U.S. Embassy Attacks in MENA: John Batchelor's 9/13 intelligence report on the crisis for Kudlow Report, CNBC TV

John Batchelor elaborated on his remarks to Kudlow Report's Larry Kudlow in an email to me, for release after the Kudlow Report  aired tonight (7:00-8:00 PM EDT). His commentary summarizes intel provided by his sources up to this point, as follows:

September 13, 2012; 2:50 PM EDT

1. LIBYA THREAT

Benghazi and Libya: the Stevens death was an ambush. The Libya authorities knew the date of Steven's arrival, at their invitation. Stevens was directed to the safe house because the ambush was waiting to strike him. Stevens was ambushed by Al Q linked fighters, all under the umbrella of LIHJ. (Libyan Islamic Fighting Group).

This was a revenge attack linked to the drone killed of Al q senior commander Abu-Yahya al-Libi on June 4 in AfPak. Al-Libi's older brother is a senior commander of LIHJ in Libya, Abd al-Wahhab.

Many more strong links between Libya and Al Q revenge saga. Famous LIHK commander Belhadj was trained and protected by the dead al-Libi while he was in AfPak and Malaysia.

If the White House doesn't know this, it does NOT want to know this.

2. EGYPT THREAT

[Egyptian President Mohammad] Morsi and the Supreme Council of the Moslem Brothers planned and endorsed the demonstration in Cairo at least two weeks before the event. Morsi and Moslem Brothers continued to endorse it.

The video provocation did not exist before September 10. The video is excuse. Morsi wants $10 billion from US. Latest information is that Morsi WILL NOT meet with Obama in NY during UN meetings.

3. FRIDAY Embassy THREAT [Sept. 14]

Friday prayers, tomorrow, demonstrations called for in at least seven Arab capitals so far. The Yemen incident today not directly linked to Cairo and Libya, but there are plenty of Iran elements present, and there will be more trouble after Friday prayers. There is active planning in Cairo to revenge on the Copts for the video.

There is evidence of Turkish Jihadist elements in Berlin who could run an ant- US operation, and the evacuation of the Berlin embassy makes sense.

4. Iran and Syria benefit from all of this chaos and will drive it. US recruits fighters from Libya for "Free Syrian Army," so the link is that the attacks in Libya were run by the same LIHJ we use for Syria.

5. Video of Mohamed

Evidence that film produced by rogue Coptic Egyptian with family in Egypt. NOT Jew. NOT Jewish money involved. Evidence that film doesn't exist, just crude trailer. Evidence that the trailer was constructed under fraud circumstances in order to raise money. NO film evident. Film Producer, aka Bacile, has criminal record. NO Israeli would say he used "100" Jews for sponsors.

John will also be discussing the crisis on his syndicated New York 77 WABC-AM radio show (9:00 PM-1:00 AM EDT). The show can be heard online around the globe. If you miss the show, the podcasts for each hour will be posted at the WABC website shortly after the broadcast ends. (Click on the podcasts link for the WABC Online "listen live" icon.) 

The Natives are restless: Violent protests erupt against U.S. embassies across MENA region. What would Kitchener do?

The Afghan government has ordered an indefinite block of YouTube, the online video-sharing website, to prevent people there from watching a clip of the anti-Islam film blamed for much of the fury bubbling over at protests in Islamic nations. YouTube has already restricted access to the video, which mocks the Muslim faith. ... Reaction fuels debate on free speech vs. hate speech

CNN, September 13, last updated 1:20 PM EDT:

Violent protests erupt at embassies as U.S. seeks killers
By Josh Levs and Tricia Escobedo, CNN

(CNN) -- A wave of anger and outrage sparked by an obscure film clip spread to more Muslim countries Thursday as protesters massed outside U.S. embassies in Africa and the Middle East.

Several dozen people were injured in clashes in the Egyptian and Yemeni capitals.

The fallout comes after Tuesday's attack at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other consular officials. The deadly security breach happened on the 11th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks and heightened tensions across the region. 

How the Benghazi attack unfolded.

The violence and protests stem from a 14-minute film trailer that mocks Islam's prophet. It was posted in July on YouTube, but got more notice after Egyptian television recently aired segments and anti-Islam activists promoted it online.

In response to Tuesday's attack in Libya, the United States deployed Marines to secure its interests in the region, as well as warships and drones to hunt for those responsible for killing the four American diplomatic staffers.

Here's the latest on the violence, the response and the implications:

Protests continue

Since Tuesday's deadly assault in Libya -- and a protest the same day at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo -- demonstrations, both small and large, have been reported in Israel, Gaza, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Iran and among Muslims in the Indian-controlled region of Kashmir. Security has been heightened at U.S. diplomatic missions worldwide.

While some protesters say they have not seen any of the online film, they were incensed by reports of its depiction of the Prophet Mohammed.

American tourists cautious, but undeterred

One of the largest protests Thursday took place outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. One photo from Cairo shows a chalk drawing on the ground of a Jewish star with the words in Arabic, "Remember your black day 11 September." Demonstrators threw rocks and Molotov cocktails as police tried to disperse them by firing tear gas canisters.

At least 13 protesters and six police officers were injured, Egyptian government officials said.

The instability in Egypt is a primary concern to U.S. President Barack Obama, who warned in an interview with Telemundo that it would be "a real big problem" if the leaders in Egypt failed to protect American interests there.

Another massive protest took place Thursday in Sanaa, Yemen, where demonstrators breached a security wall at the U.S. Embassy as several thousand people protested outside.

Violent clashes left 24 members of the security forces and three protesters injured, Yemen's Defense Ministry and witnesses said.

Protesters and witnesses said the three protesters had been hurt, one critically, when police fired on them as they tried to disperse the angry crowd.

Here are details about other protests:

-- In Tunisia and Morocco, protesters massed in front of U.S. embassies.

-- In Gaza City, Palestinians demonstrated outside U.N. headquarters, and about 200 Palestinians protested the film at the Palestine Legislative Council building. In one instance, Palestinian men burned a U.S. flag.

-- In Tel Aviv, Israel, about 50 people demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy.

-- In Sudan, the United States called on U.S. citizens Wednesday to stay away from the embassy in Khartoum, where protests were going on.

-- Iranians protested near the Swiss Embassy in Tehran on Thursday. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran, since Washington and Tehran do not have diplomatic relations. Up to 500 people chanted "Death to America!" and called for death to the director of the movie, which was made in the United States. The demonstration ended peacefully after two hours.

Anti-Islam film clip blamed, banned

So far, the violence has not spread to Afghanistan, where there is a high potential for outrage to erupt into destabilizing chaos. Obama and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, have expressed their commitment to prevent that from happening.

The Afghan government has ordered an indefinite block of YouTube, the online video-sharing website, to prevent people there from watching a clip of the anti-Islam film blamed for much of the fury bubbling over at protests in Islamic nations. YouTube has already restricted access to the video, which mocks the Muslim faith.[...]

There's lots more in the report, lots of links, and there are videos galore.

Aseem Trivedi and the death of free speech in California's universities

I'll start by thanking Canada's Blazing Catfur blog and the American blog ZenPundit for featuring my post on Aseem Trivedi's arrest.  BC and ZP are big free-speech advocates from way back.

Aseem was released on bail on Wednesday; his case will be heard later this month in the Mumbai high court.  Initially he'd refused to put up bail. That was his way of protesting the government's draconian sedition law, which it's repeatedly used to shut down legitimate dissent. But he probably underestimated the speed of the domestic and international outcry that built in reaction to his arrest.

In any case, once he found himself with a big public platform he was wise to use it, rather than rotting in jail to make the point that he shouldn't be considered a traitor to his country for drawing cartoons that lampoon rampant corruption in India's government.

Anyone who assumes that Aseem's showdown with the Indian government is only an Indian thing should listen to John Batchelor's Wednesday interview with Peter Berkowitz about the death of free speech in California's universities.

During the past quarter century, freedom of speech has come under increasing fire across the entire American university system. But it's now so bad in California that it's turning into Little Stalingrad over there.  Practically all that's missing is men in cheap leather coats with bulges in the armpits herding professors and students who engage in hate speech into reeducation camps.

As to what constitutes hate speech, Berkowitz sums it well:  It's any speech that the ruling clique of university administrators and professors hate.

Free speech advocates who track the issue in America won't be surprised by any of Berkowitz's points, but he and Batchelor turn the 10 minute interview into a tour de force that hits every important marker.  It's gorgeous.  Here's the link to the podcast, and the flash play gizmo. The interview segment is the second one in the 11:00-midnight part of the show.

For more on the escalating attacks on freedom of expression in the USA, check out this video, which ZenPundit posted in his Recommended Reading and Viewing for this week:

Arrest of Indian political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi: Is India's government turning Stalinist? (UPDATED)

India's burgeoning middle class is mad as hell about rampant corruption in the government and they won't take it anymore. So now, it seems, the government wants everyone to shut up, and if they don't --



Indian policemen escort political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi to court in Mumbai, India

September 10, 2012 (Photo: Rafiq Maqbool/AP)

UPDATE
See my 9/13 post, Aseem Trivedi and the death of free speech in California's universities 
*******************
On August 24, during our discussion about the unexplained disappearance of the blog and Twitter page of an anonymous Pakistani social critic "Majorly Profound," Indian social critic Rajeev Srinivasan told me that the Indian government was censoring Twitter and taking similar censorship actions. A few days later I asked whether he believed the censorship was recent and if so whether this would indicate simply that his government was responding to the cyberwar that'd been directed at India, which had touched off rioting around that time and cost lives. Below is his reply, which he gave me permission to publish. I've removed one part of his reference to the rioting because it would be confusing to anyone who hasn't followed the situation. One caveat:  Rajeev thinks Pakistan's government shut down Majorly Profound; while that's unfortunately the best guess there's no way to say for sure what happened.

it's a recent thing -- the government has shut down 309 sites, and handles of political opponents on twitter. this is neither productive nor justified.

it has also limited the number of SMS's a day to five, which at least has the ostensible rationale that it was muslim fundamentalists sending thousands of threatening SMS to northeasterners that caused panic and an exodus from bangalore and other cities.
[...]
the govt, in true stalinist style, has targeted such critics as @barbarindian, who is almost as sharp-witted as @majorlyprofound, but who has never tweeted anything outside the realm of legitimate political dissent. so, for the same sin of poking fun at pompous poo-bahs, both these worthies have been shut down. but the indian govt is so inept that @barbarindian's tweets can be read simply by using an app rather than going to the twitter page :-)

they are threatening to shut twitter down altogether.

just one more step towards a stalinist police state. does not look good.

Then on September 4, The Washington Post's New Delhi correspondent, Simon Denyer, published a very negative profile of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (India's silent prime minister becomes a tragic figure) that caused shock waves in India and capitals around the world, including Washington. The profile didn't present anything about the PM that was news to Indians but the fact that the highly critical analysis went global was hugely embarrassing to Manmohan and his political party. Here are a few excerpts to convey how hard-hitting Denyer's report is:

But the image of the scrupulously honorable, humble and intellectual technocrat has slowly given way to a completely different one: a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government.

Every day for the past two weeks, India’s Parliament has been adjourned as the opposition bays for Singh’s resignation over allegations of waste and corruption in the allocation of coal-mining concessions.
[...]
Under Singh, economic reforms have stalled, growth has slowed sharply and the rupee has collapsed. But just as damaging to his reputation is the accusation that he looked the other way and remained silent as his cabinet colleagues filled their own pockets.

After the report was published the Prime Minister's office sent a letter to Denyer accusing him of unethical and unprofessional conduct for not asking to interview Manmohan for the report. The Post published the letter and Denyer's reply, which was that he'd made repeated requests for an interview that were never acknowledged. A September 5 report from Indian intelligence analyst B Raman's backed up Denyer's side of the story and took the government to task for its poor communications strategy.

Five days later, on September 10, the Washington Post published Rama Lakshmi's chilling report that an Indian political cartoonist who focused on the Indian government's corruption had been arrested -- for cartoons he'd drawn in December of last year:

Drawing a cartoon in India can, sometimes, be regarded a seditious act.

A 25-year old anti-corruption cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, was charged with sedition and jailed Monday by a Mumbai court until Sept 24.

Trivedi was arrested on Saturday for posting what the police called seditious and obscene cartoons on his Web site and displaying them at a public protest against corruption last December.

Among Trivedi’s offending cartoons is an image of India’s national emblem where he replaces lions with foxes and skull-and-bones. Instead of “Truth Alone Triumphs,” he wrote “Corruption alone Triumphs.” Another cartoon showed an image resembling India’s parliament building, calling it the “national toilet”.

His Web site shut down in December, but the cartoons are now available here.

On Monday, Trivedi said in a written statement that he will not apply for bail or appoint a lawyer because he did not believe in the sedition law.

“He is firm in his mind that he will continue to be [in] jail till this sedition charge is withdrawn,” said Mayank Gandhi, member of the India Against Corruption campaign. “This is going to be a long drawn battle. He is ready for it.”

Trivedi’s arrest is the latest in a series of clampdowns against dissenters across India in recent years, as an increasingly nervous government battles rising public anger over corruption and what many perceive as misrule.

Last month, government officials blocked over 250 Web sites because it claimed they provoked ethnic hate. Many of the dissenters, including anti-nuclear activists and human rights advocates, have been charged with a colonial-era sedition law. Indians tend to be particularly sensitive to any insult to the national flag, emblem and constitution, but Trivedi’s supporters say that criticizing the government and the corrupt political system is a patriotic act, not treason.

“If telling the truth makes me traitor, then I am one,” Trivedi told reporters on Sunday.

Trivedi was chosen for the 2012 “Courage in Editorial cartooning” award by the Virginia-based Cartoonists Rights Network International. He shares it with the Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat, who was beaten by the Syrian government last year.

A person charged with sedition can get life imprisonment, if convicted. Analysts say that sedition charges are often framed to intimidate and incarcerate critics indefinitely, and conviction is rare.

“Instead of trying to silence dissent by wrongly accusing people of sedition, the authorities would do far better addressing the reasons causing concern among citizens,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, which has urged India to repeal the sedition law.

The use of the law occurs despite a 1962 Supreme Court ruling that said that prosecution under this law will requires evidence of incitement to violence.

“There is no evidence that Aseem Trivedi’s drawings have led to violence,” Ganguly added.

When I clicked on the link in the above Post report about the blocked websites it brought up another Washington Post report by Rama Lakshmi, dated August 1, which gave me the creeps when I read it. Brought back memories of what I learned in late 2007 about Canada's draconian Section 13 law limiting free speech. In those days Mark Steyn and other Canadian free-speech defenders were hurling onto the internet every bit of bad news they could find about how fast what was left of free speech around the world was eroding.  From the Post report, headlined India's new Internet rules criticized

NEW DELHI — New Internet rules that seek to enhance national security and limit offensive content have sparked an angry debate about free speech in the world’s largest democracy. The regulations prohibit Web sites and service providers from hosting information that could be regarded as “harmful,” “blasphemous” or “insulting” to any other nation, among other things.

The news from India gets worse as the report goes along.  Yuppers, looks to me as if the whole world is turning into Singapore -- Disneyland with the death penalty, as one wit called it.

Let's see, what other cheer can I spread on this lovely September 11?  Ah well, where there's life there's hope, eh?   Aseem Trivedi is young, he's strong, he's ready to fight and he's got his priorities straight -- priorities well said little more than a year ago by Mark Steyn in an essay he wrote about freedom of speech. From the final paragraphs:

As John Milton wrote in his Areopagitica of 1644, "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties."

Or as an ordinary Canadian citizen said to me, after I testified in defense of free speech to the Ontario parliament at Queen's Park, "Give me the right to free speech, and I will use it to claim all my other rights."

Conversely, if you let them take your right to free speech, how are you going to stop them from taking all the others?

It's not called "The Glittering Eye" for nothing

I confess to a certain nostalgia for The Glittering Eye blog in its early years. I was so frazzled in those days, trying to juggle a life along with massive research on the war and other hot-button news items, plus write for my blog and help friends in the news media keep abreast of the ocean of data about the war. But once a week the Schuler family was my dinner companion.

I would sit in front of the computer, bolting down moo shoo pork or whatever else I ordered from a delivery menu (yes! all the while I was writing essays that trashed the Chinese I was eating their food) and the chaos of war would recede as I visited The Glittering Eye. I would ignore the essays about general news issues and settle into reading Dave's tales about his colorful relatives, the recipes he and his wife collected during their travels, and the clan of Samoyed dogs which ruled the Schuler household with benevolence and charm and an iron paw.

So I was not a happy camper when Dave turned to an intense study of economic news. In fact I had a rather peevish reaction, in the manner of a child who learns that instead of the circus he's being taken to a lecture on proper nutrition.

But if one does -- and one should -- plow on occasion through the economic news of the day, one is lucky to have an insightful guide at one's side. Dave still writes sometimes about food and Samoyeds and other delightful matters. But he charged his laser-like mind with the task of untangling the tangled skeins of data and opinion that make America's economic woes so hard for the general public to understand. A valuable charge, I'd say.

The Glittering Eye's careful analysis of certain claims that economist Milton Friedman made in a landmark speech decades ago on five enduring American economic myths is a demonstration of Dave's analytical prowess, which he backs up with a stringently empirical viewpoint rather than an agenda-driven one -- a rarity on the American blogosphere. From his essay Foundational Myths (H/T Zenpundit's Sept. 4 Recommended Reading list:

I found some of the sections of [Friedman's] talk stronger than the others. For example, I thought his treatment of the Depression of the 1930s and the demand for government services were stronger than his treatment of the robber barons and the U. S. economy of the 19th century. Let me give a few examples.

In the talk Dr. Friedman asserts that rising prices for prime farmland demonstrate that farmers were becoming better off rather than worse off. I don’t think you can make that claim based on the available data. All that rising prices for farmland demonstrates is that people wanted more farmland. Land prices could well increase even as farmers became worse off as a consequence of a large increase in the number of farmers, something we know was definitely the case in the 19th century.

Prices of farmland increasing from 1870 to 1880 says less about whether farmers in the United States were better off in 1880 than in 1870 than it does about whether farmers in the United States in 1880 were better off than farmers in Germany in 1880. And that might have been due to other factors like, say, Bismarck’s military draft.
[...]

Oh God. Tomorrow's September 11.

No wonder I've been a basket case this past week. If you ask why tomorrow's date is a surprise to me -- it's been this way for years, ever since the fourth anniversary of 9/11 when the remembrance ceremonies and publicity running up to them began to ebb -- except for the 10-year anniversary.  During the first week of September my brain starts playing tricks on me; I start losing track of the date and even when I see the calendar the date doesn't register.

Until I find myself suddenly staring at the date of September 10. I mutter, "September 10, September 10. Did I forget an appointment today? Someone's birthday?"

At some point it all comes crashing back, and then I remember I do have an appointment, not on September 10 but on September 11. An appointment with remembering it all over again as if it happened just yesterday.

I was working close to the Pentagon so if the hijackers had been a bit off their calculations, I could've been toast. The final insult was that the attack on the Pentagon shut down my commuting route. But you don't want to hear about my day that day. I don't want to hear myself talk about it.

I fear I'm at risk of becoming like that batty family of English ex-serfs in Cold Comfort Farm. They can't stop living in the past. The symbolic incident for this is that something bad had once happened in the woodshed but it'd happened so long ago nobody can remember what it was. Instead of tearing down the woodshed or opening the door and cleaning it out, turning it into a garage or something, it's just Don't go in the woodshed.

My problem is that I don't live in Mashed Potato Falls, Wyoming. I live in Ground Zero.  Just as they wouldn't rest until they took down the World Trade towers, they'll keep trying to hit Washington, DC because they failed the first time.  Every adult who lives in this city knows this.

We carry on, of course, in the way people who live near an active volcano take it stride. It's a part of my life, one that I don't really think about, until once again I have to confront the fact that September 11 returns every year.

Pakistani intelligence agents deployed in Afghanistan's Nuristan province

Nuristan....Nuristan.....I seem to recall reports from a year or two ago that LeT had returned to Afghanistan in a big way, and were burrowing into Nuristan.  I'm in too foul a mood to dig up the reports.  Yet I do recall thinking at the time that wherever LeT was, Pakistan's ISI was not far away. However, the following report names a Pakistani military intelligence agency or branch that I don't recall hearing about before.

If it's a new branch -- this is what they do. They tell the U.S. that cross their heart, they're reforming the ISI. Then they set up another shadow bureau for purposes of deception and denial.  Then U.S. officials say, 'We have no evidence of any connections between this bureau and terrorist activity.' By the time they do have evidence, Pakistan's leaders cross their heart again, set up another bureau, and so it goes, round and round.

Not that the State Department cares, mind you. When you point out to them that they're not helping the vast majority of Pakistanis by trying to prop up the country's civilian government and military, they look at you like you're daft.  Their job is not to play Mommie and Daddie.

I get that part, but I wonder when State will notice they're dealing with a ghost -- the ghost of the greatness of the Mogul Empire, which was propped up first by the British Raj and then by America's government, with the IMF-World Bank shouldering much of the load by the 1970s. The result of all this propping up, you see today:  the horror that is modern Pakistan. 

Sometimes I want to shake members of the American government and say, "Wake up."  

That would be no use. They'd just look at me blankly and reply they're trying to stop Pakistan's nukes from falling into the hands of terrorists.

They don't get it.  You can't reform a ghost. You can't save a ghost, nor can you kill it. All you can do is convey to the ghost that by clinging to you it can't regain life.  You convey this by not letting the ghost get a rise out of you. 

So if the nukes are at risk of falling into the wrong hands, well, the world has to end some way, then turn the conversation to cricket scores and the weather.  No matter what they ask of you, always say yes, then don't do anything.  Above all, don't stand around arguing with them or praising or blaming them, and don't point the finger of shame at them.  It doesn't get nuttier than a government trying to shame a ghost.

The lore about real ghosts is that when they learn they can't get a rise out of the living, they finally turn to The Light and depart this realm. In the same manner, the Pakistanis will reform themselves once they abandon the illusion that they can live in a time that longer exists.  They are not inclined to abandon the illusion as long as foreign governments hover over them and say, 'Tell us where it hurts.'

But how many times have I made this point on my blog?  A hundred?  Two hundred?  I'm getting damn tired of finding different ways to say the same damn thing.  Now where was I? Nuristan.

Pakistani intelligence agents deployed in Nuristan province
By Sajad
September 4, 2012
Khaama Press [Afghanistan]

Local authorities in eastern Nuristan province of Afghanistan expressed concerns regarding the infiltration of Pakistani intelligence officers among the anti-government armed militant groups in this province.

Nuristan provincial security chief Gen. Ghulamullah said around 50 Pakistani intelligence officers armed with heavy and light weapons have entered Kamdish and Barg-e-Matal districts.

Mr. Ghulamullah further added based on the preliminary investigation reports the ISI agents have been based in Mehrdish, Bazgul and Batigul areas in Kamdish districts and are in negotiations with the anti-government armed militant groups in order to launch deadly coordinated attacks in the areas which are under the control of the Afghan government.

He said majority of the Pakistani intelligence agents have disguised themselves in local clothings.

Majority of the Pakistani intelligence agents who have entered Kamdish district belong to Pakistani military intelligence known as Markali based in Chitral Pakistan, Ghulamulah provincial security chief said adding that the intelligence agents are coordinating with the militants groups in Kamdish and Barg-e-Matal districts.

Nuristan province is located in eastern Afghanistan which borders volatile regions of Pakistan bordering regions specifically Chitral. Nuristan province has recently witnessed deadly clashes among the Afghan security forces and Afghan security forces.

This comes as a major military operation was launched in Kamdish district earlier this year where militants suffered heavy casualties, Kamdish district Mohammad Tamim Nuristani said.

In the meantime Ghulamullah provincial security chief of Nuristan province said Pakistani intelligence agents are commuting in Kamdish district during the past 2 months.  He said Afghan security forces are prepared to defend militants attacks however he urged that more security forces should be deployed in the area in order to prevent major attacks by militants.

When demons are in charge

Last month it emerged that the US general John Allen, head of coalition forces, had instructed the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) not to shoot first unless attacked, although the Ministry of Defence has denied this amounted to a change in the rules of engagement.

The situation described in the following news report is not limited to the British military; I became immersed in Afghan War reporting in 2009 when I read of American soliders telling their chaplains that they were being ordered to act like police in Afghanistan, which included not being allowed to fire their guns unless they were sure 'Taliban' were armed. 

The horror, the utter fiendishness of this situation, is that the American and other NATO governments have been paying Pakistan's military all these years, while knowing full well they were helping the military orchestrate the killings of NATO troops. So, on top of this, the troops must act in Afghanistan as if they're police in a big Western city.

There is no precedent for this in history, there is no military command in history that has ever sunk to this level of depravity.  But the NATO-ISAF commanders sunk this low.

British soldiers resort to 'baiting' Taliban to beat rules of engagement

Platoon commander describes frustration at being forced to lead troops 'to get shot at'

Jonathan Owen
August 27, 2012
The Independent [U.K.]

British soldiers in Afghanistan are being forced to act as bait in an attempt to draw the Taliban into opening fire, a serving platoon commander has alleged.


Soldiers are risking their lives to get round strict rules of engagement that allow them to shoot only if they are being attacked or are in "imminent danger".

The Taliban are increasingly exploiting the rules by hiding weapons in undergrowth near patrol routes – meaning British forces cannot act against them until they actually pick up their guns.

The claims are made by Lieutenant Jimmy Clark , a platoon commander who recently returned from a tour of Afghanistan.

Shocking scenes to be broadcast in a documentary, Our War, on BBC Three this evening reveal how it was only by luck that soldiers survived a bomb while on a patrol nicknamed "Op Bait" late last year.

Lt Clark from 2 Mercian, who was leading the patrol, describes his frustration at the rules of engagement, which led to soldiers acting as bait to tempt the Taliban into attacking them. "It's difficult really to 'fight' an enemy we're not allowed to fight. Under our rules of engagement we can only really return fire and sometimes it's very frustrating." Footage of Op Bait, shot from headcams on soldiers' helmets, released by the Ministry of Defence, shows how the plan almost backfired.

Lt Clark sums up the approach: "You have a foot patrol which has air support… you get contacted, you're being fired at and the helicopter can come in and kill that guy." For the avoidance of doubt, he adds: "Our job was to get shot at."

As they prepare to go on the patrol, soldiers try to hide their nerves by joking. One says: "Hi, I'm Lance Corporal Shepherd, this will be the last you see of me, I'm going on suicide." To howls of laughter, another says: "Hi, I'm Private Morgan, I'll be picking up Shep's legs."

The soldiers then silently move out on patrol, aware they are being watched by Taliban fighters just across the canal they are walking alongside. Suddenly two large explosions ring out followed by screams – the world temporarily turned to smoke. Amid heavy gunfire, the soldiers pull back. Miraculously, none of the patrol are killed.

In the aftermath, an exhausted Lt Clark says: "It is incredibly frustrating to be leading soldiers out on patrol with the purpose of getting shot at. There's a line between bravery and stupidity and so far we are pushing the limits."

In an interview with The Independent, Lt Clark said: "What the Taliban were extremely good at doing was walking around without weapons, having cached them in undergrowth or behind cover, walking up to those locations, which were already ready-made firing positions, and shooting at us."

The number of British soldiers being shot dead in Afghanistan has spiralled as new tactics stop them from shooting at the Taliban until they have been fired at. Fourteen have been killed by enemy gunfire in Helmand Province in the past four months, compared with three in the same period in 2011.

Last month it emerged that the US general John Allen, head of coalition forces, had instructed the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) not to shoot first unless attacked, although the Ministry of Defence has denied this amounted to a change in the rules of engagement.

In a statement the MoD said: "We have always been very clear, as has ISAF, that our troops go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. Recent amendments to the ISAF tactical directive reflect that commitment."

Thousands flee N. Waziristan on rumors of impending Pak military offensive there

Monday, August 27, 2012, AFP via Daily Times (Pakistan):

Thousands flee North Waziristan in fear of operation

* Officials insist there is no immediate plan to launch military operation

MIRANSHAH: Thousands of people have fled North Waziristan in recent days, fearing a military offensive against terrorists, locals and officials said.

Panicked residents have hastily left the area of North Waziristan despite officials repeatedly insisting that Pakistan has no immediate plan to launch an offensive in the volatile region, they added.

North Waziristan is considered a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda operatives. Although Pakistan has fought Taliban across much of the region, it has so far withstood American pressure to move against the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan. “Thousands of people have so far left the area, they are fleeing their homes due to the fear and rumours of a military operation,” Saifur Rehman, a government official in the main town of Miranshah, told AFP.

Tasleem Khan, another government official confirmed the evacuation.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain told AFP that thousands of people have reached several districts in his area. Rumours started early this week after a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told the media that it had received “an exclusive intelligence report” about an offensive in North Waziristan.

In an email sent to media, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the campaign was to be launched on August 26 and would last one month.

Government and military officials have taken to local radio, asking people to remain calm. “This is a peaceful area with a peaceful atmosphere. The government has no plan to launch any military operation here,” a radio announcement heard by local residents said.

On Saturday, some 2,000 tribal elders and religious leaders warned the government not to launch any offensive and threatened to move to Afghanistan “in case of any military operation”.

“We will migrate to Afghanistan, if Pakistan launches any military operation," Maulvi Abdur Rehman, a religious leader who presided over the tribal jirga said.

The jirga held in Mirali Town of North Waziristan also requested residents to stay at home. An AFP reporter in the area witnessed people fleeing their homes in vehicles.

Washington has long demanded that Pakistan take action against the Haqqanis, whom the United States accused of attacking the US embassy in Kabul last September and of acting like the “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence. Pakistan has in turn demanded that Afghan and US forces do more to stop Pakistani Taliban crossing the Afghan border to launch attacks on its forces. afp

Majorly Profound's mysterious disappearance from blogosphere and twittersphere sets off international concern and provides a window on embattled free speech in Pakistan

His disappearance left behind disconsolate fans and, perhaps fittingly, a swirl of conspiracy theories. Some speculated he had been threatened or abducted; others predicted he would reincarnate in a new guise. Female fans - "wimmins" in @MajorlyProfound's world - were particularly upset.

"I am heartbroken," one wrote on Twitter. "What will happen to us wimmins now?" another asked.
The comments were, for the most part, tongue-in-cheek. But they also highlighted something serious: how the Internet has become an important platform for subversive satire, and outright social dissent, in a country where speaking freely can exact the highest price.
-- Declan Walsh, The New York Times

Now just see, Pundita is not the only wimmins besotted wits the Major. I am so happy with Declan Walsh for writing about the Major's disappearance that I could hug him, but I have one beef with his report:

If one's going to compare the Major's wit to any American humorist who focuses on social criticism, I'd call him Pakistan's answer to Mark Twin, not Stephen Colbert. Yet I'd always resisted bestowing that laurel on the Major because I thought doing so was kinda an insult. While the Major's creator was inspired to write by the American satirical novel, Catch-22, he's upholding a tradition of acid-penned 'native' editorialists who toiled for newspapers during the British Raj -- a tradition that continued in post-Independence India and, fitfully, in modern Pakistan.

And unlike the strongly politicized and partisan Colbert, the Major targeted the famous human tendencies of self-delusion and hypocrisy. So whether he was poking fun at Apple computer products, geostrategic analysts, the foolishness of the Indian government or his own, his humor had universal appeal.

Before I let Declan get in a few more words, I'm hoping the blog's disappearance is another one of what the Major called his "social experiments" -- the last experiment causing considerable discomfort to those urbane Pakistanis who think they can get comfy in hell by holding book fairs and fashion shows and generally trying to carry on as if they're living in London's Chelsea district.

On a darker note, the Major's creator once stepped completely out of character; this was after the U.S. raid on Abbottabad. Furious at Pakistan's military for leaving the country's defenses wide open, he wrote an icily analytical essay about the military's lapses that was not one bit funny. There was a long silence on his blog after he published the essay -- at least two months to my recollection, maybe longer.

When he returned to the blogosphere the Major character ("Maj. Butt, Ret'd.") was his old self. But it's just that capacity for mercilessly objective analysis combined with universal appeal that causes me concern about the inexplicable removal of the Majorly Profound blog.

The best I can say is that the Major's creator is a national treasure; it would be a tragedy if he's not seen as such by Pakistan's rulers.

Fans worry after Pakistan Twitter star goes off lineby Declan Walsh
The New York Times
August 22, 2012

Karachi: "Where r u MAJOR ?? What happened 2 u ?? I hope u r safe from mad dog jihadis."

Electronic cries of anguish are ringing out across Pakistan's Twitter community over the abrupt disappearance of the popular satirist @MajorlyProfound, beloved for his acid commentary on the powerful and their prejudices. The unexplained closing of his Twitter account and a related blog on Aug. 4 has become the cybermystery of the moment among English-speaking Pakistani liberals.

Channeling the American comic Stephen Colbert, the determinedly anonymous blogger behind @MajorlyProfound adopted the voice of a pompous, paranoid, honor-obsessed nationalist - Twitter posts typically started with cries of "whoa!" or "OUTRAGE!!" - then took things a step or three further. The result was a searingly funny and often jet-black perspective on Pakistan's rolling crises that pushed the boundaries of what is considered politically acceptable - or personally prudent.

A Pakistani should have been given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame, @MajorlyProfound declared during the recent opening ceremony, in recognition of "our expertise at burning things" like NATO supply trucks and Indian luxury hotels.

Later, he suggested that the national team could do well in archery, but only if a photo of an Ahmadi - a religious minority that suffers grave persecution - were placed on the target board.

"Pakistani shooters sure to win gold," he wrote on Twitter. "But there is a danger they might throw grenade instead."

Such jagged wit won @MajorlyProfound more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, many of them influential in the Pakistani and Indian news media. Foreign journalists started to quote him in stories, sensing he had become a cultural touchstone of sorts.

But the man behind the phenomenon assiduously shunned the spotlight. "I'm just a nobody," he wrote in an e-mail exchange started by The New York Times before his disappearance. "I like to poke fun at absurdity."

His disappearance left behind disconsolate fans and, perhaps fittingly, a swirl of conspiracy theories. Some speculated he had been threatened or abducted; others predicted he would reincarnate in a new guise. Female fans - "wimmins" in @MajorlyProfound's world - were particularly upset.

"I am heartbroken," one wrote on Twitter. "What will happen to us wimmins now?" another asked.

The comments were, for the most part, tongue-in-cheek. But they also highlighted something serious: how the Internet has become an important platform for subversive satire, and outright social dissent, in a country where speaking freely can exact the highest price.

Over the past two years, two leading politicians have been shot to death for their public stances, and a prominent investigative journalist was killed under mysterious circumstances in April. This summer, Asma Jahangir, an outspoken human rights campaigner, spoke of a plot by the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency to kill her. And even the hint of blasphemous speech can bring witch hunts and criminal charges. (@MajorlyProfound took that issue on, too: "On being asked if plasphemy law should be amended, 20% of beepuls said it should be retained, 80% killed the interviewer phor plasphemy," he wrote on Twitter last year, in calculatedly idiosyncratic spelling.)

And so creative young Pakistanis are turning to social media to vent their political frustrations.

A catchy satirical song by the Lahore band Begairat Brigade was shunned by the mainstream media last year, but caught fire on YouTube, where it became a Pakistani pop culture sensation. This year another little-known performer, Ali Pir Gul, scored two and a half million hits on YouTube with a comedy rap that parodied the lifestyles of the feudal elite.

"Every day you see your government doing things that make you pissed. There's nothing to do except make fun of it," said Adil Hussain, a 23-year-old student who posts politically pointed cartoons on Facebook.

Twitter has played a cameo role in several national dramas. In May 2011, Sohaib Athar, an Internet cafe owner in Abbottabad, posted details on Twitter of a mysterious helicopter raid in his neighborhood that, hours later, turned out to be the American commando assault against Osama bin Laden.

Later, Mr. Athar was called to testify before a government inquiry into the raid. As he left, he recalled recently, the presiding judge urged him to "tweet on."

Pakistan's beleaguered progressives, meanwhile, have come to view Twitter as a public square of sorts. A spontaneous Twitter campaign in January against Maya Khan, a television host accused of harassing courting couples with a camera crew in a Karachi park during her morning television program, helped lead to Ms. Khan's dismissal.

The figure behind @MajorlyProfound said he had been inspired to write by the novel "Catch-22." His target is a particular mind-set that dominates public debate: the puff-chested vanities, poisonous bigotry and contorted logic of certain politicians, generals and journalists.

He views his alter ego as "the love child of Homer Simpson and Adolf Hitler," he wrote by e-mail. "What would you do if that baby started saying and doing nonsensically stupid but scary things, yet ran a country and had a bunch of rabid supporters?" he wrote.

Why, turn to Twitter, of course. Recent events have provided a rich store of material, from the cabinet ministers who claimed to have found a car that ran on water, to the tortured talks with Washington that centered on notions of national sovereignty - or, as he put it, "sovirginity."

Beneath the punch lines, however, lies a rumbling anger, particularly over the treatment of minorities. In Pakistan, "Ahmadis and Shias are treated worse than animals," he wrote by e-mail. "More importantly, they are dehumanized."

For some, Twitter has filled a void left by the closing of teahouses and nightclubs that thrived during the 1960s and '70s, before the Islamist dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq warped Pakistani society. "Pakistan no longer has permanent public spaces for reasoned conversation," a lawyer, Feisal H. Naqvi, wrote in the newspaper The Express Tribune recently. He hailed @MajorlyProfound as "Pakistan's sharpest wit."

But even the freewheeling Internet is not entirely insulated from the real Pakistan. Several extremist groups, including the charity wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, hold Twitter accounts. Twitter's success has also sprouted legions of so-called trolls, users who direct abusive or threatening comments at other users. Women say they feel particularly vulnerable.

Such worries surfaced during a recent conference on social media, sponsored by the American Consulate in Karachi and held at a luxury hotel. Organized under low-key conditions, owing to security worries, the conference featured lively debates on the uses and value of social media.

It also brought together Twitter activists who had previously only interacted online. Not all of it went well. Heated exchanges between some rivals spilled into the hotel lobby. Since then, one Lahore lawyer has obtained a court order preventing three with whom he had clashed from commenting about him on Twitter.

One notable absence at the conference was @MajorlyProfound. Jealously protective of his anonymity, he offered only that he is between 25 and 35 years old and comes from a middle-class background. His profile picture always features goats because, he said before his disappearance, Pakistani critics might "put up with sarcasm from a goat more than from a real person."

"On the Internet nobody knows that you are a dog. Or a goat," he said. "I could be anyone."

Can Al Qaeda-linked 'humanitarian' group backed by U.S. succeed where Pussy Riot failed?

Global Research, my favorite Canadian anti-globalist organization, has worked itself up into a lather again about imperialist America's latest capers in the attempt to unseat President Vladimir Putin. But this time the Finnish government was left holding the bag.

Before turning to the Finns, a little background from Global Research's August 22 report, America's Longstanding Campaign to Destabilize Russia by Eric Draitser (See the website for links provided in the writing):

The shootings and bombings in Ingushetia and Dagestan this week rekindled a longstanding, brutal campaign of violence and terrorism in Russia’s Caucasus region – one that has seen more than its share of terror stretching back to the Chechen “rebellion” of the 1990s.
[...]
The complex network of terrorist organizations that operate under the banners of “separatism” and “independence” for the Caucasus region, has been at the center of the destabilization of Russia for the last two decades. Within hours of the deadly attacks, the Kavkaz Center – an organization known to be the propaganda mouthpiece of terrorist leader Doku Umarov – released an article characterizing the attacks as heroic acts and referring to the dead as “Russian puppets.”

Though this would seem to be not in keeping with the Center’s stated mission “to provide reporting of events…and assistance of journalistic work in the Caucasus,” this is, in fact, very much par for the course for an organization that is funded by the US State Department and Finland’s Foreign Ministry.

Kavkaz Center has a long track record of supporting and legitimizing terrorist actions throughout the region, rationalizing atrocities committed in the name of “resistance.” In fact, Kavkaz engages in perpetual upside-down logic, referring to Russians as “terrorists” and terrorists as “heroes.”

Additionally, it is essential to note that Emarat Kavkaz (Umarov’s terrorist organization translated as “Caucasus Emirate”) has been listed by the United Nations as an organization associated with Al-Qaida.

Kavkaz Center has been described by Umarov himself as “the official information organ of the Emarat Kavkaz.” This, of course, supports the claims made repeatedly by Moscow of the connection between Chechen and other extremists in the region and Al Qaida, a claim which, until recently, Kavkaz Center continued to deny.

Believe you me, Draitser is just getting warmed up, and I had to interrupt a rather longish rant about U.S. imperialist machinations just to put together the above summary, in order to more-or-less prepare you for the Finnish angle. From a Voices of Russia report by Margarita Bogatova, dated June 15, 2012:

KavkazCenter, a Chechen extremist website has been funded by Finland’s Foreign Ministry and the US State Department, Finnish prosecutors revealed during a probe into the activities of the site’s owner Mikael Storsjo. Recently, a court in Helsinki handed down a four-month suspended sentence to Storsjo for assisting Chechen terrorists to enter Finland illegally.

The owner and sponsor of the site was first arrested and jailed last year on charges of assisting illegal immigrants. Later, he was acquitted as the court claimed that this was an act of humanity as he was helping migrants who were at risk in Russia. Moreover, Storsjo accepted no money for his assistance. This year, prosecutors managed to prove that he assisted more than 20 people to flee Russia. They included relatives of Chechen warlords Shamil Basayev, Doku Umarov and a certain Matsiyev who was allegedly involved in the Beslan school siege. [Pundita note: aka Beslan school massacre]

According to Finnish political analyst Johan Beckman, the site was sponsored by Finland’s Foreign Ministry and the US State Department.

"Finland is supporting and funding terrorist underground networks, has been was exposed in the course of the Storsjo investigation. We analyzed all the relevant documents and saw who these migrants really were. With tacit backing of Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala, Storsjo has illegally brought hundreds of people, some of whom are criminals, to Finland His website is more than just a web page it is the mouthpiece of terrorist leader Doku Umarov."

Moscow needs to provide evidence of the crimes it believes these alleged terrorists have committed to be able to extradite them and if it wants a tougher punishment for Storsjo.

Finland keeps declining Moscow’s extradition requests. This particular case echoes England’s refusals to extradite Ahmed Zakayev and Boris Berezovsky to Russia, says Alexander Mikhailov a member of the Council for External and Defense Policy

"Finland is acting in line with its national laws and can only press charges if it has evidence of these people’s wrongdoings. The mere fact that they are living in their country and conducting public and cultural activities is not the reason to bring charges against them. There is nothing Russia can do about this".

The KavkazCenter site has been shut down in Lithuania at Russia’s request and deemed illegal in many other countries, including Finland, which, however, hasn’t stopped its businessman from sponsoring it.

One of the interesting things about the situation is that for all its use of internet technology, the U.S. Department of State still hasn't gotten the main point of this era in communications, which is that it's really hard to pussyfoot around with nobody among the unwashed masses noticing.

But it's not just State, as Draitser points out. It's also the same cast of bipartisan American characters that was behind the 'color' revolutions, and which ran into accusations of meddling in Egypt earlier this year.

As I advised on the very first day of this blog's existence, in the post I titled Not Clockwork Orange Century, this fishbowl era is one of those times when the wisest course for the American government is to play it straight. To date, Washington has ignored my advice. That's really a shame, because when you look through the following list of known, probable and suspected plotters in the Beslan School massacre, you won't find an American name. You will find names associated with American allies who are well known for sneakiness. Yet ultimately, we're the ones who're always left holding the bag.

Shortly after the crisis, official Russian sources stated that the attackers were part of a supposed international group led by Basayev that included a number of Arabs with connections to al-Qaeda, and claimed they picked up phone calls in Arabic from the Beslan school to Saudi Arabia and another undisclosed Middle Eastern country. Two English/Algerians are among the identified rebels who actively participated in the attack: Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia. Another UK citizen named Kamel Rabat Bouralha, arrested while trying to leave Russia immediately following the attack, was suspected to be a key organizer. All three were linked to the Finsbury Park Mosque of north London.

The allegations of al-Qaeda involvement were not repeated since then by the Russian government.

According to the Russian government, the following people were named as planners and financiers of the attack:

• Shamil Basayev – Chechen rebel leader who took ultimate responsibility for the attack, he died in Ingushetia in July 2006 in disputed circumstances.

• Kamel Rabat Bouralha – British-Algerian suspected of organizing the attack, who was reported detained in Chechnya in September 2004.

• Abu Omar al-Saif – Saudi national and accused financer, killed in Dagestan in December 2005.

• Abu Zaid Al-Kuwaiti – Kuwaiti national and accused organizer, who died in Ingushetia in February 2005.

John Batchelor on Israel's calculations re a strike on Iran and Barack Obama's maneuvers in the Middle East

Red-Line Electioneering
by John Batchelor
The John Batchelor Radio Show
August 22, 2012

Visited this evening [August 21] with colleague Larry Kudlow, CNBC, to speak of the Iran threat to Israel and what is to be done. [see video below]

My best information is that Jerusalem has changed its political calculation based on the opinion that POTUS Obama will be reelected. The presumption in Jerusalem is that a second-term Obama administration will favor the Islamists of the Middle East and will tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. Therefore, Jerusalem is considering that it has maximum leverage to attack Iran before the vote.

Why? Because POTUS Obama is foremost a political actor, and he will not quickly block Jerusalem for worry that it would harm his Jewish vote in the swing states.

It comes to this stark electioneering calculation: How can POTUS Obama get to Election Day while satisfying both the Jewish vote and Jerusalem and also while holding off Iran's and Syria's predation? My information is that POTUS believes the way to solve this standoff is to support a Turkish Army incursion into Syria and to provide air cover for a No-Fly Zone along the Turkey/Syria borderland. POTUS Obama's remark at the Monday press event in the White House about Syria's WMD being a "red line" was a predicate for the casus belli of entering Syria to prevent a genocide.

The chaos that will follow either will block Israel or will trigger worse -- lead to a helter-skelter of covert and/or missile attacks by Hamas from Gaza, Hizballah from Lebanon, and provocateurs from Syria. Enter the Devils.

Grand Bargain

Why does POTUS Obama hold back from supporting Israel against the Iran predators? Political opera is the answer. My information is that Mr. Obama has long offered a Grand Bargain to Tehran. In exchange for a peace conference in Tehran that is meant to imitate President Nixon's meeting with Mao in 1972 in Beijing, Mr. Obama will tolerate Iran as a nuclear-armed regional hegemon. I am told that Mr. Obama has offered this deal since 2009.

These days, approaching his final election with frantic fatalism, POTUS Obama believes that by threatening to use Turkish surrogates to invade Syria and cage Assad, Tehran will be obliged to the negotiating table. The tangled web is worse when we include the Kurds, the Iraqis, and the regional minorities in addition to the Jews and Kurds, such as the Druze, the Ismailists, the Christians, the Shiites.

The new Riehl World View

Dan Riehl has redesigned his blog! The home page looks like the front page of a newspaper; it's really cool, and super-organized. He got help from two website developers but the input was all his, including the fancy banner. Those thinking of upgrading their blog design might be interested in reading his discussion of how he did it.

Dan's been blogging for eight years; I wish him many more years on the blogosphere because he's one of the good guys. He's a political conservative but he's also a straight dealer. This makes his blog valuable to people trying to see through the smoke blown by spin doctors. He calls it like he sees it, and whenever  this angers agendists who want him to toe the party line, he couldn't care less.

I'll take this opportunity to thank Dan for linking to my August 17 post (Al Qaeda in Syria and the mass marketing of civilian Syrian massacres for Western TV), then carrying it over to his new blog as a front page feature. In that post I pieced together important information that the mainstream media will not touch, and I think Dan recognized that.

"Welcome to Pakistan: A nightmare society beyond pity or parody:" More on the case of a Pakistani Christian child accused of blasphemy

In Pakistan, Christians traditionally have worked as cleaners and sweepers; many Muslims still consider them “unclean."

The New York Times reported on August 20 that "senior police officers" involved in the case of Rimsha Masih claim that she's 16, not 11, and "100 percent mentally" fit, which goes against claims by Christians and Muslims in her neighborhood that she suffers from Down syndrome. (See the end of this post for excerpts from the Times report.) AFP reported today that the girl is between 10 and 13 years old and "reported to have Down's Syndrome."  AFP also mentions that the girl's first name is Rimsha, not Rifta as the press had previously reported.

But the Times report stresses that the disputed facts about the child's age and mental condition don't change the fundamentals, which is that an accusation of blasphemy leveled against a child is an outrage -- outrage that's gone global. Amnesty International and the U.S. Department of State and France's foreign ministry have added their voices to the chorus of criticism and concern about Rimsha's plight, which has also touched off a furor in Pakistan and brought forth several editorials in the Pakistani press.  But below I'm featuring in its entirety Iman Sheikh's op-ed for Canada's National Post. Her writing adds details about Rimsha's situation that weren't available in the early press accounts, and she does a great job of summarizing the plight of Pakistan's Christians and what it says about Pakistan.

Just so everyone's clear on the seriousness of this issue, another Pakistani Christian is in prison awaiting a death sentence to be carried out for blasphemy.

Pakistan’s anti-Christian witch hunt
by Iman Sheikh
National Post
August 21, 2012

Rifta Masih is an 11-year-old Christian girl who lives near Islamabad, Pakistan. She reportedly suffers from Down’s Syndrome. Like many of the other Christians in her area — who comprise about 10% of the local population — the members of her family work menial jobs, and live in tiny properties rented from Muslim landlords.

On Thursday evening, Rifta was seen leaving the one-room dwelling she lives in with her sister and parents, carrying an earthenware dish filled with ash. Or, it may have been some refuse in a small shopping bag. Although Hammad Malik, a 23-year-old witness, is unclear on exactly what the girl was transporting, he is quite certain that the burnt remains had Arabic writing on them.

Rifta, he alleges, was burning pages from a Koran inside her house, and then trying to find a place to dispose of the remains. Although he did not see her do this, that did not stop him from assembling an angry group of men and reporting the incident to the local police, with the demand that the girl be apprehended in accordance with the country’s Blasphemy Law. The authorities at first did not act, but then moved swiftly to get the girl into custody when a mob of over 500 people gathered at the Masih home’s doorstep. Fearing for her safety, the authorities put her into a cell for a two-week detention.

Welcome to Pakistan: A nightmare society beyond pity or parody, where handicapped 11-year-old girls must be locked up to ensure their own safety.

According to the Blasphemy Law, anyone found guilty of insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Koran can be sentenced to death. With blind religious extremism on the upswing, there is no shortage of Hammad Malik types — self-appointed religious vigilantes on the lookout for any transgression, real or imagined. The law has been enforced in regard to even the most dubious reports of “blasphemy,” and has led to the murder of two prominent politicians.

In January 2011, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was shot by his own bodyguard after he expressed sympathy for Asia Noreen, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy. Scarcely two months later, Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s first Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs and the only Christian in Pakistan’s Cabinet, was leaving his mother’s home in Islamabad when his car was sprayed with bullets. (The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the killing.)

The aforementioned Noreen, better known in the media as “Asia Bibi,” was a farmhand who fetched water for her coworkers. When some Muslims refused to drink the water on account of it being contaminated by an “unclean” Christian, heated work-site arguments allegedly ensued. Later, a cleric received complaints that Noreen made derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad. A mob arrived at her house, attacking her and her family before she was rescued by the police. This was in June 2009. She is still in jail.

The Blasphemy Law can be manipulated by cynical plaintiffs, as a tool to take personal retribution. In the case of Asia Bibi, there had been a pre-existing feud between Noreen and a Muslim neighbour over property damage. In Rifta’s case, relations between the Muslim and Christian communities had been tense for months after complaints were made about the noise coming from churches in the area during religious services.

In Pakistan, Christians traditionally have worked as cleaners and sweepers; many Muslims still consider them “unclean.” About 900 Christians living on the outskirts of Islamabad have been ordered to leave the neighbourhood and the homes they have inhabited for two decades. On Sunday, houses on the backstreets of Mehrabadi, an area 20 minutes drive from Islamabad’s western embassies and government ministries, were locked up and abandoned, their frightened occupants having relocated to already overcrowded Christian slums in and around the capital.

Pakistan is a country with many problems — from corruption to terrorism to regional secession movements. But none captures the primitive, bigoted spirit of the nation’s religious extremists more perfectly than the witch hunt for “blasphemers” that has been used to persecute the country’s tiny, beleaguered Christian community. If an 11-year-old handicapped girl is considered fair game for the fanatics, what chance does anyone else have?

From the New York Times report I mentioned above:

Christian Girl’s Blasphemy Arrest Incites a Furor in Pakistanby Declan Walsh and Salman Masood [reporting from Islamabad]
August 20, 2012
The New York Times

[...]
Christian, and some Muslim, neighbors said Ms. Masih was 11 years old and had Down syndrome. Senior police officers dismissed those claims; one described her as 16 and “100 percent mentally fit.”

Whatever the truth, experts said Ms. Masih’s plight highlighted a wider problem. “This case exemplifies the absurdity and tragedy of the blasphemy law, which is an instrument of abuse against the most vulnerable in society,” said Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch.

While non-Muslims have long been vulnerable to persecution in Pakistan, the state’s ability to protect them is diminishing.

[Pundita note: Given the documented history of famous blasphemy cases in Pakistan, I seriously question whether the state's ability or will to provide protection was ever that strong]
[...]

The Pakistani police often are forced to register blasphemy cases against their wishes, human rights campaigners say, either to save the accused blasphemer or their own officers from attack.

In July, a large crowd, prompted by inflammatory statements from local mosques, swarmed a police station in Bahawalpur district in southern Punjab, searching for a blasphemy suspect who was being interrogated by police. The mob seized the man, beat him to death and burned his body outside the station.

A similar mob attack occurred in June in Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous city, although in that case the police beat back the protesters.

The turmoil comes just days after Pakistanis marked the country’s 65th independence anniversary amid muted ceremonies and considerable soul-searching across the political spectrum.

“Desecrating graves, arresting 11 year old with Down syndrome, targeting of Shias — the list goes on. This is not what r religion is about,” Shireen Mazari, a staunch nationalist commentator, said on Twitter.

The adviser to the prime minister on national harmony, Dr. Paul Bhatti, said he hoped to defuse Ms. Masih’s situation through talks with moderate Muslim leaders. Dr. Bhatti is the brother of Shahbaz Bhatti, a minister for minorities who was gunned down outside his Islamabad home in early 2011, weeks after Mr. Taseer’s death.

Even if Ms. Masih avoids blasphemy charges, her family is unlikely to ever return home. Although nobody has been executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, even suspected blasphemers are in danger for the rest of their lives.

"Scary proof that intolerance is accepted — even rewarded — in Pakistan's mainstream media." This is Pakistan

Ahmadis have long been persecuted in Pakistan, but community leader Masood Ahmed Khan says targeted killings surged after Liaquat's broadcast.

August 20, 2012:

Pakistani Televangelist Is Back On Air, Raising Fears by Lauren Frayer
National Public Radio (USA)

As Pakistan's media has expanded in recent years, there's been a rise in Islamic preachers with popular TV call-in talk shows. And they've had their share of scandal. One famous TV host fled the country after embezzlement allegations. Others are accused of spewing hate speech.

That's the case for Pakistan's most popular televangelist, Aamir Liaquat, who's just been rehired by the country's top TV channel despite accusations that he provoked deadly attacks in 2008.

Liaquat, 41, is once again the face of Pakistan's biggest and richest private TV station, Geo TV. He also appears in commercials for everything from cooking oil to an Islamic bank. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, he's been broadcasting live 11 hours a day — while fasting — and drawing record ratings.

"I say peace be with you, from the deepest core of my heart, with all sincerity and respect," he says warmly to viewers.

But the beaming TV personality has not always sounded so benign.

Four years ago, Liaquat did an hourlong special on a religious sect known as the Ahmadis. They consider themselves Muslim. But under a constitutional amendment in Pakistan, they are banned from calling themselves Muslim.

They believe in the Prophet Muhammad. But they also believe in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a 19th-century figure they believe was the messiah. Many Muslims call that blasphemy.

On live TV in 2008, Liaquat condemned the Ahmadis' messiah.

"He was like a dead body in terms of morality and character," Liaquat said. "He never spoke the truth and never kept his promises. He was a coward. His speech and writings make me vomit."

Then he sat nodding in approval while a guest mullah said people like the Ahmadis' messiah should be killed.

"Anyone who claims to be a prophet is an infidel, and deserves to be murdered," Maulana Muhammad Ameen said.

A Surge In Targeted Killings

Since that broadcast, violence has left hundreds of Ahmadis dead. Ahmadi Najm's husband — a pediatrician with his own clinic — was one of them.

[...]

No suspect has been arrested in any of these cases. Ahmadis have long been persecuted in Pakistan, but community leader Masood Ahmed Khan says targeted killings surged after Liaquat's broadcast.

"So we as a community always blame him. You know, the blood on his hands doesn't mean that he killed somebody directly — but he instigated it," Khan says.

Liaquat refused multiple requests from NPR for an interview, but sent a message through his manager emphasizing his popularity in Pakistan.

He lost his job at Geo TV over the Ahmadi program and the violence that ensued. But a rival channel scooped him up before long. And this summer, Liaquat returned to Geo TV with fanfare — and an even bigger salary.

Nadeem Paracha, a Pakistani journalist, says the way Liaquat's comeback was advertised was "just sickening."

"How can you bring back a person who's been accused — not only by the Ahmadi community, but by a lot of people? There's so much evidence there," Paracha says. "How can you call the same guy back?"

That's a question for Liaquat's boss, Imran Aslam, the president of Geo TV.

"He is a broadcaster par excellence. But he must know his parameters," Aslam says.

He says he rehired Liaquat on the condition that he sign a new code of ethics.

"We wanted to know whether he had, I wouldn't use the word 'repented,' but certainly [would be] a little more careful," Aslam says.

Minorities Are Wary

Still, the TV executive acknowledges that bringing Liaquat back could be a gamble.

"Not only the Ahmadis, but there's a large section of the liberal population of Pakistan, which is fearful of what he could unleash. So it's a double-edged sword," Aslam says. "The guy could become a Frankenstein monster — I don't deny that. But I think he's been chastised a bit — and chastened a bit, too."

So Liaquat is back on TV, more popular than ever. For the slain pediatrician's widow, Najm, that's scary proof that intolerance is accepted — even rewarded — in Pakistan's mainstream media.

Najm says her children face it in schools, from classmates as young as 6 or 7.

"Their fellows ask, 'Are you Shia or are you Sunni? Oh, you're Ahmadi? Ahmadis are not Muslims,' " Najm says.

Pakistan's government has a media regulation group whose job is to police the airwaves for hate speech. But the group, which goes by its acronym PEMRA, has opened few investigations in its 10-year history — and none in defense of religious minorities. Critics accuse the agency of bowing to popular media figures like Liaquat, rather than doing the job it was created to do.

Kidnap, rape, forced conversion of young Hindus to Islam: This is Pakistan

American aid money can't change Pakistan; it only reinforces the notion among Pakistan's worst that Americans tolerate their behavior. Pakistan's human rights advocates don't want American money. They want Americans to stop practicing a double standard in their country. 

“Whoever gets a chance to flee, irrespective of religion and destination, is leaving. The minorities have been suffering more."

From Pakistan with fear
by Ruchika Talwar
August 21, 2012
Indian Express

Their exact numbers are not known but the reason why Pakistani Hindus are coming over to India and choosing to stay in ever larger numbers is more or less clear. As the internal security situation in Pakistan worsens, among those increasingly being targeted are Hindus, especially their women.

Their families have dwelled for centuries in what is now Pakistan. India, for them, was only home to their shrines, relatives and Bollywood. But over the past five years especially, the Hindus and also some Sikhs who cross over into India on what is formally a pilgrimage (they usually arrive before Janmashtami) are choosing not to go back. As per Indian government estimates, the number of such Pakistani Hindus now on extended visas in India could be between 4,000 and 5,000.

While each pilgrim signs an undertaking at the Attari border crossing in Punjab, promising to return before their 30-day visa expires, most of them get their visas extended.

“Hindus are a weak segment in Pakistan, hence they become an easy target for religious bigots,” said Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the patron-in-chief and founder of the Karachi-based Pakistan Hindu Council, a registered society of Hindus of Pakistan. “Mostly young Hindu women are abducted and converted. We have petitioned in the Supreme Court against forced conversions,” he told The Indian Express over the phone.

Iqbal Haider echoed his views. A former federal minister for law and justice, information, human rights and parliamentary affairs, Haider currently practises law and is a prominent human rights activist based in Karachi.

Pointing out that social and economic insecurity was at its worst in Pakistan, Haider said: “Whoever gets a chance to flee, irrespective of religion and destination, is leaving. The minorities have been suffering more. A few years ago, the Christians were persecuted. I have dealt with their cases. The Sikhs were attacked three-four years back. Now it is mainly the Hindus. In 2012 alone, more than 45 cases have been reported so far.”

Rubbishing the argument that the cases of conversion by Hindu women were voluntary, he asked why most of the “abductions, rapes, conversions or forcible marriages” involved young, attractive girls. “Once I told a judge that this was nothing but the legitimation of forced sex.”

Because of his stand, Haider was questioned by the religious right-wing political party Jamaat-e-Islami for “opposing the spread of Islam”.

Among those to have crossed over into India is Mukesh Kumar of Mithi, Sindh, now staying in Hardwar. A businessman, he talked about extortion and forced conversion in Sindh and Balochistan. “We request the Indian government to grant us asylum. It is difficult to stay in Pakistan now primarily because we have young sisters and daughters. The perpetrators always target young girls. They kidnap a girl and demand ransom, which people pay, sometimes even through their nose. Till then, they keep the girl in their custody. When the girl returns, she has no choice but to agree to marry a Muslim because no Hindu will marry her. Hence comes the ‘wilful’ conversion.”

A Sikh from Sindh, Roshan Singh is currently living with relatives in Indore. He came to meet them and to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar and shrines in and around Indore. Reluctant to part with much information, Singh held on to the idea of returning to Pakistan after his 30-day visa expires later this month.

A local reporter in Attari working for the largest-selling Punjabi newspaper said the luggage some of these “pilgrims” bring along with them belies their reported intent to return. He saw utensils like paraat, chakla, belan (for kneading flour and making rotis) and foodgrain along with their suitcases, handbags and trunks. “Why would visitors or pilgrims bring such stuff?” he said.

A Hindu journalist with a reputed Pakistani newspaper, however, has a different version. “This is not an exodus as is being projected. People go on pilgrimage every year. I have been a couple of times to Hardwar. Individual cases of disgruntlement shouldn’t be taken for migration,” he insisted.

In the absence of concrete numbers, it’s difficult to say which side is right. Enquires at the Wagah-Attari joint checkpost and the Attari Railway Station yield a vague figure of 500 since July, with a margin of error of 50. On August 13 alone, a jatha of 266 Hindus crossed over on foot from Wagah. They all said that they were pilgrims.

No asylum policy

A large number of about 5,000 Hindus who have come to India from Pakistan in the past couple of years have chosen not to return.

They came to India on short-term visas, which allow them a stay for 30 days, but many apply to stay for longer.

India has no asylum policy for the Pakistan nationals, and as a temporary measure, the Home Ministry has been granting long-term visas, allowing them a stay of six months to a year.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari this month set up a three-member committee of parliamentarians to visit different parts of Sindh to reassure the minority community.

Police temporarily suspend mobile phone service in major Pakistan cities in ploy to thwart terrorist attacks

August 20, The U.K.) Telegraph:

Pakistan shuts down mobile phone networks overnight in major cities to prevent Taliban and al-Qaeda attacks as celebrations began for the biggest Muslim festival of the year

The draconian security measure was imposed on Sunday at 8:00 pm, at a time when millions ordinarily telephone friends and relatives with greetings for Eid al-Fitr. Networks were working again on Monday mid-morning.

Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan's two largest cities, and the troubled city of Quetta, in the insurgency-torn province of Baluchistan, were among the places where networks were suspended.

"We regret that it had to be suspended in some cities due to the risk of terrorist attacks," Rehman Malik, the country's interior minister, was quoted as saying by state TV. "We regret inconvenience caused to youths and children."

Terrorists were plotting to target "a few areas of Punjab province", of which Lahore is the capital, the minister said. Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital, and Baluchistan were also targets, he added.

Authorities feared that mobile telephones could be used to coordinate attacks or trigger a remote-controlled bomb.

The Eid festival marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan and, in Pakistan, is accompanied by a three-day public holiday, until Thursday.

The country has been on alert for Eid and security forces stepped up their presence in major cities as celebrations got underway.
[...]

Police arrest mentally disabled 11-year-old Christian for blasphemy: This is Pakistan

This is what foreign aid to Pakistan has been helping prop up.

BBC, August 19, 2012:

Pakistani police have arrested a mentally disabled 11-year-old girl after a mob accused her of desecrating pages of the Koran. The mob demanded the Christian girl's arrest and threatened to burn down Christian homes outside the capital Islamabad, local media say.

Officials said the girl could not properly answer police questions. Her parents have been taken into protective custody following threats and other Christian families have fled.  It is thought that the girl has Down's syndrome.

Paul Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for National Harmony, told the BBC that the girl was known to have a mental disorder and that it seemed "unlikely she purposefully desecrated the Koran".

"From the reports I have seen, she was found carrying a waste bag which also had pages of the Koran," he said.

"This infuriated some local people and a large crowd gathered to demand action against her. The police were initially reluctant to arrest her, but they came under a lot of pressure from a very large crowd, who were threatening to burn down Christian homes."

He said more than 600 people have fled from the Christian neighbourhood.

Rights activists have urged Pakistan to reform its controversial blasphemy laws, under which a person can be jailed for life for desecrating the Koran.

[Pundita note: Pakistan's blasphemy law calls for punishments ranging from fines to the death sentence. To my recollection the death sentence has never been carried out by the state, but it's been enforced in many cases by vigiliantes]

Many of those accused of blasphemy have been killed by violent mobs, while politicians who advocate a change in legislation have also been targeted.

Last year, Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs, was killed after calling for the repeal of the blasphemy law.

His death came just two months after the murder of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who also spoke out about the issue.

File under Cyberwar: Pakistan and the 'Myanmar/Assam mass atrocities' and 'Post-Ramadan mass attacks on Indians' hoaxes

This situation is so goddamned tangled, but it serves as a horrific cautionary tale about manipulation of internet and mobile phone technologies.

As to the Pakistan angle. Not all the hoax images of atrocities against Muslims have been traced to Pakistan. And the originator of the hoax images hasn't yet been identified. But the Indian government has traced the internet rumors of planned attacks in India (in retaliation for images of widescale atrocities in Assam and Myanmar that were a hoax!) to Pakistan, and is lodging a formal protest with Pakistan's government.
To start somewhere near the beginning of this madness. From B Raman's August 18 analysis:

POST-ASSAM INCIDENTS: OVERT & COVERT

1. The post-Assam incidents in the rest of India had overt and covert dimensions.

2. The overt dimension related to the protests by groups of Muslims against the anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar and Assam which were seen in the Azad Maidan of Mumbai on August 5, 2012, and in Lucknow on August 17, 2012.

These protests were triggered off by exaggerated accounts of the anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar and Assam. These exaggerated accounts were disseminated with the help of morphed images through web sites of Islamic fundamentalist organisations, some of them located in Pakistan.

The fact that these organisations in Pakistan such as the Jamaat-e-Islami had them uploaded in their web sites does not necessarily mean they had produced them.

3. Some of the visuals uploaded in many web sites of different organisations had inter alia, morphed images of two incidents: the large number of dead bodies recovered after an earthquake in the Sichuan province of China some years ago, and public protests by the opponents of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok in 2009.

The appearance of similar or same morphed images in several websites across the region indicated a common source of the production of these visuals.

This common source has not so far been identified. All we have is the total number of websites in Pakistan that had uploaded these visuals.

These visuals definitely played a part in inflaming passions in Mumbai and Lucknow.

4. It was reported in sections of foreign media last week that President Thein Sein of Myanmar has brought these morphed images of unconnected incidents that had taken place outside Myanmar to the notice of the OIC delegation that was in Myanmar.

He reportedly told the OIC delegation that a false impression of a genocide of the Rohingya Muslims of the Rakhine State of Myanmar was sought to be created through the circulation and uploading of such images. We must get from Myanmar details of all the evidence that they have been able to collect in this regard.

5. Now, after the damage has been caused in Mumbai and Lucknow, we seem to have woken up and taken action for the blocking of the websites in Pakistan which had uploaded these provocative visuals. Was it not possible to notice them before and do it?

[...]
There's lots more to Raman's report, which he updated today, but now I want to turn to an AFP report, published about two hours ago:

India blames Pakistan for exodus of migrant workers

NEW DELHI — India has blamed Pakistan for posting threatening messages on the Internet that triggered a mass exodus from Bangalore and Mumbai by migrants fleeing to their homes in the northeast.

"Our agencies have discovered that the bulk of these messages have been uploaded on various websites in Pakistan," Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters on Saturday.

"This is a first of its kind and we believe that it is highly reprehensible."

The exodus was sparked by threats sent via mobile phones and the Internet that people from northeastern Assam state would be attacked by Muslims after the end of the holy month of Ramadan in reprisal for recent ethnic violence.

Local media reports estimated that over 35,000 people have fled the cities of Bangalore and Mumbai in recent days.

Extra trains were arranged to accommodate panicked students and workers.

Three weeks of clashes in remote Assam between members of the Bodo tribal community and Muslims have claimed at least 80 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people.

Singh said India would register a formal protest with Pakistan.

"We will raise this issue with Pakistan... I am certain that they will deny out of hand but our technical people are definite," he said.

India has banned bulk text messages temporarily to try to halt the spread of threats and incendiary rumours. Police in southern city of Bangalore have also arrested three people for spreading images and video clips across India.

The images of atrocities allegedly on Muslims sparked tension and people hailing from the northeast were attacked in western and southern cities.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said those who were fanning the rumours should be punished, saying "communal harmony" was at stake.
[...]
B Raman doesn't invoke the term cyberwar in his discussion. But if the one-two punch of hoax images of atrocities and hoax threats of large-scale attacks on Indians in retaliation for hoax images of atrocities doesn't qualify as cyberwar, I don't know what does.