Pakistan :slashingtongue

CIA bombing raises question about safety protocols – Yahoo! News

Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 11:27 am  
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WASHINGTON – The brazen attack that killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in Afghanistan is likely to raise questions about whether the agency could do more to protect its operatives on dangerous assignments.
Lawmakers on Thursday issued their condolences and withheld any judgment. “We owe these brave men and women, and their families who are forever impacted, our deepest appreciation and thanks,” said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the House Intelligence Committee chairman who had met with the CIA team on a recent trip to Afghanistan.
Wednesday’s bombing was a devastating blow to the tightknit spy community. Among the seven CIA employees killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three. The bombing occurred at a former military base on the edge of Khost city, the capital of Khost province, which borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold.
U.S. officials would not confirm that the bomber had been a member of the Afghan army, leaving open the possibility that the uniform had been stolen.
President Barack Obama and CIA Director Leon Panetta were joined by several leading lawmakers on Thursday in praising agency employees for their work.
In a letter to CIA employees, Obama said their fallen colleagues came from a “long line of patriots” who had helped to keep the nation safe despite grave risks.
Harold E. Brown Jr. of Fairfax, Va., was among the dead, according to his father, Harold E. Brown Sr. The elder Brown said his 37-year-old son, who grew up in Bolton, Mass., served in the Army and worked for the State Department. The CIA did not release information about the victims, citing the sensitivity of their mission and other ongoing operations.
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Associated Press writers Adam Goldman in New York City, and Pamela Hess and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Mistake of judgment (911/ detainees; pro Gitmo camp)

Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm  
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There is a repeated line out in the web from people who are against bringing the 9/11 terrorists to trial in New York. The stand that they tend to take is that since the terrorists were caught in Pakistan, they should be tried over in Pakistan rather than in the United States of America.

Look, there would be a lot of nuts that would just oppose this measure since President Obama Obama suggested it. These are the far right. The far left would simply go ga-ga over this rule and would like it the same manner that the far right hates it. To these people, these article is not for you! This is for the saner readers.

That being said, I think it is very ridiculous that these people think like that! Come on! Where in the world have they been living? Crime is always punished at the state/country it happened. It is something that happens all over the world.

For example, if someone murders someone in Washington but was caught across the border at British Columbia, Canada, something that happens once in a while, the Canadians do not hear his/ her trial in Canada. They would extradite that person to Washington and then, criminal proceedings would begin. This also happens state to state within our nation unless, it falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI (bank robbery, crimes in multiple states, or across state lines etc) . It rightfully happens all the time!

Yes some of you would point out that Pakistan has also have suffered atrocities at the hands of Al Qaeda. However, no ne at that time, suffered a higher casualty than America did on 9/11. We lost about 3000 lives that day, something that all other countries have not suffered.

E.g. If a person killed 10 people in Washington and was caught in British Columbia where he committed robbery, the Canadians would usually extradite that person to the Washington. The only exceptions would be if they have got some issues with our laws, or some extreme cases where Canada is affected. The Pakistanis have got no excuses here.

Some people mention about how the Japanese were tried in Japan in World War two and not in the United States where they destroyed Pearl Harbor. The difference in that situation and this is, that that was a war! This is not a war. President Bush’s “war on terror” slogan is no longer used. It is now global contingency operations. It is not one state attacking another, it is criminals against the state.

I would also like to reiterate the need to try these people on our land. It would be the justice that we deserved. The Iraqis saw Saddam Hussein being hung. I think America should have her day and see that Khalid Sheik Muhammad and company be hung too. That would be justice!

I also would like to stress that there should not be the “abolishment” of the death penalty in this case. Keeping prisoners forever would only lead to future hijackings or kidnappings where the release of these prisoners would be sought as ransom. It is something that has been used by the militants before, and would be used again in the future.

We in ST would also like to remind readers that tomorrow is the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

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FOX News : Dangerous perception shown

Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 4:09 pm  
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After our attack on Frank Gaffney a couple of months ago, a similar kind of rubbish has reappeared once again on FOX News. I think it is something that is meant to influence people’s mentality and I am shocked that there is muted rebuttal to the statements made by Reuel Marc Gerecht.

Before I start off, I would like to stress again my belief that there is problem within Islam. Muslims in the world are not taken aback by what is happening in the name of their religion and they think it is some kind of external, international conspiracy against their religion.

Pakistan today has a perfect example. Hundreds of Pakistanis die due to bomb blasts that the Taliban take responsibility for, but they still think that India and Israel are behind them. They are against the terror attacks, but blames RAW and Mossad (Indian and Israeli intelligence).

That paradigm, in my opinion is right, and I think that Muslim communities around the world must stop thinking that the world, or even the West, is against Islam. I think that until the Muslim world realize that, there is not going to be hope of thawing the frosty relationship that is shared between them today.

That being said, what was said by Gerecht is absolutely rubbish. His stand was not as terrible as the one Frank Gaffney had, but there are parts which does insinuate danger. First I would like to state that I agree with Gerecht that there is a threat internally. However, I do not think it is out of control and is that dangerous yet. It is not organized, basically some street punks that have been radicalized. To be fair, he said he didn’t know.

“(We are) taking a little bit too lightly the danger of Islamic militant propaganda in the United States; the extent to which mosques in the United States can reinforce those attitudes, so it is something that requires a lot more effort I think on the part of the bureau.”

We are not taking it lightly, Mr Gerecht. We know that there is a threat. We know that there are mosques in the US do reinforce those attitude. We would support you if you want to do intelligence work on mosques, which is something that is being done.

However, would you do the same for Churches? There are some crazy churches that believe in America being punished for tolerating homosexuality and abortion. There are also cases where Church pastors who encourage discrimination to gays and even, in extreme cases, incite violence. E.g. Pastor Anderson?

Do you think we would have an open door policy with all? I do not think so. I say, get them all! Flag before religion! I say if we penetrate into one, lets penetrate all communities that pose a harm to our citizens or our country.

“Its very difficult for the FBI which is an Intelligence Agency par excellence to actually pursue leads before crimes are committed. In Intelligence, you have to make certain assumptions, they are not nice assumptions that certain individuals may be guilty even though they haven’t committed the crime. You have to engage in surveillance before the crime is committed.”

Wow! Where in the world has this guy been living? Guantanamo Bay? The FBI always pursue leads before crimes are being committed. ALWAYS! They always are in search of things like new drug routes, potential child sex offenders and so on. It is one thing to assume, it is another to discriminate.

Secondly, what in the world is this guy thinking? Is he going to say that we do to the Muslims today what we did to the Japanese in World War 2? He asks for surveillance, I tell you we have surveillance. How do you think the FBI are catching these suspected terrorists? By guessing? Of course they have infiltrated the Muslim community.

A word has to be said about the terrible hosts at FOX. When people say something as controversial as this, you correct them. In this case, the host Paul Gigot himself can make the assertion that the barbarism of Fort Hood as an act of terrorism. Who said so Paul? Where did you get the facts from? Come on!

That being said, I have a certain amount of respect Paul Gigot. And to be fair, Reuel Marc Gerecht is no Frank Gaffmey.

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Dangerous mentality in Pakistan

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 6:58 pm  
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No country in the past few weeks has been receiving the brunt of terrorism like Pakistan has. So you would think that the public would be very angry with the Taliban and Al Qaeda since their citizens are being killed, right? Get ready to be disappointed.

Firstly, I would like to commend the Pakistani troops who have recently made huge gains on their Western border in Afghanistan. They have made large gains against the Taliban and according to some reports, have driven them back to Afghanistan. Okay so good job guys.

I am also not faulting the work of their intelligence today, their police or other safety officers or any one of their safety organizations. I do understand that just like our guys, they want to keep their country safe. So along with my wishes to our troops, keep up the good work guys.

But the most important group of people seem to be thinking differently. The public! Yes, the public! CNN and other news agencies went around asking the question, who do you think is responsible. Very rarely are the words Al Qaeda or the Taliban mentioned.

So who do they think is bombing their buildings? It surprised me initially, but not many of my South Asian friends; India. Yes, the majority of Pakistanis think that India is being the spate of bombings in their country! As if that is what a country with nuclear power amongst their arsenal would do! Fund terrorism!

This could be the screwed up mentality of the South Asians. A year ago, in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Indians did exactly the same thing. Rather than working together to solve the issue of terrorism, a majority of Indians blamed Pakistan and wanted them to be punished!

Also on that list of suspects on the list of Pakistanis are the Israelis. That shows how much hate there is in the Muslim world for Israel..It is absolutely ridiculous that Israel from so far away would want to bring down Pakistan, a country that has not done anything to Israel.

Some more sensible Pakistanis blame the foreign fighters. They cannot take the fact that a Pakistani would want to attack Pakistan. This is half true. There are many foreigners in Pakistan that engage in terror related activities. One of the suspects is a Saudi mass murderer named Osama bin Laden!

But the fact is that there are many terrorists out there that are from Pakistan. The scary thing is that if Pakistanis do not acknowledge that there are local terrorists those local terrorists would strike again and again. They can strike locally or globally.

Like Americans when it comes to our federal deficit, they just would not want to blame their administration in the 80s that started all this mess. Al Qaeda began with training from the much-feared Pakistanis intelligence agency, the ISI. This was funded by the President Reagan’s administration whose aim was to get rid of the communists in Afghanistan. Until and when they come to realize that aspect of truth, we can forget about dealing with terrorism within Pakistan.

I hope that the Pakistanis come to their senses and take the cancer out of their country. It is for the sake of Pakistan and the world.

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Torture : Here we go again

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 am  
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Fresh new revelations have surfaced of the means of “enhanced interrogation technique” (EIT). First, I would go through it one by one and I would give my own opinion of it.

Death gestures:

The interrogators would put a gun to their head and threaten to shoot them. In some cases they use a drill and then it would threaten to drill a hole in their head till they die. There are also mock executions staged to scare inmates. This is reported and is common knowledge so in South Asian countries like India and Pakistan, though their leaders do not take it as official policy.

Torture rating 5/10 : I am 50/50 on this. While I do think that this would do any physical harm, hence not so controversial, like say water-boarding or banging heads on mattressed walls. So on that ground I do not think that it is torture. But on the other hand, it is illegal by law and it is by law considered as torture.

Effectiveness ratings 3/10 : Let me put it this way, if you were held at gunpoint by a robber, you would give the robber your valuables if you have them. For that to work, the robber needs to know that you have goods to give. If the robber does not know that you have goods to give, the robber has to threaten you. For the threat to work, reality has to set in. That is why the mock executions come in.

However, terrorists are not be that stupid. If you do not get much out of this the first time, you would get it out the second and third time that this is done. When inmates realize that no one is missing amongst their numbers, they would know that it was just mock executions and that it does not work. So hence my rating of 3/10; it could only work for a while and once the secret is out, even amongst terror suspects, the method would not work at all.

Rape threat :

Interrogators would go about threatening to rape inmates mothers, daughters, wives or girlfriends.

Torture rating : 1/10. I do not classify this as torture at all. Deceit is always part of police procedure. That being said how sad is it that we are resorting to threatening other people with rape. Come on, that is rubbish and wrong.

Effectiveness rating: 1/10. This is pathetic. Only wimps would break under such allegations.

Shoving baseballs down the throat :

Interrogators would first threaten to shove a baseball down inmates throat and could, and did, do it if necessary.

Torture rating : 9/10. Shoving anything down the throat is torture. That is pure and simple. I do not think that it can be debatable at all whether it is like how it was done with water-boarding. It does cause harm and it is by far illegal to do so by any means.

Effectiveness rating : 2/10. This is a 100% form of torture. And as torture has shown in the past, it does not work. Torture would produces everything under duress. Hence, you would not know what is said is right or wrong. It was wrong assumptions made by torture that led the world to believe that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That led to a loss of more than 4000 American lives and many Iraqi ones.

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