BRIGADE 313

Why 313? A peek into history with the caveat that history is written by the victors – hence fact and fiction intermingle to make the winner look supreme.

History:

AD 624: The Quraysh first threatened the Madinans, in a letter addressed to ‘Adbullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, to kill their males and enslave their females unless they expelled Prophet Mohammed from Madina.

It was, at last, at the beginning of 624, two years after the Hijra that a large caravan of the Quraysh, escorted by no more than 40 security guards en route to Makka from Syria, arrived at a place within reach of the Muslims. Fearing that the Muslims would stop their caravan and restore their usurped goods, Abu Sufyan, the leader of the caravan, rushed a messenger to Makka and sought help and reinforcements.

This caused an uproar through Makka. The leading chiefs of the Quraysh decided to wage war on the Prophet and about 1000 fighters moved out of Makka with much pomp and show. They had decided to deal a crushing blow to the rising power of the Muslims.

Prophet Mohammad realized that if an effective step was not taken right then, the preaching of Islam might suffer a blow from which it might be very difficult for it to recover. Had the Quraysh taken the initiative and launched an attack on Madina, it might have put an end to the existence of the small Muslim community in that town. (BuA: And the end of Islam as we know it today – and an effective lesson to Indian military planners about the way they sat as Pakistan built up nuclear weapons and now tweaking US money to buy weapons to gain advantage over India – how long will India wait?)

The Makkan army consisted of 1000 fighters, including 600 soldiers in coats of mail, and 200 cavalry. Against the force of the Makkan army, the Muslim army was made up of 313 fighters. Of these, 86 were Emigrants and the rest, the Helpers. (BuA: Hence the reference to the number 313)

The two armies finally encountered each other at Badr. (BuA: Note reference to Badr in another terror outfit: Al-Badr)

Even though the Muslims were outnumbered 3 to 1, heavy downpour the night before the battle was to the advantage of the Muslims, who were on a higher ground. In the lower part of the valley, where the Quraysh army was stationed, the ground had turned marshy.

The battle began. In the first frontline of the Quraysh were ‘Utba ibn Rabi‘a and his brother, Shayba, and his son, Walid. They challenged the Muslims to single combat. Three young men of the Helpers went forward against them. ‘We will not fight with the farmers and spherherds of Madina,’ ‘Utba shouted out of an arrogance which would cause their perishing. This was, in fact, what Prophet Mohammad expected. He ordered ‘Ali, Hamza and ‘Ubayda ibn Harith to go forth for single combat. Hamza advanced against ‘Utba and killed him. ‘Ali killed Walid with two blows. ‘Ubayda, who was old, marched against Shayba. They exchanged blows, and the sharp edge of Shayba’s sword struck ‘Ubayda’s knee and cut it. However Hamza and ‘Ali rescued him from Shayba. They killed Shayba and carried ‘Ubayda away.

The Quraysh were shocked at the beginning of the war. The Quraysh, who had exulted in their power, suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the ill-equipped Muslims. Seventy of the Quraysh were killed. Almost all the leaders of the Quraysh, including Abu Jahl, Walid ibn Mughira, ‘Utba ibn Rabi‘ah, ‘As ibn Sa‘id, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, and Nawfal ibn Khuwaylid were killed.

Another seventy of the Quraysh were taken as war prisoners. The Muslims were permitted to accept ransom from them. Prophet Mohammad released some of them in return for ransom, and the others who knew how to read and write were enslaved on the condition that they should teach the unlettered Muslims how to read and write.

Such treatment of the captives proved very beneficial for the Muslims. For those people who had expected execution welcomed the chance to pay ransom and paid it. Second, the rate of literacy in Madina was very low, and, in order to propagate Islam, the Muslims had to know how to read and write. Besides, the Muslims had to be culturally superior to the polytheists. Third, those who were kept in Madina to teach the Muslims how to read and write would be able to learn Islam better than before and find the opportunity to be in close contact with the Muslims. This was certain to soften their hearts toward Islam and accelerate their conversion, together with that of their families. Fourth, the families and relatives of those captives had despaired of their lives. But, when they saw them before them unexpectedly, their enmity to Islam was considerably lessened or broken.

The decisive victory gained at Badr made Islam a force to reckon with across all of Arabia, and many hardened hearts were inclined to accept the message of Islam.

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Brigade 313 is the coalition of five jihadi organizations that have been the to-go groups for most of Pakistan-based terror operations during last decade (coalition of Lashkar-e-Tayba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alami and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi). Brigade 313 members have been known to be working with Bin-Laden as well as the Pakistani spy agency (ISI) and the Pakistani military.

Brigade 313 & Laskhar al Zil

Brigade 313 is responsible for 26/11. I think there is a close connection between Brigade 313 and Lashkar al Zil or the SHADOW ARMY.

Long War Journal reports : The presence of the Shadow Army has been evident for some time, as there have been numerous reports of joint operations between the Taliban, al Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, Hizb-i-Islami, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, and other terror groups. (NOTE: Same terror modules that make up Brigade 313). “The type of masks worn and the tennis shoes are also strong indicators that these fighters "are non-Afghan fighters," an expert on the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan said. "Those types of masks I have seen, and they are always on the Pakistani side of the border," the expert said. "The tennis shoes and socks are a big indicator that they are non-Afghan fighters, probably Pakistanis or Arab/Central Asian fighters."

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Ilyas Kashmiri

Ilyas Kashmiri created Brigade 313. Kashmiri was also an elite commando of SSG (Pakistan) . He was also Pervez Musharraf’s blue eyed boy and received a cash reward of Rs 100,000 for brutally beheading an Indian soldier and bringing his head as a trophy for the then General.

On February 25, 2000, Indian Army troops allegedly crossed the Line of Control and killed 14 people in Nakial in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

On the morning of February 26, Kashmiri conducted a guerrilla operation against the Indian Army in the Nakial sector. He crossed the LoC with 25 fighters from his 313 brigade, surrounded an Indian Army bunker and threw grenades inside. He also kidnapped an injured Indian Army officer who he later killed brutally.

He returned to Pakistan with the Indian Army officer's head in his bag and presented it to senior Pakistan army officers. President Musharraf, who was also then the army chief, awarded his Rs 100,000 for this action.

The Indian side of this sordid saga:

Indian Express reports: "Indian Army records show that the man who was beheaded in 2000 was Sepoy Bhausaheb Maruti Talekar of the 17 Maratha Light Infantry (MLI). While Indian troops in nearby posts launched a counter-attack with heavy rocket fire, the intruders slit Talekar’s throat and left behind his decapitated body."

Lieutenant General Mehmood Ahmad, then the corps commander in Rawalpindi, visited Kashmiri's terrorist training camp in Kotli and appreciated his frequent guerrilla actions against the Indian Army.

His honeymoon with Pakistan's generals ended after the Jaish-e-Mohammad was created. Mehmood wanted Kashmiri to join the Jaish and accept Masood as his leader. But the one-eyed Kashmiri refused to do so. (He lost his eye in Afghan jehad against the Soviets).

The Jaish attacked his training camp in Kotli, but Kashmiri survived that assault. After 9/11, Musharraf banned Kashmiri's outfit.

He was arrested after an attempt on Musharraf's life in December 2003 and tortured during the interrogation.

The United Jihad Council led by Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin strongly protested Kashmiri's arrest. In February 2004, Kashmiri was released, but was a shattered man. He disassociated himself from Kashmiri militants and remained silent for at least three years.

The Pakistan military's operation against the Lal Masjid in July 2007 totally changed Ilyas Kashmiri. He moved to North Waziristan where he had spent many years as an instructor in jihad against the Soviet army. This area was full of his friends and sympathisers. He reorganised his 313 brigade and joined hands with the Taliban.

Many former Pakistan army officers joined him. His 313 Brigade in North Waziristan numbered more than 3,000 fighters; most of them hailed from Punjab, Sindh and Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

According to Asia Times Online: An al-Qaeda-linked cell led by veteran Kashmiri guerrilla commander Ilyas Kashmiri had completed all plans for the assassination of Pakistan's chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, in 2008, but when the matter was sent to the top al-Qaeda hierarchy for approval, it immediately ordered the plan to be shelved.

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The points to ponder are these:

the direct connection of Pakistan commando with Al – Qaeda.

the direct connection of Pakistan Army with nuclear proliferation.

The direct connection of China in supplying nuclear material to Pakistan

The silence of US and NATO for their own gain

The impotence of India in all this!

Dr. A Q KHAN SPILLS PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION RECORD !!

Much of what is written is already known (click here for more) - now that it has come from a letter written in 2003 by Dr AQ Khan written as an insurance policy so that he is not "eliminated" by Pakistan Army, this letter blows the lid off Pakistan's proliferation record. Not that much is going to change. And US, as usual will say a lot, but do little. It suits US and other powers that Pakistan can checkmate India.

Simon Henderson's article in Sunday Times, London:

"It could be a scene from a film. On a winter’s evening, around 8pm, in a quiet suburban street in Amsterdam, a group of cars draw up. Agents of the Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, accompanied by uniformed police, ring the bell and knock on the door of one of the houses. The occupants, an elderly couple and their unmarried daughter, are slow to come to the door. The bell-ringing becomes more insistent, the knocks sharper. When the door opens, the agents request entry but are clearly not going to take no for an answer.

The year was 2004. The raid went unreported but was part of the worldwide sweep against associates of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist and “father of the Islamic bomb”, who had just been accused of selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. The house belonged to one of his brothers, a retired Pakistani International Airlines manager, who lived there with his wife and daughter. The two secret agents asked the daughter for a letter she had recently received from abroad. Upstairs in her bedroom, she pulled it from a drawer. It was unopened. The agents grabbed it and told her to put on a coat and come with them.

The daughter, Kausar Khan, was taken to the local police station, although, contrary to usual practice, she was neither signed in nor signed out. The Dutch agents wanted to know why she had not opened the letter and whether she knew what was in it. She didn’t; she had merely been asked to look after it. Inside the envelope was a copy of a letter that Pakistan did not want to reach the West. The feared Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had found the letter when they searched Dr AQ Khan’s home in Islamabad. He had also passed a copy on to his daughter Dina to take to her home in London, as rumours of Khan’s “proliferation” — jargon for the dissemination of nuclear secrets — swept the world. The Pakistani ISI were furious. “Now you have got your daughter involved,” they reportedly said. “So far we have left your family alone, but don’t expect any leniency now.”

Dr Khan collapsed in sobs. Under pressure, he agreed to telephone Dina in London and ordered her to destroy the documents. He used three languages: Urdu, English and Dutch. It was code for her to obey his instructions. Dina dutifully destroyed the letter. That left the copy that was confiscated by the Dutch intelligence service in Amsterdam. I know there is at least one other copy: mine.

Just four pages long, it is an extraordinary letter, the contents of which have never been revealed before. Dated December 10, 2003, and addressed to Henny, Khan’s Dutch wife, it is handwritten, in apparent haste. It starts simply: “Darling, if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand.” In numbered paragraphs, it outlines Pakistan’s nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea, and also mentions Libya. It ends: “They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me.”

When I acquired my copy of the secret letter in 2007, I was shocked. On the third page, Khan had written: “Get in touch with Simon Henderson… and give him all the details.” He had also listed my then London address, my telephone number, fax number, mobile-phone number and the e-mail address I used at the time. It has been my luck, or fate, call it what you will, to develop a relationship with AQ Khan.

Khan became an idolised figure in Pakistan from the 1980s onwards because of his success in building a uranium-enrichment plant at Kahuta, near Islamabad. In February 2004, three years after his retirement, he was accused of proliferating nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, and made a televised confession.

General Pervez Musharraf, at the time the ruler of Pakistan, pardoned Khan for his “crimes” but kept him under house arrest and largely incommunicado in Islamabad until February this year, when a court ordered his release. He was declared a “free man”, but in practice nothing changed.

His freedom lasted a day or so before international protests, mainly from the United States, locked him back up again. A few months ago, he was refused permission to attend his granddaughter’s high-school graduation. “I continue to be a prisoner,” Khan complained.In Washington, a State Department spokesman said that Khan remained a “proliferation risk” but, after being shut away for five years, that seemed hard to imagine. So why was he silenced? Was it because of what he did, or because of what he knows about Pakistan’s active role in spreading nuclear technology to some of the world’s worst regimes?

Any relationship with a source is fraught with potential difficulties. One doesn’t want to be blind to the chance of being used. Government officials and politicians in any country are seldom interested in the simple truth. They all have their particular story to tell. In this context, I am frankly amazed that Khan has chosen me to be his interlocutor with the world.

I have been writing about Pakistan ever since I arrived there in June 1977, sent by the BBC to be a stringer because the local man was considered to be under the thumb of the then prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (the father of the assassinated Benazir), who had held disputed elections and was facing widespread street protests.

At the time I had never heard of AQ Khan, although, it turns out, he and his family had also lived months earlier at the same small hotel in Rawalpindi where I had lodged for a while. Pakistan was already vying to be a nuclear power and America was pressuring France to stop the sale of a reprocessing plant which would have enabled Pakistan to acquire plutonium, a nuclear explosive.

I returned to London in 1978 to join the Financial Times, and was replaced by a journalist who latched on to a bigger story: that Pakistan was building a centrifuge enrichment plant to make highly enriched uranium, the alternative route to an atomic bomb. A Dutch-trained previously unknown Pakistani scientist, Dr AQ Khan, was leading the project.My intrepid replacement went to visit Khan’s nuclear construction site at Kahuta. He also found out where Khan was living and went to his home. Khan’s security guards beat him up before he reached the front door.

The FT sent me back to Pakistan to help broker a deal whereby my replacement could leave without being prosecuted. At that point, I began my own investigations of Khan, which led to a front page story about his purchasing network in Britain. I doubt that either Khan or the Pakistan government was happy to see the exposé.

Even so, the first time I contacted Khan, he was civil to me. It was 1986 and he had just won, on a technicality, an appeal against a Netherlands court judgment that he had attempted to steal centrifuge secrets. Although my story was not a whitewash, it did quote him accurately, and Khan wrote to me with some more information about his case. I replied, and he reciprocated. It started a “penfriendship” that has continued for 23 years and has included two visits.

At the time, I thought Khan might make a good subject for a book. I amassed material, but never thought I had enough, and was not even sure if he was interesting enough for a biography. For his part, Khan was cautious. “When I write my autobiography, Mr Henderson, I shall ask you for your help.” It wasn’t the answer I wanted.

Frankly, in news terms, there wasn’t a great deal of interest in him, even in 1998, when Pakistan first tested its 1,500-kilometre-range Ghauri missile, a Khan-directed copy of the North Korean Nodong rocket, and went on to test two nuclear weapons. In 2001, when he turned 65, he retired. We kept in touch, but it was mostly Christmas cards.

Then, in late 2003, he became the story again. I was in London, on a bicycle ride by the River Thames, when my mobile phone rang. A voice said: “I am a friend of your friend in Pakistan.” I knew my “friend” must be Khan. The voice on the line said he had been asked to call.

My “friend’s” associates were being arrested — former colleagues at KRL, the Dr AQ Khan Research Laboratories, as the Kahuta centrifuge plant was known. I asked why. The voice said “Iran” — which was attempting to go nuclear. I asked what my friend wanted me to do with the information. The voice said I should try to publish it. It might help.I explained that I was happy to listen to what I was being told, but I needed some corroboration. I told him that my friend should call or e-mail me; he didn’t have to go through the details again. As far as I was concerned, he could just say “Merry Christmas”. I cycled home quickly and took a shower. Thirty minutes later, Khan rang from Pakistan and wished me merry Christmas.

The next few weeks were turbulent. A week or so after Khan’s call to me, Libya announced that it would abandon weapons of mass destruction. Shortly afterwards, in December 2003, The Wall Street Journal revealed that a German cargo ship called BBC China had been intercepted on its way to Libya with thousands of centrifuge components, and diverted to Italy. There was a Khan link there as well, but Khan declined my request for an interview. His “friend” called to say the time was not right and Khan was exhausted after long bouts of interrogation.

Khan was placed under house arrest on February 1, 2004, and since then he has rarely been able to leave his house. What do you do when under house arrest in Islamabad? You watch the BBC on satellite television. I knew he would. So, in 2006, when Panorama came to me saying they were making a film about Khan’s role in nuclear proliferation and would I be interviewed, the answer was simple: “Yes”. I told them that, from my knowledge of Pakistan and Khan, he could not have acted without the permission and collaboration of the government.

Khan watched the programme. After that, one thing quickly led to another. I came to know of the existence of the letter, and also learnt that its contents were known to Dutch intelligence, and also to anyone they might have passed details on to — including, in all likelihood, the British and Americans.Why were Dutch intelligence agents so keen to seize it? On the face of it, the letter’s contents are a damning indictment of a generation of Pakistan’s political and military leadership, who used Khan’s nuclear and missile skills to enhance Pakistan’s diplomacy.

It was not rocket science to work out a plausible explanation for the Dutch seizure. Bloggers will probably err on the side of more imaginative conspiracy theories, but the truth is probably simpler. After the September 11 attacks, the West in general, and the United States in particular, had to work with Pakistan to counter Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in neighbouring Afghanistan. That meant that they had to work with President Musharraf, even though he was no democrat. As part of the bargain, Pakistan’s nuclear sins also needed to be placed to one side.

As sins go, they were big: Pakistan had been spreading nuclear technology for years. The first customer for one of its enrichment plants was China — which itself had supplied Pakistan with enough highly enriched uranium for two nuclear bombs in the summer of 1982.

CHINA CONNECTION:

There it was in the letter: “We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian).” It went on: “The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%).” (UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)

On Iran, the letter says: “Probably with the blessings of BB [Benazir Bhutto, who became prime minister in 1988] and [a now-retired general]… General Imtiaz [Benazir’s defence adviser, now dead] asked… me to give a set of drawings and some components to the Iranians…The names and addresses of suppliers were also given to the Iranians.”

On North Korea: “[A now-retired general] took $3million through me from the N. Koreans and asked me to give some drawings and machines.”

In late 2003, with Al-Qaeda far from vanquished in Afghanistan and Pakistan-linked centrifuge components heading towards Libya, President Musharraf was under tremendous pressure from Washington. In all likelihood, he was offered a way out: “Work with us and we will support you. Blame all the nuclear nonsense on AQ Khan.” Although Musharraf had lavished praise on Khan at a banquet in 2001, he didn’t like him personally. So the choice was simple. Khan was made a scapegoat.

Years earlier, Khan had been warned about the Pakistan army by Li Chew, the senior minister who ran China’s nuclear-weapons programme. Visiting Kahuta, Chew had said: “As long as they need the bomb, they will lick your balls. As soon as you have delivered the bomb, they will kick your balls.” In the letter to his wife, Khan rephrased things: “The bastards first used us and are now playing dirty games with us.”

George Tenet, the director of the CIA at the time of 9/11, has described Khan as “the merchant of death” and “as bad as Osama Bin Laden”. Khan has been accused of unauthorised nuclear proliferation, motivated by personal greed. On top of this, he has been depicted as overstating his contribution to Pakistan’s success in making nuclear weapons and missiles with which to threaten the whole of India.

These themes, which were repeated endlessly across the world, are now accepted as universal truths. But Khan was a government official and an adviser with ministerial status even after he retired in 2001. If his dissemination of nuclear secrets was authorised by the government, it could not be illegal and he would enjoy sovereign immunity for his actions. Pakistan is also not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), so its nuclear trades, however reprehensible, were not against international law.

Khan is adamant that he never sold nuclear secrets for personal gain. So what about the millions of dollars he reportedly made? Nothing was confiscated from him and no reported investigation turned up hidden accounts. Having planted rumours about Khan’s greed, Pakistani officials were curiously indifferent to following them through. General Musharraf told a British newspaper at the time of Khan’s arrest in 2004 that “He can keep his money”. In another interview a few months later, he said: “We don’t know where his funds are.”

But was there any money? Much was made of a “hotel”, named after Khan’s wife, Henny, built by a local tour guide with the help of money from Khan and a group of friends in Timbuktu, west Africa. It is a modest structure at best, more of a guesthouse. A weekend home at Bani Gala, outside Islamabad, where Khan went to relax, is hardly the palace that some reports have made it.

In fact, there seemed to be no money. By summer 2007, Khan was finding it difficult to make ends meet on his pension of 12,200 rupees per month (at the time about $200). After pleading with General Khalid Kidwai, the officer supervising both Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and Dr Khan, the pension was increased to $2,500 per month and there was a one-off lump-sum payment of the equivalent of $50,000. I have copies of the agreement and cheques.

As for his role in the development of Pakistan’s nuclear and missile forces, I have little doubt that Khan won the race between his KRL organisation and the official Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission to develop both a nuclear bomb and a missile system, a rivalry deliberately constructed by the dictator General Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s and sustained by later governments.

But there is a simple way to clarify matters. Pakistan’s system of national civilian honours is topped by the Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Order of Excellence), abbreviated as NI. A second tier of honour is the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Crescent of Excellence), or HI. Khan was awarded the NI twice, a distinction never achieved before or since. He was also earlier awarded the HI. It is stretching one’s imagination to think that Khan could hijack the country’s honour system and the judgment of successive presidents.

Although the West continues to condemn Khan, Pakistan’s own energy to do so is fading, particularly since the departure of Musharraf in 2008. Frustrated by his house arrest and legal limbo, Khan has repeatedly this year pressed for remedy by the courts.

Khan was supposedly freed from house arrest in February, but the terms of that freedom were detailed in a secret “annexure A” of the court judgment, the final version of which Khan only saw later. One of the lines in the original draft that he was asked to sign was: “That in case Mr Simon Henderson or anyone else proceeds with the publication of any information or material anywhere in the world, I affirm that it would not be based on any input from me and I disown it.”

That line was eventually deleted and replaced with a more general prohibition about unnamed “specific media personnel”. Despite the court judgment specifying that the contents of the annexure “shall not be issued to the press or made public in any manner”, a copy reached me in the West.

Khan went back to court last month to challenge the terms of the annexure that he never accepted. Justice Ejaz Ahmed, the presiding judge at the Lahore high court, lifted all the curbs on his movement. “Dr Khan can come and go anywhere he pleases and no one should prevent him from doing this,” he ruled. “There should be no limitations.” Two days later another Pakistani court reimposed the ban.

America is pressing hard for Khan’s continued confinement. Deprived by Pakistan of the opportunity to interrogate Khan, the US is concerned that he may revive his old networks. Echoing the official view, The New York Times called this month for restrictions to remain on Khan for his “heinous role as maestro of the world’s largest nuclear black market”.

If Khan is free to travel and speak openly, there is a danger that he will give his own account of events, opening up a can of worms and complicating relations with Washington. Now his letter has been revealed, he hopes his story will be told differently. "

FUTURE CONFLICT ZONES WITH CHINA

Nestled between India and China at an altitude of 14,500 feet, and 4 hours bone shaking drive from Leh, lies Pangong Lake (also known as Lukung Lake). 45 kms of this lake lies within Indian territory while the remaining 90 kms lies within China.

Things deteriorated in 1999 after China, taking advantage of the Indian Army’s buildup in Kargil, built a 5-km permanent track into Indian territory along the lake.

The Chinese have led incursions into India because they know that they can – and can get away with it. It’s as simple as that. Our politicians refuse to acknowledge even today the Chinese threat. Reminds one of the 1962 debacle when Krishna Menon ordered COFFEE PERCOLATORS to be made in ARMS FACTORY – thinking that the Chinese aggression is a myth, only to be proved wrong at a catastrophic cost to the country.

In July 2008, an Indian motorboat on regular patrolling duty along the perceived border in the lake, was surrounded by three Chinese naval crafts. Things started turning tense as the Chinese crafts approached the Indian boat (which was sufficiently armed with two machine guns and a 20 -member contingent). The situation calmed down only after the quick thinking operator swung around the larger Indian boat in circles to disperse the Chinese crafts.

The Chinese Navy operates close to 22 armed patrol boats in the lake — mostly smaller vessels seating five to seven soldiers. India, on the other hand, has two patrol boats that are operated by the Army. While these boats are bigger — carrying up to 21 soldiers — the numeric superiority that China enjoys is undeniable.

Stuck in the corridors of South Block is a proposal to ferry in an additional 10-12 boats for better patrolling of the lake.

BACK TO 1962: The Govt of India, with Krishna Menon as Defence Minister, was least interested in defence preparedness. Ordnance factories were manufacturing coffee percolators and toasters, because they had “extra spare capacity”. But as they all shouted in Parliament, “ ------every inch of our land will be defended to the last man.” With what?




The analysts from Jane’s Information Group, believe that the Chinese Communist Party can only continue to rule the country if it maintains economic growth at more than 10 per cent. It is already investing heavily in Africa for food and natural resources but this could lead to a CONFLICT WITH INDIA with the trade route that crosses the Indian Ocean.

Are we ready for this future conflict?



China, historically has been a land power, barring the dynasty of Zeng He in 15th century, when China had famed treasure fleets. Then, it was more for explorations rather than expansions or even guarding any trade lanes. As threat of invasion from north increased, China quickly abandoned its ocean going enterprises – considering them to be expensive.

However 21st century is panning out quite the opposite. China has found itself increasingly dependant on resources and markets accessible only via maritime routes. Where US and Japan are dominant naval powers, China is stepping up its naval capabilities quite dramatically. Chinese navy is seeking to project powers not only throughout East and South China seas but also to Indian Ocean basin and beyond, to West Africa and Latin America.


By 2015 China is expected to have six Jin-class submarines capable of firing the JL2 ballistic nuclear missile that could threaten both the western and eastern American seaboards acting as deterrent to any US intervention if Taiwan or other areas erupted in conflict.

China’s nuclear attack submarine force is expanding “quite considerably” with six T93 hunter killers and more than a dozen Kilo class boats.

Fast attack craft, each carrying eight anti-ship missiles, are to increase from 40 to 100 giving the navy “a considerable capability. There had been a major build up of assault ships including 30 large tank landing craft that would allow long range operations.

2009 – Chinese navy pilots will begin training for aircraft carrier operations, that are expected to become operational early next decade.

ARE WE READY FOR THIS CHINA .... CLEARLY BENT ON CHANGING GEO-STRATEGIC SHIFTS AROUND INDIA.

HON'BLE MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS - WAKE UP AND SMELL THE DRY CHINESE GUNPOWDER !!

A message to Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs Mr SM Krishna who stated "India's borders with China is most peaceful" - are you smoking OPIUM or are you suffering from delusions that your namesake (Krishna Menon - then Defense Minister) suffered from and ordered Indian Army ordnance to manufacture coffee percolators instead of arms (because he too foresaw a peaceful border with CHINA) prior to the 1962 war with China.

Hon'ble Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee - thank you for kicking Mr Krishna and his sidekick Mr Shashi Tharoor out of their 5 star confines which is taken from my tax money and make them smell coffee if not the dry smell of the Chinese gunpowder.

On a tactical sense, India and China can never go for an all our war - more out of geography than anything else. Will cover this in later articles. However a short decisive war is never ruled out. China is licking its wounds with India's forceful moves in Tawang and these are pressure tactics - the innumerable border incursions into India by China.

TIME TO TEACH CHINA A LESSON:



13th November 2008 : China made a direct request to India for blocking the six-day meeting organised by the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala from November 17 to discuss the future of Tibet. Significance of Tibet.

Qin Gang, the Foreign Ministry spokesman stated: “Anyone who participates in the meeting being organised by the Dalai Lama will not be liked by the Chinese people. The Chinese government is against anyone trying to split the nation or raise such an issue in the international arena. The Indian government has made solemn commitment about not allowing any anti-China activities on its soil. We hope that the commitment will be implemented.”


The Dalai Lama invoked article 59 of the Tibetan Charter that empowers him to call a 'Special Meeting' to discuss the future course of action as his envoys returned empty handed after secret meetings with Chinese government representatives. The past few weeks has seen the Tibetan leader complaining that he had "given up" on China and that his "faith in the Chinese government is thinning."

Chinese aggression on ground and verbal diktats are no longer welcome. It is time India behaved like a powerful nation and rapped the knuckles of these "interfering" Chinese.

30TH September 2008: The wall of mistrust continues to be an impediment in Indo-China relations. Intrusions by the Chinese forces continue unabated into Indian territory despite attempts by a red-faced South Block to brush them under the carpet.

The most recent incursion occurred on September 30 at the Burste post in the Ladakh sector along the Sino-Indian boundary. Soldiers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army entered 15 km into India.

While the transgression itself was unacceptable, the Chinese captured the patrolling base hut of Indian forces who were not present at the outpost. The patrolling base was burnt and rations and other equipment stolen. In another incident a fortnight ago, the Chinese PLA confronted Indian soldiers and asked them to “vacate Chinese sovereign territory”.

THE CHINESE AUDACITY IS A DIRECT FUNCTION OF INDIA'S IMPOTENT RESPONSE.

Recent example of this. Chinese Premier himself gave assurances to the Indian Prime Minister that China will not obstruct India's entry in the Nuclear Supplier's Group but it did exactly that. Instead of being in the forefront, China aligned itself with countries that were opposing India's entry into the NSG by playing an active role inside the room with these dissenting nations. When Indian PM tried calling up the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao - Jiabao refused to take the call - such was the audacity. It was only when George Bush telephoned the Chinese Premier, that China relented.

While an all out war with China is a very remote possibility,more so to do with Himalayas and geography (as opposed to history), however there are clear Scenario 1 and Scenario 2 of possible local "war" with China.

Alarmingly, according to a report sent to National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, the incursions tally has increased to 213 incidents, up from 170 reported last year. While the Chinese continue to maintain an aggressive posture, India’s diplomatic response has been weak and tardy, which is certainly not the way an aspiring power behaves.”

The Chinese foreign ministry recently challenged external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee's claim that Arunachal is an integral part of India. Foreign Minister Qin said that Mukherjee's statement was contrary to historical facts as China does not accept the MacMohan Line and the border between the two nations has not yet been demarcated.


McMahon Line : The McMahon line runs through the eastern Himalayas and constitutes a psychological border between India and China. Drawn up and agreed to during by British India and Manchu China, its subsequent repudiation by China made it the major irritant plaguing the relations the two countries. Sir Henry McMahon, British India’s foreign secretary, drew this 1,360km border on a map at the 1914 Simla Convention attended by British, Tibetan and Chinese delegates, thereby adding 129,500 sq km to India. Though Mr Chen I-fan, the Chinese representative, initialled the map, his government disavowed it. China has never recognised the McMahon Line.

Chinese duplicity is its stock foreign policy. For example China’s stance on India’s annexation of Sikkim: the Chinese government did not accept India’s annexation of Sikkim for over two decades in spite of the fact that Sikkim was nowhere near the McMahon line which China first accepted and then unilaterally repudiated.



Bhutan incursions: There is a deep-seated fear in Indian defense circles that Chinese troop movements in Bhutan near the strategic Chumbi Valley are dangerously close to the Siliguri Corridor, aka India's chicken neck, which separates India proper from its restive northeast and is a mere 13 miles to 25 miles wide, making India extremely vulnerable to a territorial cutoff. A Chinese move into Dolam means that India’s border with China gets distorted at Sikkim’s tri-point with Bhutan. It also means that Chinese forces move a few kilometres south from where they originally were. It brings them closer to North Bengal’s Siliguri Corridor. China has always laid claim to Dolam. There is a suspicion that it has now extended its claim line.

TIBET:

Through out the brief history of territorial dispute between India and China, India chose to be on the defensive side for all the wrong reasons. India failed to use the ‘Tibet card’ as a bargaining chip in the territorial negotiation with China. China knows it very well that India would not dare raise the issue of Tibet either on international plate form or in bilateral talks. The Chinese claim over Arunachal Pradesh was based on the history of Tibet, not on Chinese history. Historically Tibet owned the large territories of present day Arunachal Pradesh, especially the Tawang district. However, India on the other hand also has a historically attested reason to claim over Arunachal Prasesh. Ironically it is also based on Tibetan history.

With the demise of the Manchu dynasty in China in 1912, the Thirteenth Dalai lama drove out the Ambans, the Manchu emperor’s representatives in Tibet and their security forces out of Tibet and declared Tibet as an independent sovereign nation.


ARUNACHAL PRADESH:

In 1914 British tried to mediate a negotiation between Tibet and China to settle the political status of Tibet and territorial dispute between Tibet and China. China declined to sign the treaty. With a failure to resolve Sino-Tibet dispute, British decided to settle the Indo-Tibet border directly with Tibet. On July 3rd 1914 the British foreign secretary Sir Henry McMohan and the Tibetan government representative Lonchen Shatra signed the Simla Convention. They accepted the McMohan Line, which accorded Tawang to British India, as an officially accepted boundary between the two nations. The actual map showing the McMohan Line as a boundary between Tibet and India was published by Survey of India in 1937. In 1954 India officially called the territories accorded to her side of the McMohan Line NEFA- North East Frontier Agency. To consolidate her claim over NEFA, in 1972 India gave it an Indian name, Arunachal Pradesh, which remained a Union Territory of the Central Government of India until 1987. In 1987 Arunachal Pradesh formally became an Indian state.

AGGRESSIVE DIPLOMACY:

India must be aggressive diplomatically with a fresh and more insightful foreign policy in dealing with China. The best card India can use to bargain with China is Tibet. Nothing perturbs China diplomatically more than Tibet and Tibet is not a dead issue yet. India is a host nation to Tibetan government in Exile and home to the Dalai Lama, accepted leader of the Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet. With India’s initiative more and more countries will come forward to join India to raise Tibet on the international platform. Hollywood is smitten with Tibet - need to bring it to realistic levels to choke CHINA.

BACK TO 1962: Nehru was smitten into the "Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai" concept. The Govt of India, with Krishna Menon as Defence Minister, was least interested in defence preparedness - he and Nehru refused to believe that China is an enemy. Ordnance factories were manufacturing coffee percolators and toasters, because they had “extra spare capacity”. (CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS - COFFEE PERCOLATORS AND TOASTERS AND NOT AMMUNITION).

AGGRESSIVE POSTURING:


Look at the population map of China above. See how sparsely it is populated around Tibetian region. The Chinese fear is this: If China were to withdraw from Tibet, and there were no military hindrance to population movement, Beijing fears this population could migrate into Tibet. If there were such a migration, Tibet could turn into an extension of India and, over time, become a potential beachhead for Indian power.

It is the Chinese fear that is forcing them to behave aggressively around their weakness. India should play around these Chinese fears and make it a reality for them.

8 steps :

1. Air force multiplers to be based in North East & Ladakh: Status – In Progress (The IAF is on course to base two squadrons (some 40 aircraft) of Sukhois, which have a cruising speed of 3,200 km, at Tezpur to counterbalance a Chinese threat on the eastern front. The air force has contracted some 230 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters from Russia in orders totaling over US $ 8.5-billion. The Ladakh sector has come to occupy lofty status in the IAF’s calculus as was evident when it reactivated the 2.1-km airstrip at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) in northeastern Ladakh after 43 years.)

2. Army commando units based in forward positions – Done

3. Strengthen Tawang area by infrastructure, dams etc. Status – Not happening

4. Cross over to Chinese side and cause incursions – Not happening.

5. Internal sabotage through Tibetians and false flag recruitments of Uighur Muslims. Tibetians have a valid fear : that the Chinese have tried to alter the demographic balance of Tibet by settling Han Chinese there, that it wishes to assimilate the religious and cultural distinctiveness of Tibetan identity into a larger Chinese identity.

6. Give Brahmos and other top range missiles to Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, S.Korea, Taiwan (countries that view China with animosity).

7. China is pushing 500 million people from farms and villages into cities too soon. Although it gets almost no publicity, China is experiencing hundreds of demonstrations around the country, which is unprecedented. These are not students in Tiananmen Square. These are average citizens who are angry with the government for building chemical plants and polluting the water they drink and the air they breathe. India should extend help to FALUN GONG and many other anti-establishment groups (incl martial arts groups, theatre & arts groups etc) and create dissension.

8. How can India take over Mt Kailash – ordained as a religious site in Indian Vedic texts, now in Tibet (China)? Well India will not, Tibet will. And Tibet being hostlile to China will lease or hand over the region to India. Hence India should start preparing the Tibetians for armed struggle against the Chinese. Tibet is the soft underbelly and a strong guirella force of 50,000 battle hardened (taken from ITBP and infiltrated back to China) would cause enough unrest. Simultaneously help mass uprisings in Chinese villages against mainland city centric China. India's goal should be Tibetian independence.


Chinese navy is today weaker than Japanese navy and of course the US Navy. However, in 15 years, Chinese navy will be a force to reckon with. Gwadar is a port in Pakistan that can base Chinese naval ships and play three roles:

i) safeguard Chinese oil shipment to mainland China,
ii) threaten Indian navy and mainland India and
iii) provide a security blanket around Pakistan.

Do we wait for this to play out and forever alter our dealings not only with China but also Pakistan? The clear answer = NO.

Ancient Indian thinkers produced two schools of war, diplomacy and interstate relations; the dharmayuddha (ethical warfare) school; and the kutayuddha (devious warfare) school. The two schools were, however, not mutually exclusive. Chanakya scores of Sun Tzu many times over.

Buddhism is India’s cultural gift to Tibet and China. We win nations through culture and that is our primary way. Kutayuddha as a means of last resort - with China we have come to that last resort !


FLAG OF INDEPENDENT TIBET.

THE GOAL IS : TIBETIAN INDEPENDENCE. ANYTHING LESS IS NOT IN INDIA’S LONG TERM INTERESTS.

CIA Records Take Lid Off High Treason By Indira Cabinet Minister

Anuj Dhar

Anuj Dhar and his team run an excellent site : END THE SECRECY.

This article reprinted with permission from author,

A minister of Indira Gandhi's cabinet betrayed India's "war objectives" to the Central Intelligence Agency in December 1971, causing an abrupt end to the Bangladesh war under vicious US armtwisting.

This is the highlight of the book CIA's Eye on South Asia by journalist Anuj Dhar. Published by Delhi-based Manas Publications, which is facing government's ire for coming out with a book on the R&AW, the book compiles declassified CIA records on India and her neighbours. It specifically spotlights what arguably has been India's biggest spy scandal.

In the run up to the 1971 India Pakistan war over what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), The New York Times first hinted at the presence of a CIA operative in the Indian government. By December The Washington Post had reported that US President Richard Nixon's South Asia policy was being guided by "reports from a source close to Mrs. Gandhi."

Records and telecons declassified recently - but not properly explained up till now - show that a dramatic turnaround came on December 6 when a CIA operative, whom Dhar pins down as a minister of the Indira Cabinet, leaked out India's "war objectives" to the agency. Prime Minister Gandhi told Union Cabinet that apart from liberating Bangladesh, India intended to take over a strategically important part of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and go for the total annihilation of Pakistan's armed forces so that Pakistan "never attempts to challenge India in the future."

When he came to know of the CIA report, a furious Nixon blurted out that "this woman [Indira Gandhi] suckered us," thinking that Mrs. Gandhi had promised him that India won't attack East Pakistan - not to speak of targeting West Pakistan and PoK. "But let me tell you, she's going to pay," he told his National Security Advisor Dr Henry Kissinger even as he tried to leak out the CIA report to give her bad press.

The CIA went on assess that fulfillment of India's "war objectives" might lead to "the emergence of centrifugal forces which could shatter West Pakistan into as many as three or four separate countries."

As a direct result of the operative's information, the Nixon administration went on an overdrive to save West Pakistan from a massive Indian assault. Because the President felt that "international morality will be finished - the United Nations will be finished - if you adopt the principle that because a country is democratic and big it can do what the hell it pleases."

Nixon personally threatened the USSR with a "major confrontation" between the superpowers should the Soviets failed to stop the Indians from going into West Pakistan. Kissinger secretly met Chinese Permanent Representative at the UN to apprise him of the CIA operative's report and rub in that what India was planning to do with Pakistan with the Soviet backing could turn out to be a "dress rehearsal" of what they might do to China.

Dhar quotes in the book the official records showing that USSR's First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov visited Delhi after Nixon's threat and told the "Indians to confine their objectives to East Pakistan" and "not to try and take any part of West Pakistan, including Azad Kashmir" as "Moscow was concerned about the possibility of a great power confrontation over the subcontinent."

Kuznetsov also extracted a guarantee from Prime Minister Gandhi that India will not attack West Pakistan. This decision was promptly conveyed to Nixon. On 16 December 1971 when Nixon was told that India had declared a ceasefire, he exulted: "We have made it… it's the Russians working for us." Kissinger congratulated him for saving West Pakistan - India's main target, as per the operative's report to the CIA.

Dhar repudiates recent assertion by a former Indian Navy chief that showing up of America's biggest nuclear powered carrier into the Bay of Bengal during the war had something to do with the accidental destruction of a US plane in Dhaka during an Indian strafing. "Declassified records make it unambiguously clear that the month-long show of strength by the USS Enterprise and accompanying flotilla was a byproduct of the CIA operative's reports," he writes, reproducing chunks from official records detailing how Nixon ordered a naval task force towards the subcontinent to "scare off" India from attacking West Pakistan.

In subsequent years, former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, and two deputy PMs - Jagjivan Ram and Y B Chavan - were alleged to be the CIA operative active during the 1971 war. However, all such charges lacked any substantiation because there was no confirmation whether or not such an operative ever existed. As such no constructive discussion on the issue ever took off. This has changed now given the unassailable evidence in the form of US records making it clear that the CIA had a "reliable" agent operating out of the Indian cabinet in 1971.

In declassified records the name of the operative has been censored because the CIA Director has "statutory obligations to protect from disclosure [the Agency's] intelligence sources." Dhar writes: "Naming the Indian operative even after so many years will adversely impact the Indo-US relations, and hit the Agency's prospects of recruiting new informants."

However, he suggests that Indian government may have known the identity of the operative. "R&AW under the most capable R. N. Kao could not have missed the reference to the 'source close to Mrs. Gandhi' and must have dug deeper," he writes, adding that in 1972 Mrs. Gandhi herself charged that "she had information that the CIA had become active in India".

More pertinently, Dhar quotes from the declassified record of a 5 October 1972 meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh and US Secretary of State William Rogers. During the meeting, Singh asserted that "CIA has been in contact with people in India in 'abnormal ways.'" and that India had information that "proceedings of Congress Working Committee were known to US officials within two hours of meetings".

A H1N1 VIRUS - THE REAL AGENDA

1. THE INNOCUOUS HEADLINE: US aircraft wanted to cross over Indian territory on dual call signs.

Indian Express reported: “The military cargo aircraft, hired by the US, that intruded into Indian airspace and was forced to land at the Mumbai airport on Friday was permitted to take off on Saturday. It took off around 10.40 pm. Meanwhile, it has now been established that the aircraft was crossing over Indian territory with dual call signs — one civil and one military — which is why it was intercepted and grounded. The aircraft was travelling from Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The CISF personnel had cordoned off the bay and only three members of the Russian crew were allowed to disembark for questioning. The remaining crew stayed inside the aircraft but were later allowed to use the ‘Refusal’ room at the airport, which is meant for confining passengers who await customs or immigration clearance. Three members were taken to the nearby ATC complex and questioned with the help of a Russian interpreter as only one of them could speak some broken English,” an airport official said. The total number of crew aboard the AN-124 was 18. Sources told Newsline that the aircraft was carrying heavy defence equipment to Afghanistan for American troupes.”

Conclusion 1

: Diego Garcia is a US top secret military facility and generally when “contraband” goods have to fly over dangerous skies, militaries hire flights from other countries on deniable missions. Other than what was reported, there surely had to be more than this. And there was.

Indian intelligence agencies reported internally that these aircraft, other than the armaments were carrying waste disposal systems that could hold in excess of 45,000 kg (100,000 pounds) and from which a “technologically sophisticated” network of nano-pipes led to the trailing edges of the wings and horizontal stabilizers for “dispersing” the contents of the waste tanks in an “aerial-type mist”.

“Furious” demands made by the United States to India for the release of the plane led to Indian Defense officials allowing the AN-124 they had captured to be released. (Of course, nearly every politician in India has sold his soul to defense kickbacks and are prone to any nudges from US / Russia / Israel to do their bidding).

So, what was the “agent” that was to be dispersed from the waste tanks in an aerial type mist over populated areas?

It was a deadly strain of A H1N1 virus. It possessed certain transmission vectors that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.

Conclusion 2:

A US military aircraft was carrying a deadly strain of H1NI virus, genetically mutated for potency in defense labs, when it was force landed in Mumbai. It was on its way to Afghanistan. We cannot at this point say, US wanted to conduct bio-warfare over India or Pakistan or Afghanistan. Just that it was carrying the deadly virus in a plane, that had the capacity to disperse these agents in spray mist over populated areas to infect the population.

(BuA: Did the plane fly over Pune before landing in Mumbai? And in panic, did it try to offload its cargo before it landed in Mumbai, over Pune – this is pure speculation on my part).

A DIVERSION INTO RECENT HISTORY AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE (BW):

"BW occured between 1754 and 1767 when the British infiltrated small pox infested blankets to unsuspecting American Indians during the French and Indian war. Smallpox decimated the Indians."

2. WHO & A H1N1

News from world is trickling in on the biological warfare component of A H1N1. News from Pattaya Daily News and others: “By far the most worrying speculations, however, concern reports that suggest the A-H1N1 virus, may be a biological weapon, which escaped or may have been stolen from a U.S. Army Medical Command test lab, although the WHO and the U.S. government have been quick to deny such claims.”

According to two mainstream media journalists, one in Mexico City and the other in Jakarta, who spoke to WMR on background, they are convinced that the current outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in Mexico and some parts of the United States is the result of the introduction of a human-engineered pathogen that could result in a widespread global pandemic, with potentially catastrophic consequences for domestic and international travel and commerce.

The journalists have been told by top officials of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) about the grave dangers posed by the new and deadly swine flu strain, known as A-H1N1. This flu has never before seen by scientists.
Past swine flu outbreaks have been spread from pigs to humans, who then passed the flu on to other humans. However, with A-H1N1, there have been no reported infections of pigs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that up to 2 billion people could be infected worldwide if the current outbreak worsens; this especially if the strain mutates.

A recent WHO report maintained the H1N1 flu virus definitely has the potential to unpredictably mutate into a more virulent form, resulting in a pandemic that may circle the globe in at least two or even three waves. In June, it was reported that a new H1N1 virus mutation, a subtype strain named A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1, has already been isolated in a 26-year-old patient in Brazil.

Conclusion 3:

WHO has stated that this virus will mutate and infect 2 billion people globally. There is open discussion connecting the new strain of the virus with US defense bio-labs.

3. US & Biological weapons. A look at Anthrax and Fort Detrick.

Fort Detrick has biolabs where other than NIH, US has the largest samples of virulent pathogens that the military researches on. USAMRIID is the Army’s top biodefense lab and it is housed here.

On Nov 14th 2001, 5 people were dead and dozens were dick in US due to anthrax poisoning. Dr. Ivins was caught and harassed and he finally committed suicide (or was it murder?? – taking the fall to hide powerful people)

New York Times’s excellent article and which should be read in its entirety to understand the complexity and connivance of defence labs and military states in its conclusion:

A front-page article on Jan. 4 about Bruce E. Ivins, the late Army scientist who the Federal Bureau of Investigation says was responsible for the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, reported that F.B.I. scientists had concluded in 2004 that out of 60 domestic and foreign water samples, only water from near Fort Detrick, Md., where Dr. Ivins worked, had the same chemical signature as the water that had been used to grow the mailed anthrax. That information, provided by a former senior law enforcement official who did not want to be named in the article, suggested that the anthrax could not have come from military and intelligence research programs in Utah and Ohio, as some defenders of Dr. Ivins’s innocence had speculated. The F.B.I. declined to answer questions for that article, which said that the evidence against Dr. Ivins was circumstantial and that many of his colleagues believed the F.B.I.’s conclusion was wrong.

Conclusion 4:

Fort Detrick bio-defense labs were responsible for deadly strain of antrax that was used in the US.

4. Fort Detrick and H1N1

Frederick News in April22, 2009 reports that : Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick. Chad Jones, spokesman for Fort Meade, said CID is investigating the possibility of missing virus samples from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

In February, USAMRIID halted all its research into these and other diseases, known as "select agents" following the discovery of virus samples that weren't listed in its inventory.

H1N1 virus samples are missing from USAMRIID. However, Washington Post (close to the establishment) has come out with a story that the missing virus samples are: "The virus that causes Venezuelan equine encephalitis is mosquito borne and usually causes a mild flulike illness but can also cause brain inflammation and death. It has potential for use as a biological weapon but is far less lethal than some other agents the lab works with."

Conclusion 5:

VIrus samples are missing from USAMRIID lab of Fort Detrick that has potential use as a biological weapon.


5. DEATH of MICROBIOLOGISTS:

RENSE: In the four-month period from Nov. 12 through Feb. 11, 2002 - seven world-class microbiologists in different parts of the world were reported dead. Six died of "unnatural" causes, while the cause of the seventh's death is questionable. Also on Nov. 12, DynCorp, a major government contractor for data processing, military operations and intelligence work, was awarded a $322 million contract to develop, produce and store vaccines for the Department of Defense. DynCorp and Hadron, both defense contractors connected to classified research programs on communicable diseases, have also been linked to a software program known as PROMIS, which may have helped identify and target the victims.

The DNA sequencing work by several of the microbiologists discussed earlier is aimed at developing drugs that will fight pathogens based on the pathogen's genetic profile. The work is also aimed at eventually developing drugs that will work in cooperation with a person's genetic makeup. Theoretically, a drug could be developed for one specific person. That being the case, it's obvious that one could go down the ladder, and a drug could be developed to effectively treat a much broader class of people sharing a genetic marker. The entire process can also be turned around to develop a pathogen that will affect a broad class of people sharing a genetic marker. A broad class of people sharing a genetic marker could be a group such as a race, or people with brown eyes.

Now, statistically, it's possible, even likely, that one or two of these microbiologists legitimately were killed in random accidents. But for so many to die in such a short while exceeds all reasonable bounds of statistics.

There is really only one reason to kill off a bunch of scientists. To silence them from having conscience attack, if millions of population starts dying from the mutated strain of virus that they helped create.

Conclusion 6:

Microbiologists who can mutate virus to make them more potent, suddenly started dying in a short span of time, that would defy normal statistical death rates. Also, most of these deaths were classified as “unnatural”.

6. PROFIT MOTIVE from selling Anti – viral drugs and vaccines.

OK, since this is the first thing people will thing and this is true, we will not even go here. Of course, the people who benefit most from a flu scare are pharmaceutical companies that manufacture preventive and curative drugs to tackle the pandemic – in this instance Swine Flu.

CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with swine influenza viruses.

Oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu ®) is approved to both treat and prevent influenza A and B virus infection in people one year of age and older.

Zanamivir (brand name Relenza ®) is approved to treat influenza A and B virus infection in people 7 years and older and to prevent influenza A and B virus infection in people 5 years and older.

I am not getting into this as this is the basic assumption and yes, the manufacturer will make pots of money. And yes, some important influential people will be stock owners of this drug company. You can do research on this but I will leave it here.

Click on ROCHE.



To those more interested: “"The 1918 flu, called the Spanish flu, was extracted from the corpse of a dead Inuit woman who died of the disease in Brevig Mission, Alaska, a small Inuit village, and it was recombined with or combined with other forms of flu to create this particular A H1N1 that's been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

"Now it's interesting to note that a company called FluGen which is associated with this research at the University of Wisconsin at Madison is now developing a vaccine. I think what we see with Baxter International, FluGen, and other companies developing a vaccine when some of these companies were involved in the research on this particular form of flu, people are a little bit skeptical about the profit motivation here."

There is a far more sinister plan than making money.

7. NSSM 200 – The origins of Population De-control

US National Security Study Memorandum (NSSM) 200 – recently declassified and signed by Henry Kissinger states: (remember report was prepared in1972 – the figures may be dated but the agenda remains.)

NSSM 200 similarly concluded that the United States was threatened by population growth in the former colonial sector. It paid special attention to 13 “key countries” in which the United States had a “special political and strategic interest”: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. It claimed that population growth in those states was especially worrisome, since it would quickly increase their relative political, economic, and military strength. Also will be detrimental to American business interests.

“preoccupation with the growing internal economic and social problems resulting from huge population increases may progressively reduce the ability of the region, especially India, to play an effective regional and world power role.”

Schiller Institute states: “The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security. Adopted as official policy in November 1975 by President Gerald Ford, NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in those countries through birth control, and also, implicitly, war and famine. Brent Scowcroft, who had by then replaced Kissinger as national security adviser (the same post Scowcroft was to hold in the Bush administration), was put in charge of implementing the plan. CIA Director George Bush was ordered to assist Scowcroft, as were the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture.”

Conclusion 7:

The US had a declared National Secuirty Policy NSSM 200 that advocated population reduction in several countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh by war, famine and birth control means. It is to be noted famine can be caused by bio-warfare and is a speciality of USAMRIID labs in Fort Detrick.

8. Billionaire’s club and population de-control

Times Online reports: SOME of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.

This is the benign face. The true face is the Anglo Saxon military face that wishes to reduce the global population rise. It is a fact that much of Europe is dying (covered in earlier article) and becoming old – the replacement factor is alarmingly low.

To maintain a steady population, a country has to have a birth rate of 2.10. However, Western Europe has a birth rate of 1.5 – which is 30% below replacement. For a nation obsessed with sex, they are producing less children. Other than a shrinking population, these countries will see shrinking economies and a far higher tax burden on the younger generation. Europe is trying to tackle this issue by importing Muslim labourers. France and Germany today have 10% Muslim population that are growing at a far higher rate than is the “host” Christian population. This affects foreign policy of nations. Germany and France did not support the US invasion of Iraq, simply out of the fear that their Muslim population will implode on them.

Japan which has an even lower birth rate of 1.3 has tackled its issues differently. They stand to lose 60 million of its population in the next 30 years. Japan does not import labour. It simply shuts down schools and businesses. Till date, Japan has closed 2000 schools and the rate of school closure is 300 / year.

For Russia the problem has taken catastrophic proportions. Its birth rate is so low, that by 2050, THE POPULATION OF RUSSIA WILL BE LESS THAN THAT OF YEMEN. Russia sits on 1/6 of the global available land and one cannot defend such a huge territory with such a small population.


9. 900% Growth of Muslims in 100 years

These are very serious problems and in the face of it and contrast this with the Islamic population growth in Pakistan and Bangladesh – it will grow 900% in 100 years.

PAKISTAN: Population in 1947 = 30 million. Expected Population in 2050 = 300 million. A 900% growth over 103 years.

BANGLADESH: Population in 1947 = 32 million. Expected Population in 2050 = 280 million. A 775% growth over 103 years.

INDIA: Population in 1947 = 345 million. Expected Population in 2050 = 1630 million. A mere 373% growth over 103 years.


In case of India, there is a difference of Islamic population growth rate and the Hindu population growth rate. Muslims in India accounted for 9.9% of India’s total population in 1951, 10.8% in 1971, 11.3% in 1981, 12.1% in 1991. (CENSUS FIGURES - ACTUAL FIGURE HIGHER).

Let us look at the scientific data, and try to figure out when India’s muslims become 25% of India’s total population. Will come to why this 25% is important.

Total Indian Population in 1991 = 816 million.

Indian Muslim Population in 1991 = 101 million (12.1% of total).

% Increase in Total Population since 1981 = 23.8
%
Increase in Muslim Population since 1981 = 32.8
%.

We now make a few rough, order-of-magnitude calculations of the numbers involved and their actual consequences. Using t for time, with origin at 1991, T for total Indian population and M for the population of Indian Muslims, the relevant exponential equations are:

T(t)=T(0)exp(0.24t), with T(0)=816mil
M(t)=M(0)exp(0.24t), with M(0)=101mil

Our first calculation is based on the admittedly ad-hoc assumption that India can't support a population more than double the present one. The time for population to double is obtained by solving T(t)=2T(0), and we get t=2.89. Since we are measuring time in decades, this is about 30 years. Now we find that M(2.89)=262mil, while the total will double to 1632mil, and so the Muslim fraction will be only about 16%.

Now let us look at what it would take for the Muslim fraction to reach 25%. The relevant equation is:

M(0)exp(0.33t)=0.25T(0)exp(0.24t)

Solving for t, we get t=7.81, which is about 80 years i.e. 2070.

The world resources are scarce and something has to give. One cannot have Anglo Saxon population declining and power shifting to Asia plus overwhelming population increasing without something happening.

Biological warfare is one of the easiest and cost effective way to reduce population growth, keeping urban structures and agricultural land fertile (a nuclear attack is more expensive and messier and will reduce farm land productivity of the region).

Ted Turner (of CNN and a billionaire) is famously quoted as saying in 1996 in McAlvany Intelligence Advisor: “A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal."

Ted Turner used his Southern charm to calm worries that he longed for 95% decline from current population levels during a question and answer session– as the billionaire eugenicist was quoted in Audubon.

“That’s not really true,” Turner said. He instead cited 2 billion as the target– a mere 2/3 reduction of the human population – which he claims would allow ’everyone’ to have a decent standard of living, including a “refrigerator and air conditioner.”

Conclusion 8:

Muslim population is growing at the fastest rate while Europe is dying out.

11. India and Swine Flu: 33% will contract Swine Flu

Times of India (10th August 2009) : Admitting that the no government measure could prevent the spread of the H1N1 influenza in India, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Sunday that around one-third of the Indian population was likely to get infected with the virus over the next two years, in accordance with WHO predictions. But most people would suffer only mild symptoms of the disease, he added.

What he forgot to mention is that 1% of 33% will die. What he forgot to mention is that when local hospitals and private hospitals will be overwhelmed with terror and patients, the civic services will shut down causing more panic and in essence more death due to negligence.

Conclusion 9:

33% of Indians likely to contract Swine Flu within the next 2 years.

12. Preventive steps for Indians:

Since the drugs Oseltamivir and Zanamivir are not off the shelf, people should build their immunity with homeopathic treatment.



Times of India (9th August 2009) : "The people can take some of cost-effective and clinically proved homeopathic medicines for swine flu treatment as well as prevention," Batra's Positive Clinic's chairman and managing director, Dr Mukesh Batra, said.

Batra recommends `Oscilococcinium 30' and `Influenzium 200' for swine flu prevention as well as to improve the immune system among the general public towards the flu.

Similarly, treatment for swine-flu was done in Spain during 1917-18 war period with 'Bryonia 30' and proved effective, he said.

Well-known Delhi-based homeopath Mukesh Batra cited the instance of the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 in which more than 50 million people were killed worldwide. He said the mortality rate of people given allopathic treatment was 28.2 percent, while those given homeopathic treatment was 1.05 percent at that time.

"Gelsemium and Bryonia 30 were the two homeopathic remedies that proved to be effective against the H1N1 strain back then. These could be of great use even today," Batra said.

BuA: I recollect that the A H1N1 samples were taken from dead Innuit woman and during the flu epidemic of 1918, when 50 million people were killed. The two homeopathic medicines that helped were Gelsemium and Bryonia 30. I will certainly take this and give it to my family after consulting a leading homeopath. Please do not take medicines without asking a medical practitioner.

Conclusion 10:

Homeopathy did reduce the mortality rate in case of Spanish influenza strain in 1918. It may or may not work this time. Since there are no side effects and it is deemed to be a virulent strain of the Spanish flu, it is better to err on the side of caution.

It is also interesting to note that Indian right wing outfit RSS Head K S Sudarshan said in December 2008 : “If there is no other way left. Whenever the demons (Aasuri powers) start dominating this planet, there is no way other than the war. Tell me if there is any other way out. But war should be the last resort. Before that Bharat should consider other options. But according to me, as of now, it is very necessary to defeat the demons (Aasuri powers) and there is no other way.And let me say with confidence that after this destruction, a new world will emerge, which will be very good, free from evil and terrorism.”

De-population whether Anglo Saxons are saying it, whether US Military bio-defense labs are perpetuating it, whether US /UK billionaires are advocating it, or even right wing Hindu organizations like RSS are favouring it – there is a single thread at the end of it all – Lesser population means lesser fight over world’s meager resources and everlasting peace between nations.

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And yes, there is too much population in the world for all of us to live in peace.

US HAS ARM TWISTED INDIA INTO ACCEPTING BALOCHISTAN IN THE JOINT STATEMENT WITH PAKISTAN IN EGYPT:

The US has pressured India to include the name of Balochistan in the now “infamous” Indo-Pak joint statement. In the grand game, India was played along with US designs in the region and the grandeur of India becoming an equal partner to the US in the global stage suckered India into giving in.

The text reads ambiguously: "Prime Minister Gilani mentioned that Pakistan has some information on threats in Baluchistan and other areas." Why on earth should Pakistan put this innocuous statement if India has had nothing to do with it. And if India has had nothing to do in Balochistan - and "other areas", then why should this seemingly innocuous statement find its way in a joint statement?

Pervez Kiyani to India - You want action on LeT - ensure you stop meddling in Balochistan, else we do nothing. That is the essence of the bungling Mr. Manmohan Singh. Times of India : "Reports in the US media quoting official sources said Pakistan army chief Ashfaque Kayani recently sought to link Pakistan's actions against Lashkar-e-Taiba with India putting a stop to its alleged covert operations in Balochistan."

Full text of joint statement - click here : SOUTH ASIA MONITOR

Hence, India was armtwisted to accommodate the Pakistanis by inserting the “B” word, in lieu of a greater “supposed” sweet defense deals with the US and a larger role in Central Asian politics. But Americans are Americans – the only other shoulder they see are their own shoulders – there is no team work – there is only “subordinate” work.

Before India gives in to the charms of the US as it puts in a strong pitch its aircrafts for the deal of the century - it should look back - not too far and learn certain lessons from history.

Before leaving India, Royal Air Force (RAF, UK) decided to destroy valuable aircrafts in the newly independent India with the aim of denying these to the nascent Indian Air Force (IAF). Over fifty (50) Liberator bombers stationed in Kanpur that could have formed several bomber squadrons, were, as the then seniormost Indian engineering officer in Royal Indian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh, recounts in his memoirs, ‘ broken up by using the heavy cranes. The undercarriages were retracted as they were lifted high up and then suddenly the aircraft would be dropped nose down, on the ground’ or sledge hammer to ‘to damage the mainplanes and tail units’. Spitfire fighter aircraft came in for similar treatment and the Aircraft Repair Depot on base, moreover, was stripped off all tools and maintenance equipment, and several expensive machines and instruments were simply ‘thrown into a large water tank.’ Having forcibly rid the force of the Liberator bombers, the presiding British officers then tried to induce the Indian government to buy the ‘obsolete’ Lancaster bombers from the UK.

Nehru faced similar rebuff from the US too. The initial query for the supply of hardware to India, including 1000 jeeps and 43 B-25 Mitchell bombers, and for the placement of some thirty ‘aero-engineers’ was made by the Indian Military Attache in Washington and concurrently Military Adviser to the Indian Delegation to the United Nations, Colonel (later Lt. General) BM Kaul, in January 1948, on the instructions of the Defence Minister Baldev Singh. India did not get but note the important US Joint Chief of Staff’s (JCS) recommendation.

The JCS note stated: “..the strategic importance of the Karachi – Lahore area … under certain conditions as a base for air operations against central USSR and as a staging area for forces engaged in the defence or recapture of Middle East oil areas.’ This JCS document deemed other countries like India in South Asia to be of negligible positive strategic importance to the US. (See Venkatramani: A Mission without success’: pp 61-65)

And true to form - In the middle of this, the US is building the biggest base in Islamabad, just a little smaller than the one it built in Iraq. This cannot be good news for Iran, China, Russia and India. That is the other story playing out. Will come to this “old Great Game” at a later date.

PAKISTAN ARMY - TROUBLES MULTIPLY:

A few going ons and the rationale thereof. The troubles of Pakistan Army have multiplied and if India does not co-operate, the grand designs of the Americans for this region will be tattered business plans destined to be consigned into the dustbins of history.

MEHSUDS:

WASHINGTON POST (21ST JULY'09) : A few hundred thousand people in Pakistan belong to the Mehsud tribe, a Pashtun network divided into three major clans: the Manzai, the Bahlolzai and the Shaman Khel. Although they are scattered across the country, their home territory is South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan and is a refuge for fighters operating in both countries. The violence has pushed tens of thousands of Mehsuds out of South Waziristan. But there is little respite wherever they turn.

Pakistan Army, not known to understand Geneva convention, and given to the draconian FCR - under Section 21 of the 1901 Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) , a legal framework was developed to help the British Raj control rebellious Pashtuns. The regulations, which tribal leaders have tried to repeal or amend for years, give vast powers to the top official in each tribal district, known as the political agent.

And Pakistan army has decided that niceties and peace treaties be damned – Baitullah Mehsud must be captured and killed. And how is the Pakistan Army going about it : 2 incidents.

FIRST incident (JUNE 2009): Karachi police arrested five bandits in the southern port city of Karachi - Adil, Shah Hussain, Ahmed Baloch, Rahmat and Sher Muhammed, all from the Mehsud tribe and none of them from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

They were simply bandits who happened to be Mehsuds. However, the army was so keen to settle scores with Baitullah that a military security unit ordered a police officer, Raja Umar Khattab, to shoot them. Khattab refused, as he was aware, after their 15 days in custody, that they were just bandits and that an extra-judicial killing would land him in serious trouble.

The five were then transferred to another police officer, who did the deed. The bodies were immediately sent to South Waziristan with a message to Baitullah that the "more you defy us, the more you will collect the bodies of your tribal men".

This sordid episode further cemented the support of the entire Mehsud tribe around Baitullah, including all Taliban commanders. Baitullah is once again the undisputed number one commander of the Pakistani Taliban.

SECOND incident (JULY 2009): The Sina Diagnostic Center and Trust does not appear to be a menacing enterprise. The clinical pathology laboratory's 15 staff members conduct ultrasounds, X-rays and CAT scans and run free hepatitis and HIV tests for poor people and refugees in this teeming northwestern city of Peshawar.

That did not stop about a dozen Pakistani government revenue officers and police from marching up to the lab's second-story office this month to demand that the owner, Noor Zaman Mehsud, shut it down. They ushered patients and staff members outside, pulled down the metal gates and wrapped white cloth around the padlocks. Within 15 minutes, they were gone.
"They just said, 'You are a member of the Mehsud tribe, and we are going to seal up this business,' " Mehsud recalled. "My crime is that I belong to the Mehsuds."

Under regulations formulated a century ago by British colonial rulers - FCR, Pakistan's tribes are still bound by a legal concept known as "collective responsibility," under which any tribal member can be punished for the crimes of another.

That sweeping order has led to the closure of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of businesses in towns such as Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and Peshawar in North-West Frontier Province, according to lawyers, human rights officials and residents. One South Waziristan political official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said 25 Mehsuds have been arrested in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.

"This is the law of the jungle, not for civilized people. They are treating people like animals," said Noor Zaman Mehsud, the 39-year-old lab owner, who denied he had any connection to the Taliban. "If I am a criminal, they should arrest me. But they are giving other people's punishments to me."

Hence, as far as Mehsud tribe is concerned, Pakistan Army is an enemy and US too as its drones have now started to target Baitullah Mehsud. In fact, the US drone attacks should not be underestimated in making the region volatile to the detriment of Pakistan Army and its interests in the region.

The turning of several “good Taliban” against the Pakistan Army – a brief background.

The only Pakistani Taliban commander who sends his men to Helmand is Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan. Over the past few years, he has dispatched several thousand fighters.

A command structure comprising former Kashmiri fighters, under Abdul Jabbar, also sends men to Helmand. (IMPORTANT)

ASIA TIMES ONLINE: Few months ago, when the Malakand operation was in full swing, the Americans became so desperate that action should be taken against Pakistani militants who were due to go into Helmand that the Pakistani establishment believed they would take matters into their own hands and move into Pakistan.

To pre-empt this, all possible tribal rivals of Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan were organized (all were Taliban) under the banner of the Pakistan army. Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, whom the army claimed had 3,000 men, could hardly gather a few dozen, as with Haji Turkestan. The biggest Taliban commander on the Pakistani side, Mullah Nazir, an arch-rival of Baitullah due to tribal feuds, initially assured the army he would stay neutral if action were taken against Mehsud. Another Taliban commander, Gul Bahadur, also a rival of Baitullah, was silent.

Baitullah responded by conveying a message through influential commander Sirajuddin Haqqani to all Taliban leaders that if the Pakistan army entered South Waziristan, it would be completely under American pressure. As such, they should not make any agreements with the army.

Mullah Nazir promptly refused to allow the army passage in his area; Qari Zainuddin Mehsud was assassinated by Baitullah's men and Haji Turkestan went into hiding and refused to cooperate with the army.

With the army nevertheless poised to attack Baitullah last month, Gul Bahadur, considered "good Taliban" by the army, broke a ceasefire in North Waziristan by carrying out a devastating attack on a military convoy in which three officers and 26 soldiers were killed. Thirty military personnel were also abducted.

The incident stunned the army and it was faced with the reality that far from eliminating Baitullah, he had emerged as the leader of all of the Pakistani Taliban; tribal feuds had been put aside. This was despite the fact that the army clarified on a number of occasions that the military operation was only against Baitullah, not even against his tribe. Clearly, no one believed the army.

The turning of Sirajuddin Haqqani:

ISI’s greatest asset is the Haqqani group. It was ISI’s baby for strategic depth in Afghanistan. However, with the ill health of the legendary Jalaluddin, his son Sirajuddin is slowly slipping out of the grips of the ISI.

(However, I must point out, there is the other ISI – very active – made up of former DGs of ISI and their cohorts and some of the current ISI operatives too – who owe their alligience to Taliban and Al – Qaeda. At the very top is Hamid Gul. US is trying to marginalize this group for a long time – without any success)

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), US intelligence and Arab states have for many years maintained excellent relations with Jalaluddin Haqqani, the legendary Afghan commander against the Soviets in the 1980s. Haqqani, now seriously ill, supported the Taliban movement in the mid-1990s on the instructions of the ISI. But the Taliban never considered him a part of the movement, more as a warlord who had allied with them.

As a result, Haqqani was never given any significant position in the Taliban regime. When the Taliban abandoned Kabul in the face of the US-led invasion in late 2001, Islamabad tried hard to get him to abandon Taliban leader Mullah Omar and become the next head of the Afghan government. He flatly refused the proposal and went to a base in North Waziristan.

In 2006, he was elevated by the Taliban to the number one commander in Afghanistan. Pakistan was not too concerned as Haqqani had never meddled in the internal affairs of Pakistan, never allied with a Pakistani political party or group and he had never supported any mutiny in Pakistan.

But now that Haqqani is ill and bed-ridden, his power has been handed to his son Sirajuddin. Siraj's strength, like his father's, is his Punjabi comrades, but his friendship with al-Qaeda's Arab ideologues has influenced him.

Unlike his father, Siraj is close to Pakistan militants hostile to the establishment. The intelligence apparatus was prepared to overlook this, but not any more.

Some while ago, Siraj's brother, Dr Naseer Haqqani, was arrested while attending a meeting that included several wanted people. To the surprise of the security forces, Baitullah Mehsud negotiated for his release, agreeing to swap a few Pakistani soldiers for the detained man. Subsequently, Baitullah and Sirajuddin became close.

This explains the failure of the recent operation to get Baitullah. It depended on the cooperation of local anti-Baitullah tribes who happened to be Taliban, such as those of Mullah Nazir and Gul Bahadur and the now slain Qari Zainuddin Mehsud. Sirajuddin quickly sent messages for all commanders to unite in support of Baitullah, and their compliance ended any hope of him being isolated.



It also explains why the Haqqani network is now in the sights of the military as it prepares for a renewed battle against militants.

MULLAH RADIO - SERIOUSLY WOUNDED says PAKISTAN ARMY. REALLY??

Long War Journal reports: Swat Taliban leader 'alive, healthy and has never been wounded' - spokesman Muslim Khan.

And then there is Bin Yameen in SWAT

Contrary to the military's claims of hundreds of militants killed, the militants say they have lost only 50 of their men, with the remainder being civilians killed in crossfire or in aerial bombings. Of the 50, two commanders - one named only as Daud and the other as Shah Doran - have died.

The military operation has seen the emergence of a new supreme commander of the Swat Valley - Bin Yameen. He is fiercely anti-army and insiders say that even if ceasefires agreements are made, he will ignore them and fight to his last man and last bullet.

Renowned as a pir (spiritual guide), Bin Yameen is a former Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM - led by Maulana Masood Azhar) leader in Swat. He spent seven years as a prisoner of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance after being captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban in the 1990s. On his release, he returned to Swat and joined the JeM. In mid-2000, he was picked up by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for alleged involvement in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate president General Pervez Musharraf.

Bin Yameen was the victim of the worst sort of torture by army personnel, right up to the time it became crystal clear that he was not involved in any activity against the army or Musharraf. He became full of venom against the army.

After his release, Bin Yameen joined Mullah Fazlullah's TNSM, but retained command over a group of men loyal to him. Now there is a slogan that says "Bajaur [Agency] belongs to Faqir and Swat belongs to pir". (Faqir refers to another anti-army militant, Maulana Faqir Mohammad, whose brother was killed by the army in a torture cell.) At present, the entire Taliban leadership in the Malakand area is lying low, leaving Bin Yameen and his men face-to-face with the army.

Bin Yameen is just one example of a Talib who was once used by the military to further its strategic depth in Afghanistan, but who is now bitterly opposed to the army.

THE US ROLE :

The high-profile arrest of a group of Pakistani militants in mid-April 2009 in the restive Afghan province of Helmand by the Afghan army and their subsequent handover to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for grilling exposed a jihadi network running to the heart of urban Pakistan.

In the course of interrogation, the militants confessed to being recruited, trained and then launched into Helmand after spending some time in places such as the southern port city of Karachi and Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.

They also gave details of their Pakistani leaders and their activities, including how these leaders could move around freely and how they owned huge religious establishments.

Three of the men have been identified as Enyatur Rahman (North-West Frontier Province - NWFP), Saeed (NWFP) and Imran (Punjab). When they were apprehended along with the four others, a Pakistani Taliban commander named Mansoor, based in Helmand, aware of the possibility of them exposing a major jihadi network inside Pakistan, tried his level-best to negotiate with ANA to prevent them from falling into the hands of NATO.

But a little mishandling caused ANA to turn them over to NATO.

There is an arrangement between the Taliban and ANA all over the south of Afghanistan, especially in Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Helmand and Ghazni provinces.

Under this, when ANA troops are sent on patrol inside Taliban areas, they pay the Taliban to avoid being killed. The price is arms, ammunition or rockets, which is handed over and then reported as having been lost during an encounter with the Taliban.

In turn, when ANA arrests any Taliban fighters, they demand cash money for their release. If the fighters are Pakistani or non-Afghan, ANA takes a little longer to negotiate a price, but if the fighters are Afghans, ANA personnel will not take unnecessary risks. Either they strike a deal then and there and release the Taliban fighters, or within a few days they hand them over to NATO. The reason is to avoid direct confrontation with the Afghan Taliban and their tribal constituencies, which could cause problems in any prolonged negotiations.

Under this arrangement, as the seven men were Pakistani, Mansoor started negotiations with ANA for the release of his men. ANA demanded US$200,000, Mansoor countered with an offer of 2 million rupees (US$25,000), which was refused. Mansoor then arranged for 10 million rupees to be paid, but since almost 10 days had passed, ANA handed the Pakistanis over to NATO.

Mansoor mishandled the situation on two counts. First, he did not involve the Afghan Taliban command, and secondly he took too long in reaching an agreeable figure.

Apparently, the youths soon began talking under interrogation. In particular, they gave details of a jihadi network known for its past association with the defunct Jaish-e-Mohammad. They also gave details of their backgrounds and how they were recruited and how they had spent time in different Pakistani urban centers, where the leaders of their network openly ran religious establishments.

This information was shared with concerned Pakistani quarters, but by that time all senior Pakistani Taliban commanders had gone underground. In the bigger picture, though, the incident provided Washington the ammunition it needed to really go after the Pakistan national leadership and warn that the entire country needed to stand up as one to fight against all sections and groups of the Taliban in the country. They reminded that it is not any particular government or political party, but the state of Pakistan that is running out of time.

This is where a new joint government involving Sharif could come into play, and Pakistan will once again be dancing to American tunes.

Actually US has bluntly warned Pakistan and it seems Pakistan is planning a major ground offensive against the Taliban. However it is loathe to take away any soldiers from its eastern borders with India – that will help the fight from the Pakistani side. The US surge will be on and it requires Pakistan’s support.

Pakistan is staring at an abyss. Its former “assets” have turned against it (not all – but a good many – and enough to give Pakistan Army a fight and beat them too).

The US desperately needs the Pakistan Army to fight its part of the “war on terror” judiciously.

Under US pressure (more than 500 Americans have arrived in Islamabad to observe developments) an operation was organized against militants in the southern Punjab and several high-profile commanders, including one named Farooq and other members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, were arrested.

A top jihadi leader commented: "We never imagined such a reaction. We have not fought against the Pakistan army and we do not consider it right. But if the present arrests continue, what option will we have ... without going to Waziristan and doing what other people are doing there?”

The US observer status as Pakistan Army attacked, infuriated the already volatile Taliban. At this juncture, US needs India to heed its advice and not do “funny” things inside Paksitan.

Funny things is an euphemism for taking revenge for the Indian embassy blasts in Kabul and 26/11 attack in Mumbai. India may well have made their intentions clear one way or another to Paksitan about what its assets can do too inside Pakistan and Pakistan had no choice but to go and cry on the shoulders of the US. The US in turn, have turned the heat on to India to curb its supposed “activities” in consulates in Afghanistan.

THE US – PAKISTAN CURRENT BONHOMIE:

ASIA TIMES ONLINE :The seamless friendship between the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, has cemented the relationship between the military establishments of the two countries to levels not seen since the 1950s, when Pakistan was a frontline state against communism.

The result is that Islamabad and Washington are in a position to implement coordinated, long-term policies in the region, which include action against militants, moves to improve ties between Pakistan and India, especially their dispute over divided Kashmir, and the evolution of a broad-based, stable civilian government in Pakistan.

First, Pakistan will launch a comprehensive battle against all Taliban groups in the country, irrespective of whether they are perceived as good or bad. Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to split the Taliban by making deals with the good ones, that is, those seen as more moderate, to bring them into a peace process.

Second, an initiative will be made by the Pakistani government, supported by the country's Western allies, for better relations with India, strongly mediated by the Pakistan army. The aim will be to reopen the dialogue process on Kashmir which was stalled following the Pakistani-linked terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last November in which 166 people were killed. This could also help in building a joint mechanism for cooperation between India and Pakistan with the US in fighting terror.

US has hard sold the second initiative to India and been sucker punched into approving the “B” (BALOCHISTAN) name in its joint declaration draft (a non-legal and non-binding statement, for what its worth).

TALIBAN – AL QAEDA response:

And in all this supposed grand plans – what about the militants? Will they sit idle and be attacked from two fronts?

The Pakistani Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies obviously will not stand back. Al-Qaeda's command has already drawn up plans to stir up a reaction all across the country - the masses will be urged to show their allegiance in black and white.

The militants, too, have their mechanisms in place, and they too don't plan to deviate. A MIGHTY COLLISION IS INEVITABLE.

INDIA’s response:

India’s response should be wait and watch. If the democratic government pulls off another IK Gujral stunt (which stopped R&AW’s black ops inside Pakistan) – which it really did not – as R&AW simply handed over the assets to some other Indian organization – then we should not heed the UPA government.

Pakistan is at its vulnerable best. It has no other choice but to lean on the US to give it a guarantee that India will not play a spoiler as it passes through its toughest fight internally post independence. And US is pushing the right buttons in India to facilitate just that.

I think time has come for India to look beyond and see what is good for India. A shared border with Afghanistan is not a bad idea, I would think. Let the Pushtuns get Pushtunistan and the Baloch – Balochistan.

TWO RELATED ARTICLES BY EX-INDIAN SPYMASTERS - MUST READL

1. VIKRAM SOOD'S SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY : (excerpts) - "The Sharm el-Sheikh declaration is perhaps the shortest, the most perplexing and worrying piece of drafting that has been signed by two heads of government. It now exists as a document that would be the basis for continued acrimony between India and Pakistan and among Indians. Never have so few led the country so astray as in this document.

One of the sentences that has generated considerable debate is when it states that “Both leaders agreed that the two countries will share real time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats.”

2. MALOY DHAR'S (ANGRY) ARTICLE "Shame at Sharm Al Sheikh : How Manmohan succumbed to US & Pak blackmail?": (excerpts):- "What was India doing at Sharm-al-Shyakh? Attending the Non- Aligned Nations Meet (NAM). What was Pakistan doing there? Also attending the NAM. The basic questions are: 1. How can an American Client State be non-aligned? 2. How can a Chinese client State be a member of the NAM? Some wise cracks say that both the Giant Panda (Chinese national animal) and the Markham (hill goat-Pakistani national animal) can piss at the feet of a giant elephant-that is India. They not only can, they really piss every now and then and the thick-derma Pachyderm keeps on lurching helplessly in spite of being pissed at day in and day out. The USA also pisses, but its piss gives Skunky odour, very foul and soul sickening. And many Indians worship that white man’s Skunky piss, as the holy reservoir of World Bank, IMF"

TO P.M. MANMOHAN SINGH: The lure of a Nobel Peace prize should not cloud your judgement on the true intentions of Pakistan and cause you to compromise India's national security interests.