial and economic ties.

He offered Pakistani investors to take part in the Small and Medium sized hydro-power projects in Tajikistan and hoped that in addition to seven Pakistani companies presently registered in Tajikistan, more Pakistani investors and business houses will venture into Tajik market.

He welcomed Prime Minister Gilani’s agreement for fast-tracking the CASA-1000 project and hoped that Tajikistan will start the export of electricity to Pakistan with the completion of 220 KV transmission line project.

The Tajik Prime Minister expressed keen interest in his country’s access to the Pakistani sea through Gwadar Port and hoped that the joint concerted efforts of Pakistan and Tajikistan and the agreement of Afghanistan to build the road link between the two countries through Wakhan strip will materialize. He thanked Prime Minister Gilani for Pakistan’s support for Tajikistan’s bid for the membership of WTO.

Prime Minister Gilani extended invitation to the Tajik Prime Minister for official bilateral visit to Pakistan on the occasion of 20th independence anniversary of Tajikistan next year.

On the sidelines of the SCO summit, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and his counterpart from Kazakhstan Karim Kazhymkanovich Masimov met here on Wednesday and discussed ways and means to strengthen their bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields for mutual benefit.

They also discussed the prevailing situation in the region, particularly the war against terrorism and militancy, as well as other matters of regional and international importance. Prime Minister Gilani was assisted in the talks by Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Pakistan’s Ambassador in Dushanbe Khalid Usman Kaiser.

The two Prime Ministers agreed to further strengthen their existing bilateral relations through increased cooperation in diverse fields including trade and economy, energy, infrastructure, transportation and communication.

There was unanimity of views on various matters of bilateral and regional interest including the need of having close cooperation and interaction through the forum of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and beyond to achieve the goals of regional peace, security and development.

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan appreciates the extension of SCO’s mandate to include economic cooperation, alongside the cooperation in security related matters.

Prime Minister Gilani also reiterated Pakistan’s desire to have a full membership status in the SCO and sought the support of Kazakhstan, adding, Pakistan wanted to play an active role in the important regional organization for enhanced economic development. The Kazakh Prime Minister assured Prime Minister Gilani of his country’s support to Pakistan in its bid for full membership status in the SCO.

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan will continue supporting Kazakhstan’s bid for membership of the World Trade Organization.

The two Prime Ministers discussed in detail the prospects of enhanced bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields through increased private sector interaction and joint ventures.

The Kazakh Prime Minister promised to give due consideration to Pakistan’s request for supporting the country in election as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2012-13 term.

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan values close friendly relations with Kazakhstan and wishes to expand and strengthen these ties.

He said the present democratic government in Pakistan has a vision of establishing energy and infrastructure connectivity with the Central Asian Republics.

The Prime Minister said the present government in Pakistan has transformed its relations with Afghanistan, adding, all states, especially neighbours should respect the principles of non-intervention and non-interference.

He said Pakistan supports the Afghan efforts under the Kabul process, adding, the international community must stay engaged and facilitate the efforts of the Afghan government to rebuild state institutions and Afghan national capacity.

The Kazakh Prime Minister said his country was looking forward to PM Gilani’s visit to Kazakhstan in April next year, first highest level contact after a gap of some years, and hoped that it would help revive the cordial relations and cooperation between the two countries.

He further said that Kazakhstan was keen to develop commercial and economic ties and would like to make Pakistan a hub of Kazakhstan’s economic activity, particularly by using the Gwadar port.

The Kazakh Prime Minister agreed that the forthcoming Joint Economic Commission meeting scheduled in December will help prepare appropriate agenda for Prime Minister Gilani’s visit to Kazakhstan next year.

In response to Prime Minister Gilani’s briefing on Afghanistan, the Kazakh Prime Minister said his country was hosting the summit meeting of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on December 4 and Kazakhstan would support Pakistan’s point of view on Afghanistan.

About the recent floods in Pakistan, the Kazakh Prime Minister said the Government of Pakistan was managing the situation very well and wished success in overcoming the devastation caused by the natural calamity.

It was agreed during the meeting that the on-going cooperation in the field of training of Kazakhstan personnel in Pakistan would be further extended.

On Prime Minister Gilani’s proposal of urgent connectivity in the region and successful implementation of quadrilateral agreement for traffic in transit, the Kazakh Prime Minister assured that the technicalities involved would soon be resolved, adding, Kazakh visa to Pakistani businessmen would be facilitated.

The Kazakh Prime Minister appreciated the long political career of Prime Minister Gilani during which he also faced hardships and asked Gilani for a copy of his book. Prime Minister Gilani promised to send a copy.

In response to Prime Minister Gilani’s briefing on the security and economic situation in Pakistan, the Kazakh Prime Minister said the latest World Bank report speaks very high of Pakistan’s economic performance.

Kazakhstan championing a nuclear-free world

By Sikander Shah

Kazakhstan, which has voluntarily renounced the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal and shut down the largest nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, has been a strong advocate of and active participant in the global non-proliferation process and the efforts to reduce the nuclear threat.

Kazakhstan’s model of disarmament has become an example to be followed, thanks to the political will and consistent efforts of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his determination to work tirelessly to achieve the goal of a nuclear-free world.

In comparison with the nearest neighbours in the region the Kazakh president is a moderately authoritarian leader, but rather wise and completely consistent. These qualities of his personality are recognised even by his opponents. Perhaps, Kazakhstan’s history of participation in the NPT is the best illustration of the Kazakh president as a politician. Probably we should refrain from personalising a milestone in setting the world free from nuclear weapons, but to be honest we should applaud President Nazarbayev.

In 1991, he was not even thinking to bargain or set conditions for giving up Kazakh nuclear programme - these tactics will come into international politics later, firmly removed from the country all that could represent any threat to global safety. It could be a long debate about whether Kazakhstan has a different course of action, but the fact remains.

In a region where there is activity of extremist organisations (Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Uyghur separatists), there were more than a thousand nuclear warheads, complete with ballistic missiles SS-18 making “Satan” a monstrous nuclear power. All of this did not add peaceful life to the world capitals on both sides of Atlantics. 148 minings scattered on a vast territory, with hundreds of ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, radius of which exceeded ten thousand kilometres hardly could bring to this world peace and prosperity. Moreover, all “charm” of owning such an arsenal by Kazakhstan population is fully felt by the decades in a row – the Semipalatinsk test site was the largest venue of the Soviet Union for nuclear weapon test. 752 nuclear explosions in forty-two years brought for the local population gene mutations and incurable disease and poisoning environment in the wake of nuclear radiation. Kazakh Foreign Minister Saudabayev says: in the early nineties most of the Kazakh elite were in favour of retaining the nuclear capability. These politicians believed that "Satan" with a nuclear warhead on board overnight introduce unknown Kazakhstan to the club of nuclear powers. However, immediately after the fall of the communist regime, Nazarbayev closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing ground and after four years all nuclear warheads and their delivery vehicles, including strategic bombers Tu-95, were removed from Kazakhstan.

This unprecedented move, in effect, gave a moral right to the Kazakh politicians to take their country into a kind of symbol of the movement of non-proliferation and this right can not be challenged. In Astana, they rightly observe that the further spread of weapons of mass destruction around the world and the pursuit of international terrorism to acquire it, became the most serious threats to the safety of the entire planet.

This example of the former Soviet republic demonstrates that the renunciation of nuclear weapons provides an even more effective and reliable security and favourable conditions for development, rather than the possession of weapons of mass destruction.

The symbolism of his position Kazakhs easily converted into actual leadership of the non-proliferation - and here, as again, it does not seem very logical. The weapon is long gone in Kazakhstan, the country is provided by safety guarantees for the club of leading nuclear powers, however it is Kazakhstan which regularly brings the issue of a new non-proliferation treaty on the international agenda. This, in particular, on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was adopted in 1996, but will enter into force only after being ratified by nine countries, including China, Iran, Israel and the U.S. This international legal instrument should in theory make it difficult to qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons by nuclear weapon states. In addition, the document banning nuclear test poses a barrier to nuclear proliferation and growth of nuclear arsenals by the so-called threshold countries.

G20 leaders should feel uncomfortable - in fact, it is they who in the first place must call for early signing of the CTBT. However, at the last summit in Washington, Kazakh president made a statement that the existing nuclear nonproliferation treaty was, to put it mildly, not very effective. Nazarbayev, without any diplomatic equivocation, said that even those who signed the treaty and ratified it - India and Pakistan -, in fact continue efforts to create nuclear weapons. There are still about twenty threshold States, said the Kazakh leader and offered to renew the treaty and make it mandatory. It should be noted that the U.S. did not support this proposal and forced Nazarbayev to state fact, that each year a lot of serious issues are discussed at the Conference on Disarmament, but for a number of years the situation has not changed and does not even shift from a "dead spot" due to lack of political will to overcome the differences. In this regard one should admit with great respect the perseverance of Kazakhstan, who is this year's OSCE chairmanship, using any platform, and this is usually the highest of all possible, in order to encourage "non-signers" of CTBT to review its solution.

For several sessions of the General Assembly the Kazakh side has publicly drawn to Washington, Delhi, Islamabad and Pyongyang to join the Agreement, which stands signed (including the five nuclear powers) by 182 States, while 153 states ratifying it. To enforce the treaty, it must be ratified by 44 of the most developed nuclear states.

However, only 35 states in this list have ratified the CTBT (including the UK and Russia). At the September ministerial meeting in New York State of Secretary of Kazakhstan, Kanat Suadabaev said that early entry into force of the Treaty could be the catalyst for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. At the same time Kazakhstan is trying to mobilise all resources, including media, NGOs and public diplomacy to persuade governments that have not yet acceded or ratified the Treaty to do so in the nearest future. In late October at the International Conference on World Free from Nuclear Weapons: strategies of nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and export control in Oslo, the representatives of Kazakhstan claimed that they consider it is very important as soon as possible to develop an international legally binding instrument which provides safety by nuclear powers to those who do not have nuclear weapons. Only such guarantees can be effectively counter the aspirations of individual non-nuclear states to acquire nuclear weapons, considered by them as a guarantee of safety, said the Kazakh foreign minister. In his opinion, it will give "the necessary impetus to the creation of new zones free of nuclear weapons." Followed by Kazakhstan - the initiator of the creation in Central Asia a zone free of nuclear weapons - joined Turkey - at the last general debate in the UN General Assembly, the Turkish leader Abdullah Gul issued a statement urging the international community to exert efforts for the speedy establishment of the Middle East zone without nuclear weapons.

Nazarbayev's initiatives have found strong support from the Ukraine whose Foreign Minister Konstantin Grishchenko, at the same 65th session of UN General Assembly,  said that Kiev supports the need for the development and adoption of the Treaty banning the production of materials for nuclear weapons. One of the key states - holders of nuclear weapons, and this time limited to general promises: the U.S. president Barack Obama has proposed only a slight reduction in the production of nuclear materials. However, despite the current situation surrounding the CTBT, the experts, including the Americans believe that the fundamental purpose of the treaty can be achieved by certain actions. First the experts say, it is necessary to tighten the international norms against nuclear explosions and programmes to develop nuclear weapons. Second, the countries that are outside or on the boundaries of the current legal framework (in particular the U.S., India, Pakistan and North Korea) should be persuaded to enter into these frames. Thirdly, equality before the law of both nuclear and non-nuclear states should be guaranteed. The observers point out, that all three of these aims, can be only achieved by exerting pressure on all sides - from the public, governments and legislatures.

Actually, Kazakhstan is actively involved in the policy of this pressure. The Kazakh Republic is ready to support concrete actions inherent in the NPT mechanism to provide all Member States of the Treaty promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy in compliance transparently and undoubtedly under the strict supervision of the IAEA, said recently by Kanat Saudabayev. The significance of these claims confirmed by the absolute readiness of Kazakhstan to real actions: the republic is the largest producer of uranium and has the potential for its processing from high to low. Therefore, the proposal to the IAEA of official Astana to host on its territory nuclear fuel bank and accept the obligations of its storage looks so far the most constructive of voiced over the past decade. Kazakhstan is ready to host additional reserves of low-enriched uranium under the IAEA auspices and assist all states in receipt of guaranteed nuclear fuel for peaceful energy development programs.

Early US-NATO withdrawal imperative

 NATO`s strategy to keep its forces in Afghanistan beyond 2014 is not realistic and is based on a misperception that it can succeed against the Afghan resistance. US and NATO leaders had,  unfortunately, not studied the Afghan history before launching their aggression their country as Afghan have never been sub jugated militarily.
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By M Ashraf Mirza

NATO and US appear to be on different wavelengths on the issue of withdrawal from Afghanistan. While the US Vice President Joe Biden has assured the American nation that the United States’ longest war will be over in four years as 2014 is a ‘drop dead date’ for withdrawing all combat troops from Afghanistan, NATO has said that it envisaged its presence in the war torn country beyond the transition deadline of 2014. The defence alliance has said it is going to maintain its presence in Afghanistan beyond the ‘non-binding tentative deadline’ of 2014. NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after ISAF-Afghanistan meeting in Lisbon ’we will stay as long as it takes to finish our job’. Joe Biden has, however, indicated that the withdrawal of the US combat forces may begin ‘earlier’ than 2014. Just because 2014 is the ‘drop dead date’, it doesn’t ‘mean we will have anywhere near 100,000 troops in 2013’, he said.

The discrepancy in the statements of US Vice President and NATO Secretary General is either a deliberate attempt to create confusion about the US/NATO forces’ withdrawal or represents real difference of opinion on the issue. While Joe Biden’s assertion that the US troops may start pulling out even before the deadline of 2014 is encouraging, the NATO’s decision to stay in Afghanistan beyond the period of transition process (2014) is obviously a source of serious concern for Pakistan that has virtually been devastated in terms of security and economy over the past two decades at the US hands. Pakistan was, in fact, still grappling with the consequences of the unceremonious US sneak out of the region after Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan that it was again pushed into a greater quagmire of terrorism following Washington’s occupation of Kabul. In both situations, Pakistan faced large scale influx from Afghanistan first in the form of refugees and then the terrorists. With over four million Afghan refugees on its soil, it suffered unprecedented political, economic, demographic and security hazards during war against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It endured drug and gun culture, besides undergoing serious economic hardships as the US left her lurching in social, economic and security peril. And after 9/11 terrorists attacks on Twin Towers and Pentagon, it became victim of terrorism due to its support to the US invasion of Afghanistan. And consequently no other country suffered so much and rendered so many sacrifices in the aftermath of the US war against terror in the landlocked country. Terrorists challenged writ of the government of Pakistan in Swat and South Waziristan. Suicide bombing attacks and bomb explosions became the order of the day. Pakistan’s economy was shattered. And despite resource constraints, Pak army had to launch operations against the terrorists to establish rule of law in Swat and Waziristan at the cost of unprecedented sacrifices of its officers and soldiers. Pakistan is still in the midst of the mire as US/NATO forces are engaged in Afghanistan. It will, in fact, remain target of terrorism as long as US/NATO troops are present in Afghanistan as the Afghan resistance forces will continue to be irritated over Pakistan’s support to the war on error in its neighbourhood. Pakistan must, therefore, also convince the US to strictly adhere to its plans to withdraw from Afghanistan before 2014.

NATO’s strategy to keep its forces in Afghanistan beyond 2014 is not realistic and is based on a misperception that it can succeed against the Afghan resistance. US and NATO leaders had, unfortunately, not studied the Afghan history before launching their aggression against their country as Afghans have never been subjugated militarily. They failed to even ponder over the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan. True that President Bush wanted to pacify the American people by launching the invasion of Afghanistan in the backdrop of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that had understandably shaken their self confidence as the super power, but it was certainly not a calculated war. Its prolongation has resulted in multifarious problems for the United States especially in the economic field.

The truth is that the US/NATO can never win the war in Afghanistan. There ought to be no ambiguity about it in anybody’s mind. If their forces have not succeeded in a decade, they are bound to fail in the coming months and years as well. US need to be conscious of its own role during Soviet occupation of the country and should not be oblivious of the invisible forces cherishing for its defeat in Afghanistan. Joe Biden’s approach is, of course, pragmatic in this background. It’s in the fitness of things that the US/NATO forces should withdraw from Afghanistan as quickly as possible. But, of course, the US must not repeat its past blunder of leaving Afghanistan in vacuum. It will be pertinent that the US/NATO forces should pay greater attention to the training of the Afghan forces to take up the security responsibility rather than waging war against the Afghan people.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rightly called for reduction of NATO troops and an end to the night raids as the operations have proven to be fruitless and meaningless. ’I think 10 years is a long time to continue to have military operations,’ Karzai told the Washington Post in an interview. ‘Time has come to reduce the presence of, you know, boots in Afghanistan...to reduce the intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life.... Make it more civilian.’ It’s certainly not desirable for the Afghan people to have 100,000 or more foreign troops going around the country endlessly, he said and declared the US deployment is unsustainable and an unnecessary burden on US taxpayers. He also said raiding homes at night is terrible and a serious cause of the Afghan people’s disenchantment with NATO and with the Afghan government. Karzai also hit back at Washington’s criticism of corruption within his regime, blaming US contracts and funding pouring into the country that is out of his government’s control and, which he said, is often funneled to children and relatives of leading Afghan officials. US and NATO officials have understandably expressed displeasure at Karzai’s remarks, while indicating that the Pentagon’s military strategy in Afghanistan will not be swayed by the opinions of a president that Washington treats as a puppet. ’We understand President Karzai’s concerns, but we would not be as far along as we are pressuring the network had it not been for these very precision operations we do at night,” a NATO military official said. ‘I don’t see any near-term alternative to this kind of operation.’

Pakistan: New challenges

History shows that west exploits others but never uphold its promises may it be promise of saving Ottoman Empire, resolving Kashmir or Palestine issues under UN Resolutions.
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 By Rizwan Ghani

Pakistan was not deliberately invited in NATO’s Lisbon Summit despite being the key Non-NATO ally, whereas UAE was. It shows that west did not want the world to honor Pakistan’s sacrifices in blood and kind, and improve its image. In addition, US/NATO leadership did not mention about deaths of 30,000 Pakistanis including 3000 armed forces personal, tens of thousands injured and those who were handicapped for life in America’s so-called war against terrorism (SWAT) and suicide blasts in Pakistan for supporting US led NATO Afghan occupation and its supply route through the country.
Also, the leaders of US, UN, EU and NATO failed to share with the world and international media that Pakistani taxpayers have spent 55 billion dollars on America’s SWAT so far. The America’s war has shattered Pakistan’s economy, industry and rendered millions of Pakistanis jobless. All this has forced hundreds to commit suicides. The decade long, SWAT has left Pakistan’s economy eternally dependent on the international support. The west is neither willing to admit this nor ready to recoup the cost of war. Instead, it is blocking Pakistan’s (energy) trade with Iran and China. It is an open affront to the policy makers in Islamabad who are pouring country’s wealth on SWAT at the cost of 90 percent Pakistanis struggling below two dollars a day.

Pakistan has been removed from its pivotal role in Afghanistan. UAE’s FM while talking to the media in Lisbon said that UAE engage Taliban. It speaks of a shift in the role of Pakistan in Afghanistan and its strategic interests. Reportedly, NATO and ISAF command see Pakistan as enemy due to Islamabad’s concept of “strategic depth”, and support Indian Boots in Afghanistan (local news Nov. 8). Afghan Defense Ministry and Head of NATO training mission denied Pakistan’s role in training Afghan army. US/NATO are stifling Pushtoons- 59 percent of Afghan population- to cut the influence of Islamabad in Kabul. The fact of the matter is all Afghans want an end to US/NATO occupation and accountability of its leadership for the war crimes committed by the occupation forces in Afghanistan. Karzai is letting the country down by failing to seek justice from UN and The Hague in return for stay in power.
Whereas, Islamabad still believes that in return for fawning cooperating with America it could keep India out of Afghanistan and secure its national and regional geo-military and economic interests. I have my doubts because history shows that west exploits others but never uphold its promises may it be promise of saving Ottoman Empire, resolving Kashmir or Palestine issues under UN Resolutions. Washington by supporting Pak-Afghan Trade Agreement (PATA) for last four decades has shown that it stands for India’s interests only. Islamabad must scrap PATA. Pakistan did not support Washington’s SWAT to compromise its own geo-strategic interests in the region, share its $400 bn trade corridor with India. Islamabad must justify its support of pro-US foreign policy and explain to the nation how it plans to protect its geo-strategic interests.

America is using SWAT to stay in Afghanistan and protect its long-term geostrategic interests in the region. International experts are of the view that terrorism is not linked to religion and extremism. In ninety percent cases, it is a reaction against foreign occupation forces. Australian writer has given the example of Sri Lanka where freedom fighters seeking political rights have resorted to suicide attacks. They do not practice any religion. Islamabad’s support for illegal Afghan occupation, use of tax rupees to secure and sustain NATO’s war supply route in violation of contract for non-combat supplies are some of the reasons fueling suicide attacks.
The message from Lisbon is clear that US/NATO is going to stay permanently in Afghanistan. Holbrooke’s statement to Pakistani press that we have a transition strategy but we do not have an exit strategy needs no elaboration. NATO Sec. Gen. promised international forces would stay “as long as it takes”. Head of British armed forces Gen. Richards while replying to a question said that US/ NATO (Afghan) occupation could last 30 to 40 years. It is opined that US is going to turn Afghanistan into its permanent airbase in Central Asia. Since they are form majority of Afghan population therefore On the other hand, reportedly, Turkey did not support attack on Iran because it would undermine safety of its own people. Thus, with no end of illegal Afghan occupation in sight how Islamabad plans to secure its own people while occupation forces continue killing hapless Afghan civilians and destroy their houses.

China is one of the reasons for Afghan occupation. There is a bipartisan consensus in America that maintaining US military presence in Central Asia and Middle East is of strategic importance. It allows Washington to control energy supplies in the region including China. Beijing is pursuing a three-pronged strategy to protect its interests. It is expanding its $550 bn trade with America further while America continues to expand its military presence around China. The support of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia for NATO, agreement of installing a radar in Turkey under (new) START agreement, Obama’s visits to India and Georgia, lifting of sanctions against Sudan and proposed plans to engage North Korea and Myanmar in days to come are cases in point.
In foreign policy and security issues, China is pursuing policy of non-interference. While elaborating China’s Asia Policy during “Friendship Year” address, China’s Asst. Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue said that a new security concept should be established with mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination at its core, one that recognizes, respects and rises above national differences in terms of ideology, values, social system and development stage. Hu said that Beijing has played an active role in addressing hotspot issues and it is dedicated in its effort to seek peaceful resolution of disputes over territory, territorial sea and maritime rights and interests through friendly negotiations. China must play its role to end Afghan occupation because without peace in the “south yards” of China, there cannot be a “Golden Century of Asia”.

In economic terms, China is engaging different regions of the world proactively. Beijing has signed a $50bn deal with Turkey. Under Chiang Mai initiative, it has engaged Malaysia, Japan and South Korea with $120 bn for regional foreign exchange reserve pool, 360bn RNB Yuan bilateral currency swap agreement with Malaysia, $10 bn power-producing equipment deal with India’s Reliance Company. Beijing is deepening its financial, energy and social welfare cooperation with East Asia. Beijing ought to support Pakistan, (Afghanistan and Iran) on similar lines to strengthen local economy, trade and growth.
From the human rights perspective, Afghan occupation must end to free 340 million people in Pakistan, Afghanistan (and Iran). In its ninth White Paper on Human Rights, Beijing has explicitly defined social empowerment, education, and right to justice as the fundamentals of human rights. British media is also claiming that European Convention of human rights is in Britain’s DNA. Therefore, it is time to use these laws to end Afghan occupation, bring war criminals to book, end extra-judicial killings by US drones on both sides of Pak-Afghan border, remove sanctions against Iran, impose sanctions on west, and uphold UN Resolutions on Kashmir and Palestine. Without addressing human rights, Beijing cannot end western imperialism.

NATO’s Lisbon Summit was about Russia not Afghanistan. However, Moscow needs to refresh Ottoman and USSR history to understand coy politics of the west. I think Russia’s WTO membership is a remote possibility, and skeptics of New STAR are confident that Republicans will thwart Obama’s denuclearization hopes, too. Thus, Islamabad, Beijing, Moscow, UN and EU need to review their US/NATO Afghan policies to end Afghan occupation, protect their national, regional and human rights interests.

NATO, Karzai and the relics of Kabul

 The long-term security document signed between the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghanistan on Saturday at the alliance`s summit meeting in Lisbon has a 50-50 chance of becoming a historic milestone or ending up as yet another forlom artifact in the vandalised Kabul museum.
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By M K Bhadrakumar

Having come to the region seven years ago on a UN-mandated "out-of-area" operation hunting down al-Qaeda, the Western alliance is suo motu broadening and deepening its "commitment" in the hope of taking up long-term residence in the Hindu Kush. But Kabul museum has many relics of history.

A beleaguered and politically battered Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, meekly put his signature as a junior partner on the document with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general. Regional capitals as far apart as Tehran, Moscow and Islamabad would have taken note.

Quite obviously, notwithstanding the phased transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government by the end of 2014, the NATO forces hope to stay on in Afghanistan. The United States President Barack Obama said:

I'm pretty confident [what] we will still be doing after 2014 is maintaining a counterterrorism capability [in Afghanistan] until we have the confidence that al-Qaeda is no longer operative and is no longer a threat... And so it's going to be important for us to continue to have platforms to be able to execute those counterterrorism operations.

My goal is to make sure that by 2014 we have transitioned, Afghans are in the lead, and it is a goal to make sure that we are still not engaged in combat operations of the sort that we're involved with now. Certainly our footprint will have been significantly reduced. But beyond that, it's hard to anticipate exactly what is going to be necessary to keep the American people safe as of 2014. I'll make that determination when I get there."

Obama added to the strategic ambiguity by confirming that a long-term agreement between the US and Karazi's government would be signed. The Americans have put Ashraf Ghani (the former World Bank official whom they robustly projected as presidential candidate in last October's Afghan election) in charge of the "transition", effectively bypassing Karzai, and clearly hope to micro-manage it.

Obama publicly snubbed Karzai by insisting he will have to learn to live with US military strategies, including the controversial night raids about which Kabul frequently protests. Jettisoning his usual charm and persuasive ways and even discarding the courtesies of inter-state behaviour, Obama cut Karzai down to size:

"If we [US] are ponying up billions of dollars, if the expectation is that our troops are going to be there to help secure the countryside and ensure that President Karzai can continue to build and develop his country, then he's got to also pay attention to our concerns as well… he's got to understand that I've got a bunch of young men and women from small towns and big cities all across America who are in a foreign country being shot at and having to traverse terrain filled with IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and they need to protect themselves. And so if we're setting things up where they're just sitting ducks for the Taliban, that's not an acceptable answer either."

The best spin that can be given to the blunt-speaking is that Obama might have been grandstanding. (There were reports that General David Petraeus, the senior US commander in Afghanistan, might throw in the towel.) But Obama overlooked the proud culture of the Hindu Kush and severely wounded Karzai. As his words get played out in Afghanistan in the days and weeks ahead, Karzai's standing is going to plummet to zero. Karzai cannot easily recover from this rebuke - except, perhaps, through more audacious display of his "Afghan-ness".

One hell of a belief

The Declaration on an Enduring Partnership signed in Lisbon provides the framework for the NATO to fulfill not only its "long-term commitment" to Afghanistan's security, stability and integrity; it also recognises Afghanistan as "an important NATO partner" in "contributing to regional security".

In turn, the "commitment" given by the Afghan government that Kabul will act as "an enduring partner to NATO and provide NATO with the necessary assistance to carry out its partnership activities" also recognises the "importance and relevance of broader regionally owned cooperation, coordination and confidence building between Afghanistan and its regional partners."

The Declaration states that NATO and Afghanistan will "strengthen their consultation on issues of strategic concern" and develop "effective measures of cooperation". Thus, there will be "mechanisms for political and military dialogue" and for a "continuing NATO liaison in Afghanistan".

While the "common understanding" between the two parties will be that NATO won't seek to establish a "permanent military presence" and that it will not use its presence against other nations, future cooperation between the alliance and Kabul will be "drawing as appropriate upon NATO's menu of cooperation tools".

Most important, the two sides pledged to "initiate a discussion on a Status of Forces Agreement" within the next three years. While the Declaration is between NATO and Afghanistan, it provides for "opportunity" and "encouragement" to non-NATO countries engaged in the Afghan war (eg, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and others) to "contribute to activities resulting from this declaration".

Three things must be noted. One, Rasmussen quintessentially acted as Washington's agent, which is natural as the US contributes 73% of the 28-member alliance's budget and calls the shots. Therefore, the US' imprimatur on the NATO-Afghan declaration is unmistakable. This is all about the open-ended strategic presence of the United States in Central Asia.

Obama wisely highlighted to the Western audience the 2014 timeline, which suggests the war is ending. He also addressed growing public opposition to the war. At the same time, he is moving on two parallel tracks by forging agreements for long-term military presence in Afghanistan as well as "aligning" the US allies in NATO with Washington's approach on the way forward.

However, it all presupposes, as Obama put it, "we're now achieving our objective of breaking the Taliban's momentum... I am confident that we can meet our objective." Whether he truly believes in his self-confidence we do not know, but it is doubtless one hell of a belief.

Museum piece?

Second, Karzai doesn't have his heart in this enterprise, and his angst kept surfacing in different forms in the run-up to the Lisbon summit. Just a week ago, Karzai made a scathing attack on the US strategy. Evidently, Karzai has been arm-twisted. The fact that Ghani has been brought in to handle "transition" along with Obama's dressing down to Karzai are clear hints to the Afghan president not to push his luck. Whether he will accept this rebuke or heed the warning is a big question.

The Afghan bazaar will be keenly watching. A realignment of political forces on the country's chessboard becomes almost inevitable. Significantly, former president and Tajik leader Burhanuddin Rabbani (who heads the High Council appointed by Karzai to negotiate with the Taliban) arrived in Tehran over the weekend for consultations.

The "Ustad" rarely travels abroad. While receiving Rabbani, the powerful speaker of the Iranian parliament [Majlis] Ali Larijani expressed Iran's support for the policy of national reconciliation attributed to Karzai, which, Larijani said, is also the will of the Afghan people. It has been announced that Tajik strongman Mohammed Fahim (First Vice-President of Afghanistan) will also visit Tehran "in a near future".

The NATO-Afghan declaration becomes a major hurdle for Karzai's reconciliation strategy. The declaration - and the two status-of-forces agreements on the anvil - should have happened within the ambit of a settlement. Clearly, the US is prepared to negotiate only from a position of strength. NATO's approach spelt out at Lisbon underscores the US grit to weaken the Taliban militarily before engaging them in talks. 

Therefore, the period between now and July 2011 (when the drawdown of US forces begins) will be decisive. Of course, no matter what happens, Petraeus is a favourite of the Republicans, and a strategy associated with him gets bipartisan support in Washington.

But Karzai's preliminary work so far for eventual negotiations with the Taliban has virtually stalled and it is difficult to resuscitate it until at least the results of Petraeus' work on the battlefield get known by early summer. Meanwhile, Petraeus has brought in M1 Abrams tanks as his ultimate weapon.

But M1 Abrams can't distinguish between friend and foe, and the "collateral damage" will become Karzai's political burden and Taliban's mileage. Besides, what if Petraeus fails to dent the insurgency militarily? Obama might then as well give up the hope of negotiating from a position of strength. Which, of course, will render the NATO-Afghan declaration a museum piece.

Unsurprisingly, Pakistan sounds skeptical about the 2014 timeline, et al. While Rasmussen and Karzai were putting their pens to paper in Lisbon, gunmen near Peshawar torched yet another NATO convoy ferrying supplies for Petraeus' troops.

China, Russia, Iran are Dumping the Dollar

Crisis of Fiat Currencies: US Dollar Surpluses Converted into Gold
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Bob Chapman 


Something is going on that your government does not want you to know about. Very few journalists have written about it and little or nothing has appeared in the mainstream media. The story could be one of major stories of our time.
Western powers have tried to destroy gold as a backing for currencies for many years. Presently the major media won’t touch the story and that is understandable.
Something we have been writing about for years is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization known as SCO. Few have been listening and few have been interested in what their mission is and what they have been up to.
Some of the members are large oil producers and some, like China, are large oil users. Some have very large US dollar surpluses. As well, some are large commodity and gold and silver buyers. In fact, members are in a great part responsible for driving these prices higher. It is debatable, but we believe there is a conscious effort to accumulate gold and silver, dump dollars and to back their currencies with gold.

China and Russia are both large gold producers and for a number of years have been buying up domestic gold and silver production, so that it never reaches the market and does not affect prices. If anything the absence of sales tends to push the markets higher. As a matter of fact Russia and India are visible buyers. Even Iran with its oil surplus recently announced that they had purchased 340 tons of gold. Their recent gold purchases are very significant as affiliate members, which have access to the present and ultimate direction of the group. You might say buying gold has been a protective effort to shield members and close observers from the problems generated by dollar policies. They are accumulating gold, as many have been worldwide, for the past ten years, but particularly over the past few years.

This buying, for protection, has served to thwart the efforts of US policymakers, the Treasury, other central banks in Europe and the Fed, from being able to continue the blatant suppression of both gold and silver prices. The malefactors, except for forays into derivatives and futures, which are transitory, have lost control and suppression of gold and silver prices, and it is only a matter of time before all visages of any control will be visible. Since 1988, in August when Present Reagan signed the Executive Order creating, “the President’s Group on Financial Markets” and the subsidiaries that have grown out of that policy, that the Treasury won many if not most of the battles. The SCO in part changed that and now they and the public are winning the war for a fair and free gold and silver market. The current class action lawsuits, including RICO, are a testament to the market manipulation in silver, which is finally coming to an end. HSBC and JPMorgan Chase, the latter that is the major owner of the Fed, are going to be finally prohibited from rigging these markets. Their officers all belong in jail, but elitists never go to jail; they pay fines, and keep right on robbing the public.
Other SCO members and observers are accumulating gold as well, be it in smaller amounts. We might add that other nations observing Russia and China and their gold purchases are buying as well. These participants must believe that there could be a return to sound money; otherwise they wouldn’t be gold buyers. Buying gold is certainly preferable to holding US dollars, which have consistently fallen in value versus other currencies over the past ten years. Then again all currencies have fallen versus gold over that period, some 19.6% annually. It is nice to see nations are finally waking up to the reality that fiat currencies will all over time deteriorate versus gold. The temptation is enormous to deficit spend.
The most interesting aspect of the SCO is that they do not strive for political agreement such as the European Union. They are interested in economic stability and development and security. There is no overall binding laws. Nations retain their sovereignty, which is the exact opposite of what the elitists in the US and Europe desire, and that is world government. The SCO has provided great flexibility something that is non-existent in elitist controlled countries. Another interesting facet is that the SCO probably represents half of the world’ population, far more than the US and Europe. As these nations accumulate gold so does some of their citizens, which puts strong upward pressures on gold prices on a continuing basis.
In addition some of these nations, such as China, are spending dollars by buying natural resources and other things in other nations in an attempt to relieve themselves of excess dollars earned in trade. Both Russia and China fully realize that the US dollar is in serious trouble and has been for a number of years due to fiscal debt and the unbridled creation of money and credit by the Federal Reserve. They well know the dollar is in serious trouble and what the outcome will probably be.
As the economies of the US and Europe become more deeply mired in problems the economies of SCO nations more and more resemble the free economies of old that were very successful. You might say they have found their way back to basics and sound money. As the dollar comes under further downward pressure more nations will probably join the SCO to escape the clutches of European and American imperialism and bureaucracy, which for some years has been onerous and unsuccessful. What we see is a natural path by nations to extricate themselves from the control of Wall Street and the City of London, which have dominated the world for so long. All these facts considered we believe gold will find its way substantially higher with the participation of these nations, a factor the West never figured on. These ten nations are sucking excess gold out of the market every day and that will continue indefinitely.
These SCO nations are well aware that the surge of hot dollars created by the Fed out of thin air are headed their way and with them inflation. Brazil was the first nation to attempt to stop this onslaught by imposing a 6% tariff on interest and dividend paying Brazilian securities, purchased with US dollars. Over the last two years between stimulus and the Fed $2.5 trillion has been injected into the US and world financial system. As a result commodity and gold and silver prices have exploded. This has caused the dollar to fall in value versus other currencies and gold. There is no question more and higher inflation is on the way, as the Fed gets into QE 2. You can also bet that QE2 will not be $600 billion, but more than $2 trillion. Inflation is already showing up in food, petroleum products, airline fares and in many other items that we use every day. As usual the government says there is little or no inflation. Even competent economists still use government’s bogus figures. What can they be thinking of? They know what is going on as well as we do. That means we are embarking on the highest inflation rates in US history. Thus far the undertow of deflation has been superseded by government banking and Fed aggregate creation. The Fed, in order to subdue deflation and such spending has to always overshoot the inflation they create, so that they can be sure that deflation cannot take hold. This money and credit is in the process of working its way through the economy, spreading inflation as it winds its way through.
The only investors who are being afforded protection are those who have invested in gold and silver and commodities. That is less than 2% of the American population. We predicted in mid-May that QE2 and QE3 would take place for a combined $5 trillion over the next two fiscal years. In fact, the Fed was late in starting in June and as a result 4th quarter GDP growth will probably be 1% and the 1st quarter of 2011 will probably be in the minus column, as unemployment heads to 25% and extended benefits run out. We are not seeing growth; we are seeing forced feeding.
The Fed’s promises are not worth the paper they are written on. Ben Bernanke will print money until he cannot anymore and we have hyperinflation. That is because he has no other choice. He has no way out and he knows it won’t work. Tragically, this is where we are headed and there is no way to stop what the elitists have put deliberately in motion.
As long as quantitative easing is official Fed and Wall Street policy, gold is going to continue to rise with silver, and the stronger the case is that gold is the real world reserve currency. That means all currencies will eventually have to be backed by gold. We believe that elitists have accepted this fact and that was borne out recently by World Bank President, CFR, Trilateralist and Bilderberger Robert Zoellick. We can assure you that was no slip of the tongue. That was a cleverly planted trial balloon to get public reaction.

We do not see QE2 and QE3 as incompetence or bungling. It happens to be the only option available to the powers behind government. The same errors committed during the Great Depression of the 1930s are being repeated and economists, including Mr. Bernanake know they do not work. Yes, the Fed contracted money supply and when they let it loose again, it was too late for it to be in anyway effective. Next comes tariffs as an outgrowth of: currency wars; interest and dividend penalties on the inflow of hot, inflationary dollars and retaliatory tariffs as a result of losing 8.5 million jobs and 432,000 businesses over ten years to free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. Smoot-Hawley tariffs and even dumb Fed moves were bad enough, but Hoover’s raising of taxes by 150% was a monumental piece of stupidity.
At the root of all this is that the Fed is supposed to be saving the US economic and financial structure. They are not doing that, they are saving the banking system and Wall Street instead and these are the miscreants that caused the problem in the first place. The result of this policy of zero interest rates and easy money is that few are saving.
There you have it, planned destruction. Is it any wonder the SCO members and observers are buying gold on every dip and will not stop doing so until they run out of dollars. Our only question is; what took them so long and why are they not buying more faster?

America’s bluffing game

The US threat to step into FATA is a bluff since with its hands full in Afghanistan, it is completely nonplussed how to pullout of the trap which it had laid for the Afghan. Having adopted a rearward posture out of secunity complusions since it has lost control over regions bordering Pakistan.
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By Asif Haroon Raja

Pakistan is contiguous to Pashtun belt of Pakistan and is not connected with non-Pashtun areas in the west, centre and north. Whole of northern Afghanistan is attached with three Republicans states of Central Asia while western Afghanistan is fastened with Iran. Apart from geographic contiguity, 42% Pashtuns of 28 million population of Afghanistan share religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural ties with 15.42 million Pashtuns of 174 million population of Pakistan. Pashtuns living in close vicinity of Durand Line have blood relations. Border line has never acted as an impediment in their cross border movement.
Pashtuns from both sides have been jointly fighting all foreign invaders. In accordance with their age-old tradition, they are doing the same now.It must be remembered that unlike Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, Americans are uninvited guests in Afghanistan and their stay is temporary. Afghan Taliban are part and parcel of Afghanistan, they hail from majority community of Pashtuns, have ruled the country for five years during which they had brought order and security to the war torn country. It will be solely their efforts and sacrifices which will force occupying forces to abdicate. Others had welcomed the invaders and became their partners to fight indigenous resistance forces. Taliban will therefore for sure be part of any future government in Kabul in which they will have a say. Therefore Pakistan can neither wish Afghanistan away nor Taliban. Pakistan ’s destiny is tied with Taliban ruled Afghanistan. As such, expecting Islamabad to completely get detached from Taliban will be unrealistic and foolhardy, particularly so when the US has befriended anti-Pakistan Northern Alliance and is helping India to become a key player in Afghanistan . It will be unfair on part of USA to forbid Pakistan from making any contacts with Taliban when it is trying hard to establish contacts with them and has allowed Karzai to hold negotiations with all factions of Afghan militants. India is vying to encircle Pakistan and is therefore striving to keep Taliban out of power with he help of US-NATO forces. India knows that once foreign troops depart, its stay in Afghanistan would become difficult since the Taliban would not tolerate Indians, thereby all its heavy investment would go waste. Israel which has for the first time made deep inroads in Afghanistan harbors similar apprehensions. India in concert with Israel is busy hatching plans how to extend the stay of coalition forces in Afghanistan for as long as possible so that it could firm up its position on permanent basis and also continue weakening Pakistan from within through covert war.

Pro-India Karzai in the grip of non-Pashtun warlords has been indicating his aggressive intentions against alleged terrorist havens in FATA since 2007. Recently he had provoked USA to strike the sanctuaries in Pakistan . Although the US dismissed the demand saying that it had no plans to send American combat troops to Pakistan , who doesn’t know that Karzai couldn’t have given this offensive statement without a nod from Washington . This became evident when Robert Gates as well as David Petraeus said that the US military was contemplating to step into FATA if Pak Army failed to confront Al-Qaeda in North Waziristan . Idea of such threats is to keep building pressure on Pakistan through various means. The US is resorting to a bluffing game to frighten Pakistan , well knowing it is in no position to stick its neck out into FATA when its body is in the grip of Taliban. The US has been bluffing Pakistan since September 2001 and got away with it. The US bluffed Pakistan leaders on several occasions that Indian military was all set to attack and would hold its horses only if Pakistan submitted to Indian demands. Bluff games, coercion, blackmail, doublespeak, deceit and lies are their tools employed with impunity.
The US threat to step into FATA is a bluff since with its hands full in Afghanistan , it is completely nonplussed how to pullout of the trap which it had laid for the Afghans. Having adopted a rearward posture out of security compulsions since it has lost control over regions bordering Pakistan , the US-NATO military cannot possibly stretch its neck out. Any attempt to do so will provide a lucrative target to the Taliban to sever it with ease. It will be a godsend opportunity for Pakistan to bring all the tribesmen of FATA on board who would love to fight their sworn enemy and settle scores.

Helicopter attacks in North Waziristan and then in Kurram Agency last month were also part of the bluff game. Those were testing rounds to test reaction from leadership of Pakistan and to then make helicopter attacks a routine affair as in the case of drones. When Pakistan decided to squeeze sensitive nerve of USA by ordering closure of main supply route via Torkham carrying 80% of supplies, the US warned Islamabad that if the route was not opened quickly and adequate security provided to the convoys; it may abandon supply routes in Pakistan and opt for alternatives. It was a hollow threat since it knew that other options in the north were not only time consuming but very expensive. Pakistan had purposely kept Chaman route open which carry 20% of supplies to Kandahar . NATO commander came down from the high horse he was riding after realizing that the bluff was not working and feared that the second route may also not be blocked. The route was opened after ten days only when he apologized and assured that such an untoward incident wouldn’t recur.
Instead of eliminating or curbing terrorism, the US has let the monster of terrorism spread from Afghanistan to every corner of the world. Instead of making the world secure it has made it unsafe. It has become the longest and costliest war and still there is no light at the end of tunnel. The war has bled US economy white, shattered its image of invincibility, smeared its prestige, made life of every American vulnerable and cast a gloom. Situation has gone so bad that American strategists have run out of options. There is no clear cut strategy how to wind up the war and ensure safe return of 152000 foreign troops. Out of sheer desperation and impotent rage, US military is blaming Pakistan for its failures and is violating Pakistan ’s sovereignty with impunity by resorting to daily drone strikes in North Waziristan . It is coming up with fanciful stories every now and then to malign Pakistan .

Having lost the war on terror in Afghanistan because of lopsided policies and priorities, the US at this belated stage is in no position to reverse the tide and win the war. Minimum it can hope for is to salvage its troops out of the boiling cauldron of Afghanistan in one piece and with grace. Under the obtaining military situation, the US can ill-afford to open another front against Pakistan . Latter has already suffered a lot since it has been taking the bluffs of USA too seriously and responding to its illegal demands against national interests. Pakistan should now draw a line and do only that much which is possible and in its own interest.

The writer is a retired Brig and a defence analyst.