Of Violent Birth and Peaceful Death

hamidm #171
``this morning i woke up with a terible hangover and hating all hindoos ........

Surely the tenderloin messing with some stray horrible hindoo genes alas.

`` we tried to talk about kashmir again and couldn`t come up with any solution``

Well, its the thought that counts. Next time, it might help to discuss women AFTER.

````i resent indian moslems more than the horrible hindoos because they remind me that there are another 150 million suicidal fools that claim me as a brother..``(hamidm)

what can you do `bother` hamidm -- it`s genetic kismet -- kunud humjins ba humjins purvaaz:-)

Pakistan army pays scant regard to Musharraf`s talk: Captured militant

A captured militant on Saturday indicated that the Pakistani army pays scant regard to Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf`s promise not to allow his country or its border to be used for any kind of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and continues to train and push militants into the state.

``We were kept by Pak troops in a launching pad and then pushed into this side for carrying out terrorist activities and subversive actions,`` Anjum, captured by security forces at Chawa on Friday night, told a group of reporters in Rajouri on Saturday afternoon.

Codenamed Mehrul Islam, Anjum said the `Pakistani army organised and directed our infiltration into Indian territory and also assigned us to undertake several subversive missions in J&K`.

Anjum, who lost three of his Pakistani militant colleagues in the encounter with the army at Chawa village, revealed that Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was still training militants at various launching pads.

``We were organised by Pak troops and pushed through Nallah post and tasked to target the Doodhadaray temple in Rajouri town to create communal violence on the eve of Eid,`` Anjum, whose five other militant colleagues managed to escape, said.

The ISI has directed all militant outfits, including the Al-Badr, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT), Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) and Tehreek-e-Jahid Islami (Teji) to fight under a joint platform, he added.

Anjum, who has been active in Kashmir for over three years, said that the Pakistani army does not pay heed to the statements of Musharraf and that it is committed to the militancy in Kashmir.

Over 1000 trained militants are ready to be pushed into J&K from their launching pads-cum-Pak posts along the Line of Control (LoC), he said.

Later, Brigadier Rohit Kalia told mediapersons, ``Pakistan army is involved in militancy in J&K at all levels.``

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/25war5.htm

Pakistan army pays scant regard to Musharraf`s talk: Captured militant

A captured militant on Saturday indicated that the Pakistani army pays scant regard to Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf`s promise not to allow his country or its border to be used for any kind of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and continues to train and push militants into the state.

``We were kept by Pak troops in a launching pad and then pushed into this side for carrying out terrorist activities and subversive actions,`` Anjum, captured by security forces at Chawa on Friday night, told a group of reporters in Rajouri on Saturday afternoon.

Codenamed Mehrul Islam, Anjum said the `Pakistani army organised and directed our infiltration into Indian territory and also assigned us to undertake several subversive missions in J&K`.

Anjum, who lost three of his Pakistani militant colleagues in the encounter with the army at Chawa village, revealed that Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was still training militants at various launching pads.

``We were organised by Pak troops and pushed through Nallah post and tasked to target the Doodhadaray temple in Rajouri town to create communal violence on the eve of Eid,`` Anjum, whose five other militant colleagues managed to escape, said.

The ISI has directed all militant outfits, including the Al-Badr, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT), Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) and Tehreek-e-Jahid Islami (Teji) to fight under a joint platform, he added.

Anjum, who has been active in Kashmir for over three years, said that the Pakistani army does not pay heed to the statements of Musharraf and that it is committed to the militancy in Kashmir.

Over 1000 trained militants are ready to be pushed into J&K from their launching pads-cum-Pak posts along the Line of Control (LoC), he said.

Later, Brigadier Rohit Kalia told mediapersons, ``Pakistan army is involved in militancy in J&K at all levels.``

PTI

re: hamdim

{and agreed that other than a few indian punjabis and some paki half-pathans}

yup, i love all the desi cab drivers in new york too...haha :)

.... nothing is worth dying for - certainly not kashmir,god or the wings...

... i will be the first one to admit that i hate india, indians, and anything that remotely smells of heeng with a passion that is quite unreasonable and borders on looney stupidism ....it is a sad genetic disorder which was acquired at birth and has no cure ........ i find nothing in common with hyderabadis, madrasis or gujaratis, even if they happen to be mohammedans ..... as a matter of fact, i resent indian moslems more than the horrible hindoos because they remind me that there are another 150 million suicidal fools that claim me as a brother ...... i never buy anything that is made in india even if it the best deal in town, and refuse to eat idlee even if it is free ..... mrs hamidm still rues the day she bought some madeinindia place-mats just because they matched the dishes ......and we regularly clash over socializing with her hyderabadi friends who turn my stomach with their disgusting table manners ......

......... i also hate the colorado avalance and the lakers ..... but i have no desire to die for the wings or the kings - so why should i die for some miserable kashmiris whose only contribution to mankind has been the personal space heater and salty pink tea?.....

.......sunil and i were talking about it last night over single malt and tenderloin, and agreed that other than a few indian punjabis and some paki half-pathans the rest of the desis are a sorry lot who deserve to glow in the dark .....we also agreed that the shaq and sakic are terrorists and that punjabi women get too broad in the behind after thirty .... he did say something about cross boder terrorism and i might have mentioned some kashmiri women getting raped, but we agreed that veggiepie needs to get some decent pants and that mushy is an idiot ..... he said something about paki babes being hot, and i grudgingly admitted that the new indian associate gave me bad thoughts - of course, she is a punjabi from the wrong side of the border ..... we agreed that macallan is better than glenmorangie, but that smoking weed would be better if it wasn`t against the law ......so we agreed that bush is an idiot and ashcroft is a bible-thumping religious nut ..... we also agreed that desis should not buy beige hondas and stop their women from wearing clips in their hair - again, of course, i feebly protested that this was a peculiar indian trait and that paki women had better sense (i wish) .....after the third drink we tried to talk about kashmir again and couldn`t come up with any solution; so we came to the conclusion that the woman at the next table worked for an escort service and that we were both getting fat .........

..... after the fifth drink we realized that we didn`t give a flip about kashmir and should let sadna and urstruly wrestle over it - and may the better man win ..............

P.S. this morning i woke up with a terible hangover and hating all hindoos ........

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Still in denial?

Afraid that your unclish `culture` might reduce your being to a gnat?----There is still time to repent and become civilised & modern.



This is the article that triggered a major denial-of-service hacker attack on my web site. No sooner had this article been copied and posted to a British web site (withg permission) then that site too was hit with a denial-of-service hacker attack. This is the chain of facts that the government and its allies in the creation of a new world war did not want you to read.

WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT KNOW AND WHEN DID IT KNOW IT?

The task was simple, deny the evidence, cover-up the embarrassing arrest of two Israelis with an explosives-tainted truck, and give the media a reason to return to the mantra of ``all terror is caused by Muslims`` But what started as a simply attempt to spin the news away from the Israelis arrested in Washington State has backfired on the Bush administration in a big way. In conducting the classic ``limited hangout`` of admitting to foreknowledge of the attacks of 9-11 in order to reassert the link to Osama bin Laden, Bush has handed opponents of his administration and opponents of World War the most damning proof yet that the reality of 9-11 is not what the US Government and media have been telling the American people it is.

The arrested Israelis posed a problem. History records in the Lavon Affair that Israelis willingly use bombs and lay false trails to Arabs for political gain. And it wasn`t too long ago that JDL Chairman Irv Rubin was arrested for plotting to blow up a US Congressman who refused to toe the Israel party line. Then there were the two Mossad agents arrested inside the Mexican Congress with guns and explosives shortly after 9-11. As the battered World Trade Towers collapsed, the very first suspects arrested, caught cheering as the towers fell, were Israelis, later identified as Mossad agents. The arrested spies worked for Urban Moving Systems, whose Israeli owner promptly fled the nation. Still other espionage suspects posed as art students trying to get into federal buildings, while others held cover jobs in mall kiosks selling ``Zoom Copters``, kiosks that sat empty when their entire staffs were thrown into jail on suspicion of espionage. All told, the Israeli spy ring, which had been partly uncovered prior to 9-11, was the largest spy ring ever uncovered in the United States. In California, the ADL was convicted of running a massive spy operation on American citizens.

Coupled with the spies themselves was the discovery of a massive phone tapping operation carried out by yet another Israeli company contracted to place phone tapping equipment on the US phone system to aid US law enforcement authorities. However, those same authorities began to suspect that Israelis were using that very same system to listen in on the phone calls of Americans when high profile drug investigations into Ecstasy rings (run by the Israeli organized crime) were derailed using information only obtainable from police phone calls. In the Kenneth Starr report, it is reported that Bill Clinton was aware that an unnamed foreign power had made recordings of his phone sex sessions with Monica Lewinsky. In the end, three Israeli companies with deep penetration of the American communications infrastructure were implicated in the phone and internet tapping scandal. One of these companies, Odigo, had an office near the World Trade Towers, and received a two hour advance warning of the impending attack. Two hours means the warning was sent before the planes that eventually crashed into the World Trade Towers had even left the ground on their final flights! Someone knew of the plan, someone who decided they needed to warn Israelis working for a company linked to Israel`s spying operation.

Taken together, there is probable cause to investigate just what connection the Israeli spying operation had with 9-11. Such an investigation should have happened, but instead, something very odd took place in the investigation! According to a government official quoted in Carl Cameron`s story on the spy ring, the US Government classified the evidence that links the arrested Israeli spies to 9-11. Rather than treat the arrested spies as Jonathan Pollard had been treated, the US Government hurried to get the arrested Israelis out of the country as quickly as possible, in one case releasing and deporting one Israeli even though he failed his polygraph examination! Pollard had been just one spy. Here was the largest spy ring ever uncovered in the United States and the United States itself was trying to cover it all up! The media went along by downplaying the Rubin story, ignoring the Mexican incident and actually spiking Carl Cameron`s four part story on the spy ring.

As quiet as the media was about the evidence pointing towards Israeli involvement in 9-11, the media was quite the opposite when it came to claims of proof linking ex CIA agent Osama bin Laden with the crimes. The reason was obvious. Long before the attacks on the World Trade Towers the United States had been planning for a war in Afghanistan to create a climate more favorable for American oil companies. John Marcesca, as part of a UNOCAL working group on the Afghanistan pipeline project, had gone before Congress and stressed the necessity of replacing the Afghanistan government before a pipeline from the Caspian sea to the gulf of India could be built. The Bush White House admits that a plan to attack Afghanistan existed BEFORE 9-11. Following 9-11, the US did replace the government of Afghanistan, and the pipeline is under construction. One member of the UNOCAL working group, Hamid Karzai, is the President of the new government in Afghanistan. Another UNOCAL group member, Zalmay Khalilzad, is the US special envoy to Afghanistan. A cozy relationship to be sure!

But there was a problem with the ``Osama did it`` story. As much evidence as existed suggesting Israeli involvement in 9-11 (certainly enough to justify being classified by the US Government), there was none at all to support the official story.

The 19 names of suspected hijackers released by the FBI don`t point to Afghanistan. They come from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates; all across the middle east without a focus in any one region. Indeed, even as the FBI was admitting that its list of 19 names was based solely on identifications thought to have been forged, Saudi Arabia`s Foreign Minister Prince Saudi Al-Faisal insisted that an investigation in Saudi Arabia showed that the 5 Saudi men were not aboard the four jet liners that crashed in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania on September 11. ``It was proved that five of the names included in the FBI list had nothing to do with what happened,`` Al-Faisal told the Arabic Press in Washington after meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House. A sixth identified hijacker is also reported to still be alive in Tunisia, while a 7th named man died two years ago!

The 19 names of suspected hijackers released by the FBI don`t even appear on the passenger lists of the hijacked planes.

The FBI list of alleged hijackers

Crew and Passenger lists for the hijacked planes. None of the Hijacker names appear on them.

CNN reported that the men who hijacked those aircraft were using phony IDs, using the names of Arabs. A total of 7 of the men named by the FBI as suspected 9-11 hijackers are still alive! And the FBI Admits it has no actual evidence linking the 19 Arab suspects to 9-11

In another development, the BBC reported that the transcript of a phone call made by Flight Attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney to Boston air traffic controls shows that the flight attendant gave the seat numbers occupied by the hijackers, seat numbers which were NOT the seats of the men the FBI claimed were responsible for the hijacking!

FBI Chief Robert Mueller admitted on September 20 and on September 27 that the FBI has no way to prove the true identities of the hijackers. Yet in the haste to move forward on the already planned war in Afghanistan, our government and the FBI (which does not have the best record for honesty in investigations to begin with, having been caught rigging lab tests, manufacturing testimony in the Vincent Foster affair, and illegally withholding/destroying evidence in the Oklahoma Bombing case) are not taking too close a look at evidence that points away from the designated suspect, the people living over the oil fields.

Yet another problem lies with the described actions of the hijackers themselves. We are being told on the one hand that these men were such fanatical devotees of their faith that they willingly crashed the jets they were flying into buildings. Yet on the other hand, we are being told that these same men spent the night before their planned visit to Allah drinking in strip bars, committing not just one, but two mortal sins which would keep them out of Paradise no matter what else they did. Truly devout Muslims would spend the day before a suicide attack fasting and praying. Not only does the drinking in strip bars not fit the profile of a fanatically religious Muslim willing to die for his cause, but the witness reports of the men in the bars are of men going out of their way to be noticed and remembered, while waving around phony identifications.

Because of the facts of the phony identifications, we don`t really know who was on those planes. What we do know is that the men on those planes went to a great deal of trouble to steal the identities of Muslims, and to make sure those identities were seen and remembered, then to leave a plethora of planted clues around, such as crop dusting manuals, and letters in checked baggage (why does a terrorist about to die need to check baggage?) that ``somehow`` didn`t get on the final, fatal, flight. This abundance of dubious evidence pointing to Arabs is the pattern previously established in the Lavon Affair.

More than an absence of proof linking 9-11 to Osama, the proof exists of a deliberate attempt to frame Arabs for terror attacks in the United States. The claimed proofs have all been dismissed as deliberate mistranslations bordering on frauds and in one case a (poorly) faked video tape. The Anthrax letters, written to look like they were from Arab Muslims are actually from a non-Arab source. This proves the existence of a deliberate plot to frame Arabs.

And yet the US Government is not interested in looking at any evidence that does not support the desired outcome.

The public is well aware of the facts that suggest deception on the part of the US Government. Documents declassified in 1994 prove beyond a doubt that Roosevelt not only knew Pearl Harbor would be attacked but that he encouraged and allowed it to happen to get the United States into a war they did not want. The public is well aware that the present government is as eager to get the US into a major war for the oil wealth of central Asia and the Middle East as Roosevelt was to get the nation he ruled into the war against the Axis. The public is well aware of ``Operation NORTHWOODS``, a previous plan by the US (spiked by JFK) to stage fake terror attacks to ignite a war against Cuba. The public is well aware that government throughout history have used fake terror against their own people as a tool of domestic policy.

In such a climate the arrests earlier this week of two Israelis in a truck that tested positive for explosives was sure to attract notice. The FBI moved quickly to quash the story, as protective of these Israelis as of the spy ring itself. Despite the fact that the story had taken almost a week to make the news, it was only after the story broke that the FBI rushed in to conduct their own tests and claim that the bomb dog, and the test sued by the local authorities were all wrong, there were no explosive traces, everyone had been fooled by residue from a cigarette lighter. Given the FBI`s documented frauds in the Vince Foster, OK City, and TWA 800 cases (not to mention the despicable history of COINTELPRO, including the Black Panther Coloring Book ,the smearing of actress Jean Seberg, the spying on celebrities, etc. ), it should come as no surprise that the companies that make the tests used to detect TNT and RDX report that neither tobacco nor butane will false-positive the tests they manufacture. So again the US Government was lying to protect Israelis, the public was aware of this lie, and this set the stage for the current debacle.

No sooner had the FBI given the official ``pooh pooh`` to the arrested Israelis and explosives-tainted truck than a distraction appeared. In order to remind the public that it is Arabs they are supposed to suspect for 9-11 and nobody else, the White House, knowing that another simple declaration of Osama`s guilt would gain no more traction, decided to create a ``confession`` of knowing in advance that the correct villain was behind 9-11 ahead of time, hoping that the public would find this ``confession`` more believable.

There certainly was cause to suspect government foreknowledge. Setting aside Odigo`s warning, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown had received a warning not to fly on 9-11, and Ashcroft had changed from commercial to much more expensive charter planes in July 2001.

But Bush`s attempt to steer public suspicion away from Israel and back onto the designated fall guys has backfired. The admission that there had been advance warning flies in the face of Ari Fleischer`s statement that there had been no warning at all just after the attacks In addition, the claim that there was advance warning contradicts Bush`s claim, repeated twice, to have initially thought the first plane hitting the tower was an accident caused by a bad pilot, a statement that in hindsight appears to have been a (poorly acted) attempt to sell the idea that 9-11 was a Pearl Harbor style surprise attack, even though it clearly was not.

The public, already aware it is being lied-to, is angry at the idea that government knew the 9-11 attacks were coming and like Roosevelt, may have allowed them to happen to further a pro-war agenda. Bush and his cronies, realizing they have hung themselves, are back peddling furiously, claiming now that while the warnings were sufficient to finger Osama bin Laden as the 9-11 villain, that the warnings were simply far too general in all other aspects to prevent the attacks. Yet Ari Fleischer`s briefing after the attack claimed to have detailed and specific information regarding the targets,. Dick Morris, in a Fox TV Interview, revealed that Bush had detailed records of financial transactions by all Muslims groups in the US dating back to 1993, used to justify seizure of their funds. Again, someone is lying!

Even worse, in trying to use this ``limited hangout`` to shift suspicion away from Israel and back to Osama, Bush has, probably without realizing it, sent a message round the world that the United States is weak, and that even with advance warning the US Government was totally outclassed by a small group of terrorists.

Bush and company are struggling to reaffirm the official story, that the US was caught by surprise, just as it was at Pearl Harbor, and the same Air Force that was able to intercept Payne Stewert`s plane just couldn`t seem to get off the ground while four hijacked planes wandered out to Ohio before heading back to hit their targets on the East Coast, and all the work if a tiny group of Arab fanatics.

And if you believe that, I have a watch to sell you.

``Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It`s classified information.`` -- US official quoted in Carl Cameron`s Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring.

``By way of deception, thou shalt do war`` -- Motto of the Mossad

A moment of reflection for ``modern`` unclish pimp-pistaanis.

__________________________________________________

A PINCH OF CANCER

Can Wearing A Bra Kill You?

by William Thomas

If you didn`t burn yours in the `Sixties, you might want to put it away now. ``Bras cause breast cancer. It`s open and shut,`` says medical researcher Syd Singer.

The Singers became breast cancer sleuths in 1991. On the day Soma discovered a lump in her breast, the husband-wife team was studying the effects of Western medicine on Fijians. In the shower, Syd noticed that Soma`s shoulders and breasts were outlined by dark red grooves. He remembered a puzzled Fijian woman asking his wife about her brassiere: ``Doesn`t it feel tight?``

``You get used to it,`` Soma had replied.

Could bras be constricting breast tissue, Syd wondered, hampering lymph drainage and causing degeneration?

Soma decided to stop wearing hers. But when Syd searched the medical literature he found no known causes of breast cancer, which rarely appears before a woman`s mid-thirties, most often after 40. The highest death rates from breast cancer are in North America and northern Europe, with the developing world catching up fast.

The World Health Organization calls chemical toxins the primary cause of cancer. But poisons accumulating in breast tissue are normally flushed by clear lymph fluid into large clusters of lymph nodes nestling in the armpits and upper chest. The Singers found that ``because lymphatic vessels are very thin, they are extremely sensitive to pressure and are easily compressed.`` Chronic minimal pressure on the breasts can cause lymph valves and vessels to close.

``Less oxygen and fewer nutrients are delivered to the cells, while waste products are not flushed away,`` the Singers noted. After 15 or 20 years of bra-constricted lymph drainage, cancer can result.

Looking at other cultures, Soma and Syd were struck by the low incidence of breast cancer in poorer nations awash in pesticides dumped by northern nations. They didn`t find peasant women wearing push-up bras. Instead, they discovered that the Maoris of New Zealand integrated into white culture have the same rate of breast cancer, while Australia`s marginalized aboriginals have virtually no breast cancer. The same trend held for ``Westernized`` Japanese, Fijians and other bra-converted cultures.

in Dressed To Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras, the researchers also observed that just before a woman begins her period, estrogen floods her system, causing her breasts to swell. If she continues wearing the same bra size, life-saving lymphatics will be even more tightly squished. Had they found the ``estrogen link`` to breast cancer?

Childless women never fully develop their breast-cleansing lymphatic system. Nor do women who have never breast-fed. Working women who wear bras everyday and postpone having children could be at higher risk, the Singers warn.

Even worse, a young woman`s coming of age is often ``marked`` by her first bra. Like the ancient Chinese practice of foot-binding, ``breast-binding`` at puberty can eventually lead to severe medical complications.

Could bras be the ``missing link`` in a growing epidemic of breast cancer? Beginning in May, 1991, Soma and Syd Singer`s 30-month ``Bra and Breast Cancer`` study interviewed some 4,000 women in five major US cities. All were Caucasian of mostly ``medium income`` ranging in age from 30 to 79. Half had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Almost all of the women interviewed were unhappy with the size or shape of their breasts. Women who chose a bra for appearance, ignoring soreness and swelling, had twice the rate of breast cancer of those who did not.

But the most startling statistic was that three out four women who wore their daytime bras to sleep contracted breast cancer. So did one out seven women strapped into a bra more than 12 hours a day. Bra-free women have just a one in 168 chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer, says Singer. The same as bra-free men.

``Don`t sleep in your bra!`` Syd Singer pleads. ``Women who want to avoid breast cancer should wear a bra for the shortest period of time possible - certainly for less than 12 hours daily.``

Syd also submits that some 80% of bra-wearers who experience lumps, cysts and tenderness will see those symptoms vanish, ``within a month of getting rid of the bra.``

Not everyone is ready to hang up her halter. As one woman told the team, ``My tits will sag all the way to my navel without a bra.`` But Surgeon Christine Haycock at the New Jersey College of Medicine says that inherited traits - not ligaments or breast size - are the reason some breasts give in to gravity. Bouncing bosoms help clear the lymphatics.

Well aware that their findings were ``explosive,`` the Singers sent their survey results to the heads of America`s most prestigious cancer organizations and institutes. None responded. Like the cancer business, the bra business is huge. Multiply how many worldwide women buy several $25 bras every year and you end up with a multiple of the $6 billion-a-year US bra business.

Syd Singer says that establishment censorship of the bra-breast cancer connection is killing women. Pointing to the biggest commonality among breast cancer patients, he`s emphatic that it`s bra-squeezed lymphatics.

Going bra-less for all occasions, Soma began dressing to de-emphasize her breasts. She also began regular breast massage and bicycle riding, vitamin and herbal supplementation, and drinking only purified water.

Two months later, her lump disappeared.

At the first frightening sign of a lump, an angry Syd Singer says, ``women should take their bras off before they take their breasts off.`` Why wait, when you can liberate your lymphatics now.

* * *

SIDE-BRA

IF YOU MUST WEAR A BRA Push-up and sports bras are out. Choose loose-fitting cotton bras. Make sure you can slip two fingers under the shoulder-straps and side-panels. The higher the side-panels, the more severe the restriction of major lymph nodes. Don`t wear this disastrous device to sleep. Take it off at home. Massage your breasts every time you remove your bra. Sing your lymphatics into health - or at least breathe deeply.

by Al Martin

Scams Away: The Boom Is Falling

(May 22, 2001) In an incredible display of arrogance, George Bush said that HE (not the White House, but HE) will no longer tolerate second-guessing on the subject of the growing questions of what did the Bush Administration know and when did it know it regarding threatened terrorist attacks against the United States prior to 9-11. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld then came out with a press release from the Department of Defense, stating that ``those who ask questions could face government charges.``

The Bush Administration publicly stated that there is one congressional investigation ongoing into this matter, and they will not allow any further congressional investigations to be formed. Nor will they answer any further questions by the media on this subject.

This all happened when Fox News and MSNBC began to leak out some FBI documents, which our inside source had told us about a long time ago. This source actually knew the people who had been dealing with the major media outlets. They were FBI documents including a memorandum, which indicated that the warnings the White House had prior to 9-11 were in fact more substantial than what the White House let on.

The White House has admitted that it did have vague and nebulous warnings of a potential terrorist attack, led by Osama bin Laden`s al Qaeda group. But it had numerous such warnings, and as presidential press spokesman Ari Fleischer said, how many times can you cry wolf before people won`t listen to you anymore? The White House also claimed that none of the information they had gotten from the FBI and the CIA was in substantive enough detail to put together any defensive plan of action.

As it turns out, there was a key FBI memorandum, which never went up the chain of command. It was written by an agent in Phoenix, in which he specifically mentioned that Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda group may use hijacked aircraft in a terrorist attack against a CIA building or other principal federal offices in Washington. The FBI also believed that potential commercial targets included the World Trade Center and the Sears Tower in Chicago. This document, for some reason, never went up the chain of command.

The Bush Administration is trying to claim that they weren`t aware of it. Their attitude is that they didn`t know that terrorists were going to hijack aircraft and use them as missiles, and there is no real way to defend against that. However, what has since come out of the Department of Defense is that they took the threats more seriously and did upgrade White House, Pentagon, CIA and Capital building anti-aircraft security capability. But they did nothing to attempt to protect any commercial assets.

The FBI documents in question weren`t actually leaked. Originally they were simply sold -- for cash money to a major news outlet.

This news outlet then simply sat on the documents apparently waiting until they believed the time was right. They tried to get other media outlets interested in it, and they couldn`t. This goes back to August of 2001. The problem was that they couldn`t get the other networks interested in it, and the other networks were frankly frightened. They couldn`t get any Democrats in Congress interested in it either because the Democrats were also frightened of raising the subject.

Fox then had to wait for others to catch up to them, a common game in the media. (I played it the same way before.) Sometimes one media outlet or one newspaper has to wait for the rest of the world to catch up to where it is. This is very common in the media particularly when it comes to exposing government misdeeds.

All the newspapers played this game after Iran-Contra. They`d get a hold of something hot. They`d spread it around a little bit. But other media outlets, investigative organization, and congressional committees were still too far behind the eight ball to want to get up to speed that quickly. There would be still too many missing gaps. It`s not uncommon in the media business to sit on documents for months or even, in some cases, years. It`s often done by individual investigative reporters themselves. They`ll sit on information they have - just waiting because they don`t want to stick their necks out too far.

John Crudele, a political investigative reporter for the NY Post, and Rodney Bowers, a political reporter for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, were probably the two best players of this game. They used to call it ``Texas Hold-`em.``- like the poker game. They would talk to everyone they knew, all the other political investigative reporters. They would tell them this is what we`ve got, then everyone else would start looking into it, and gradually they would get caught up to the lead guy. Then they would actually collaborate on the story.

(By the way, John Crudele recently wrote a great story on the missing half a trillion dollars from the US Treasury called ``$1/2 Trillion Federal Deficit for Fiscal 2000,``)

The Bush Administration is now circling the wagons. Imagine the arrogance of Rumsfeld to say that those who ask any further questions may face government charges. Rumsfeld said -- Look at the homeland security act, the so-called USA Patriot Act, which very few people have read all the way through to the fine print.

Bush further said that anyone who continues to ask questions is acting ``unpatriotically,`` and that is a hell of a club to wield, particularly over congressional Democrats -- especially when you have 90% of the people supporting the ``war on terrorism.``

Rumsfeld said that anyone asking questions (referring specifically to congressional committees and the media) could be charged with giving aid and comfort to the enemy - if they attempt to question the motives of the administration with regards to its war on terrorism.

Senator Lieberman and Senator Daschle are up in arms about it. The Senate Democrat Caucus released a statement saying that they had warned the American people about this problem before -- regarding the USA Patriot Act and all the ensuing legislation that has since been passed. We tried to warn the American people before, they said, that the White House gave us the bum`s rush in signing it.

In other words, no one who had voted on the US Patriot Act had actually read it. The only thing they got was a two or three page compendium from the White House press office, but nobody was actually given the time to read this thing.

The White House was able to give them the bum`s rush by going to all members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, and saying, ``You`ll sign it, you`ll sign it now, you won`t take the time to read it, and if you refuse to sign it, we`ll label you as being unpatriotic`` - something which all members of Congress were frightened of.

The Democrats were actually complaining about it. The White House threatened them to sign the bill (which became the USA Patriot Act) before they read it. The threat they used was that the White House would label Congressman so and so or Senator so and so as being ``unpatriotic`` -- this at a time when 91% of the American people supported what the president was doing. They did complain publicly, but they didn`t go into a lot of detail.

Senator Lieberman had a constitutional law expert from Columbia University, who actually read through every word of it, including all the compendium of legislation that had since been passed.

Lieberman, Daschle and Gephardt wrote in a memorandum just released that Congress has effectively given the Bush Administration ``near dictatorial powers.`` Lieberman then made a wise crack saying that, ``You know, given a Bush, near dictatorial power is a recipe for disaster.`` And I doubt there would be many who would disagree with that.

The Administration is using a two-pronged attack. One of the prongs is that if you continue to ask questions you`ll be labeled as ``unpatriotic.`` Anybody in the media who continues to ask questions will lose their White House access. And if anybody wants to press it, they can potentially be charged with a criminal act, for giving aid and comfort to the enemy and questioning the motives and the president`s decisions and his tactics in the war on terrorism.

It is possible to prosecute someone who continues to ask questions in the tremendous expansion of the War Powers Act of 1947 that the USA Patriot Act has facilitated. This is where the new concentration of dictatorial presidential power now lies -- in the newly expanded War Powers Act of 1947. That`s why, in the USA Patriot Act, they did not specifically strengthen the Sedition Acts (S. 792, US Title Code 18) because they were afraid that it would cause too much publicity. The Administration got it in through the back door by dramatically expanding the War Powers Act, which by definition strengthens the Government`s ability to prosecute somebody for sedition.

The accounting mess in the United States also continues to grow. The next targets are IBM, Baxter International and Lehman Brothers. We are also hearing about a whole new scheme - not only fudging the numbers, but IBM, Baxter and many other large publicly traded corporations are committing scams against their own pension accounts. They are creating fictitious trading profits, which they then scalp off the top of the pension plan and add to their bottom line to make their earnings look better. This is not just marginal. This is an out-and-out fraud - creating fictitious trades through employee pension accounts. These are trades, which weren`t even actually executed, thus creating fictitious paper profits, then transferring those fictitious paper profits to the corporate treasury.

Nothing is skimmed because no money was actually created. These are just numbers for public consumption to bolster the price of the stock. This is money, which the corporation claims it earned - which it didn`t. And who would sign off on this? Their in-house auditors and in-house pension actuaries.

This also illustrates the growing problem of pension fraud in this country. The Bush Administration tries to hide behind the US Government`s Pension Guarantee Corp. They try to present this illusion to the American people - ``don`t worry about your pensions because we have the Pension Guarantee Corp.`` And a lot of people swallow it. What they don`t know is that the Pension Guarantee Corp. has not been funded since 1986.

Currently the contingent liability of the Pension Guarantee Corp. exceeds its current assets by $3.5 trillion. As I`ve been trying to point out (Fox News and CNBC have also been reporting on this issue), our nation`s public and private pension system is now shakier than it has ever been before -- since the tactic was developed during the Reagan/ Bush years of leveraged buyouts using pension money. This has caused a massive drain in the nation`s public and private pension systems.

We are not talking about individual companies` pension schemes, but governmental pension schemes as well, like Social Security, where there is no money. There isn`t any money anywhere in these pension schemes.

Steve Forbes, who probably understands that his political days are over, was also synopsizing the situation the way I did. If George Bush serves a second term, we will have a nation with a debt to GDP ratio of 236% and a debt service to budget ratio of 37%. We will also have an aggregate of $10 trillion, which the Reagan Bush Regime and the Bush II Regime cannot account for.

This is ten trillion missing dollars, which the Reagan/Bush people and the Bush Junior People (which are all the same people) cannot account for. It`s money that`s ``missing`` from the Department of Defense, the Treasury Department, the Education Department, Social Security, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, etc. The list just goes on and on.

This is ten trillion dollars, which the Reagan Bush/Bush Jr. people cannot account for. This is money, which will never be accounted for.

It should also be mentioned that the Federal Reserve reports (it`s hard to find this information since you have to go to the Comptroller of the Currency) describes record outflows of money from the United States. It`s money leaving the country from the so-called ``Smart Republican Money Set,`` money that`s leaving at record levels. Not only are the ``Smart Republican Money Set`` transferring their money out of the country into numbered offshore accounts, they are now beginning to expatriate themselves.

In the last six months, a record number of American citizens with a net worth of over $100 million have become expatriates.

They can`t use the tax loophole act anymore to avoid capital gains, but what people don`t understand is that when the Clinton Administration, over bitter Republican opposition, closed the expatriate tax loophole act of 1995, which said you could flee the United States and become a ``tax exile`` to avoid paying current capital gains taxes, this included only personal accounts. It didn`t relate to built in capital gains in pension accounts, trust accounts and corporate accounts - which is where anyone who has any real money is going to keep their money anyway. In other words, this tax loophole act that the Democrats like to point to as one of their few successes is really a very hollow victory.

The Bank of International Settlement (BIS) indicates continued record conversion of US dollars by US citizens into gold in offshore accounts.

What does the Smart Republican Money know?

They know that it`s all going to fall apart and that the Bush Administration has essentially given up any pretense of prudent fiscal management. It doesn`t care how much deficit it creates.

The Bush Administration will make no effort to pay down the national debt and will make no effort to refund Social Security despite its pledges to do so, and it will make no effort to explain $10 trillion of missing money. The only thing the Bush Administration will do from now until the time it leaves office (whether it has one term or two terms) is continuously seek to expand defense spending with all of its rich revenues going to Republican interests, through contract skimming and offshore shadowy research groups controlled by Republican interests.

In other words, the Bush Administration will act with reckless abandon to complete the final phase of their agenda, which, according to George Bush Sr., is ``the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.``

As of right now, the top 1% of the population controls 63% of the nation`s wealth. That top 1% is 78.3% Republican. If Bush serves two terms in office, the top 1% will control two-thirds of the nation`s wealth and the Bushonian Agenda would have been effectively completed in terms of creating a New Ruling Elite.

It should be noted that the majority of the money that the 1% controls has been earned by some fraudulent activity.

Most of the expatriates (those with a $100 million or more) know the law and they know where to domicile. A lot of them are going to their luxurious resort mansions in Guiana. Not as many are going to the Cayman Islands because the Caymans isn`t as tight a domiciliary as it once was. It used to be that everyone would simply go to their Caribbean retreats, but now that those retreats are not as tight (either protecting them from extradition or protecting their money) many now are simply going to their Swiss chalets. Their money is disbursed in hidden accounts throughout the world, but Switzerland is still the Haven of Last Resort for Republican Cabalists.

And then there`s the recent pullout of the Crusader weapons system scam. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wanted the contract cancelled because frankly the Crusader, the 40-ton self-propelled 335 mm. howitzer system, is ancient technology. None of our armed forces want it, and it`s not easy to get it in theater or to move it around. There are also no foreign governments that want it.

Carlucci, the Carlyle Group and their subsidiary, the United Defense Group were simply trying to s/uck $11 billion out of the US Treasury. This was Carlucci`s personal last-ditch effort to pull off a big scam -- an antiquated weapons system that would defraud the US taxpayers. After all, they don`t call the Carlyle Group, ``Scam R Us,`` for nothing. Their entire balance sheet has been built gratis of the US taxpayer.

When will the American taxpayers wake up? It is almost too late, if Bush is allowed another term in office. The economic damage to our nation`s public purse will be so severe that not even a fiscally prudent government coming in after Bush will be able to correct the problem because of the declining economy in the rest of the world.

Bush understands that it`s too late. He`s just operating with reckless abandon to s/uck every penny he can out of the US taxpayer and to consolidate within that one percent through a variety of scams, artifices, cross holdings, trust, limited partnerships, etc. the money and power they`ve accumulated.

It`ll just be Scams Away for them until the end. In our new ``War on Terrorism,`` it`s no longer Bombs Away. It`s Scams Away.

And whose fault is this? It is the fault of the American People who have supported Reagan, Bush and Bush II. Those who support him should receive their comeuppance.

When you keep scamscateers in power as long as US voters have (aka Reagan/Bush/Bush Jr.), eventually the bill becomes due.

Coincidentally Pfizer announced that there is a record number of depressed people in the United States. The number of depressed people in the United Sates since George Bush Jr. has come to office has increased by 11%. And that is the reaction to the Bushonian form of government. In other words, the American people have given up.

As always, the American people, not knowing what to do, being confused, not understanding what`s happening, but understanding that the nation is slowly being bled dry, simply don`t know what to do. They`re fearful of their pensions. They`re fearful for their 401K accounts. They don`t know who to vote for. They`ve heard so many stories, so they simply take Prozac. The people don`t know what else to do.

You know it`s bad when not only the people take Prozac, but now those who cause the people to take Prozac, the scamscateers themselves, are taking Prozac. Washington, DC is now the Number One metropolitan area for sales of Prozac.

There`s nothing like a good fresh scam. People I know from Washington (my old chums I knew from the time I was still in government) call me up and rub it in my face. People call me up and say, ``Al, haven`t you beat yourself up enough? You know there`s no money in telling the American people the truth. Come back inside. We`ve got a great real estate scam here going against HUD. Everyone`s going to make three or four hundred grand. You just move it into your offshore account. Your name will never even be used.``

You don`t think that gets tempting? I get my old pals in government calling me up and saying, ``You know your offshore account has had a zero balance for fifteen years. And that`s what you get for trying to tell the truth. Those who tell the truth must be punished.``

And then I`m reminded of the words of George Bush who said, ``The truth will get you broke.``

Or I am reminded of the words of Oliver North who said, ``The truth is useless. You can`t deposit it in the bank. You can`t eat it. It`s absolutely useless.``

And anyone who is interested in the truth doesn`t have any money.

In Washington, there are no limits now. The covers have been blown off. There are no restraints anymore. There`s not even a pretense. It`s just naked, raw scams against the public purse. Nobody cares in Washington anymore. It`s just grab what you can before it all comes to an end…

AL MARTIN is America`s foremost whistleblower on government fraud and corruption. A retired US Navy Lt. Commander and former officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, he has testified before Congress (the Kerry Committee and the Alexander Committee) regarding Iran-Contra. Al Martin is the author of ``The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider`` (2001, National Liberty Press, $19.95; Toll FREE order line: 1-866-317-1390) He lives at an undisclosed location, since the criminals named in his book have been returned to national power and prominence. His column ``Behind the Scenes in the Beltway`` is published regularly on Al Martin Raw: Criminal Govt Conspiracy (http://www.almartinraw.com)

Tahmed, Stuka

(re: ``...and pray like hell that no one makes a mistake in the process and triggers a nuclear exchange)...``

It seems that India and Pakistan reach this cyclical point of being on the brink of war every year/6 months or so, and the subtext is always the threat of nuclear ``resolution`` which I agree with you, no sane person would support. But it may add dimension to India-Pakistani dynamics if we examined the resonances and symbolism of this apocalyptic weapon within these conflicts.

I also agree with you that the last two weeks have been the site of posturing on both sides, which I tend to think makes us all uncomfortable to some degree. I heard an interesting lecture yesterday in which the speaker used the example of the US in demonstrating how some administrations use the trope of ``being out of control`` or being unreasonable and vengeful to facillitatet the means they found desirable. While this tactic is at the very least, extremely manipulative and underhanded, I wonder how much of this can be applied to India and Pakistan. And of course, the perceptions of the US and India and Pakistan tend to be different. (US is supposedly rational, India/Pakistan, cough!, not.)

It is very clear that both countries have a lot of backyard cleaning to do; Pakistan MUST address the ISI element and corruption within its borders and cannot continue to use terrorism in the name of Kashmiris. By the same token, India must address the violent right wing element within its borders and engage in third party negotiations with Kashmir.

These continual cycles of drama, as many interactors have pointed out, are shameless in their use of human life, and whats more, even more offensive when they are used to divert useful energy in extremely negative ways. Has war helped in the past? What does it actually prove? What actual purpose does it serve? In honest and pragmatic terms, will having a war actually resolve the ISI issue and Kashmir? It seems there is a great deal of doubt on the parts of many people that it will.

Our thoughts are with the soldiers and famillies who are being called to serve in yet another stupid standoff.

In Pakistan, U.S. Embraces Friend of a Foe

By HOWARD W. FRENCH

AWALPINDI, Pakistan, May 23 — The Bush administration has embraced this country as one of its most important allies in its campaign against terror. But like nowhere else, South Asia highlights just how murky the world of friends and enemies has become since Sept. 11.

Not far from here, hidden in the distance beyond the mud huts of peasants and the smoke of old brick kilns, hundreds of Pakistani scientists are laboring to design nuclear missiles. For reasons of prestige, Pakistan regards the weapons designers at the plant, known as the Kahuta Khan Research Laboratories, as national heroes. Indeed, Pakistan erects statues around the country in honor of its first ballistic missile, the Ghauri I.

But international arms experts, diplomats and retired senior Pakistani officers say that in fact Pakistan obtained most of its present missile ability directly from North Korea, a charter member of President Bush`s ``axis of evil.``

``The Ghauri 1 is definitely a North Korean missile, made, manufactured and assembled there, although some were assembled in Pakistan,`` said Joseph S. Bermudez, a ballistic weapons expert who has written extensively on the North Korean missile program.

``The Clinton administration made significant efforts to block this cooperation,`` he said, ``but the Pakistani leadership perceived a serious threat from India, and needed to match its neighbors quickly.``

Not only has Pakistan cooperated closely on its nuclear and missile programs with North Korea, experts say, but also with Iran and Syria, countries that the Bush administration said this week could someday put weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists.

The possibility of weapons of mass destruction from Pakistan falling into the hands of Islamic extremists remains a worrisome concern, as does the risk of a nuclear conflagration with India.

Today, Pakistan and India once again stand at the brink of war over Kashmir, a border region they both claim, and there are widespread fears that an all-out conflict could lead to an exchange of nuclear strikes between the countries.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, director of the Kahuta plant and the man regarded by many Pakistanis as the father of the country`s nuclear and missile programs, boasted in an interview that Pakistan has developed two kinds of nuclear arms.

``One is a smaller weapon that can be delivered by an aircraft,`` he said. ``The other is bigger. One of the bombs that was tested can easily be deployed on our Ghauri missile.``

During Pakistan`s last confrontation with India over Kashmir, American intelligence agencies found ``disturbing evidence that the Pakistanis were preparing their nuclear arsenals for possible deployment,`` according to a recent paper by Bruce O. Riedel, a former member of the Clinton administration`s National Security Council.

The spur for much of Pakistan`s weapons programs has come from its rivalry with India and has borrowed heavily on the designs of others, from its traditional former ally, the Soviet Union, to an old American missile system it has reportedly copied, the Scout.

In 1998, India abandoned decades of official ambiguity over its nuclear weapons program, exploding three nuclear devices in its first test detonations in over 23 years. Scarcely three weeks later, Pakistan conducted its first three nuclear tests.

``India`s first nuclear test in 1974 made weapons development an organizing fact of life on the subcontinent,`` said Talat Massood, a retired Pakistani general. ``We had to develop nuclear bombs, and then, the systems to weaponize them.

``Through means both overt and covert we began picking up capabilities, and may have relied on the North Koreans for about 10 percent of our program. By now, though, we have become quite independent.``

Experts differ on just how independent Pakistan`s missile program has actually become since its early tests. ``The Pakistanis say the Ghauri 2 and Ghauri 3 are significantly better than the Ghauri 1, and can claim some real work of their own,`` Mr. Bermudez said. ``They still don`t admit that it is a Korean missile, but it is all built on Korean technology.``

The original Ghauri, named for a 12th-century Muslim emperor who invaded the subcontinent and defeated Prithvi, the Hindu ruler of New Delhi, dates to late 1993, when former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto followed up her re-election with a trip to China and North Korea.

Under heavy pressure from Washington not to sell missiles to Pakistan, China reportedly provided financing instead to North Korea for the creation of a Pakistani missile program. The next year, North Korea agreed to provide Pakistan with components from its Nodong missile line, which was itself based on an old Soviet Scud design.

Soon, according to Mr. Bermudez`s research, which is largely confirmed by diplomats, North Korea`s Fourth Machine Industry Bureau began delivering the first components to Pakistan`s Kahuta labs.

Pakistan conducted its first test of the Ghauri missile amid great fanfare on April 6, 1998, with North Korean technicians reportedly looking on.

Pakistan has never been a stable democracy, and leaders of the country`s nuclear weapons program, armed forces and state intelligence services have long flirted with radical Islam. That flirtation remains a concern today.

In the weeks before Sept. 11, a 38-year veteran of Pakistan`s nuclear program, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, was discovered to have visited with Osama bin Laden at least twice in Afghanistan, where the two are reported to have discussed nuclear weapons.

The director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, was so alarmed that he flew to Pakistan to inquire personally into the matter last fall. Mr. Mahmood was later placed under house arrest by the Pakistani government, although he has not been charged with any crime.

The Mahmood case provoked strong resentment in militant Islamic circles here, with television commentators and Urdu language newspapers condemning United States interference in Pakistani affairs, and warning darkly that Washington and its allies` hidden agenda is to destroy what many here call their country`s ``Islamic bomb.``

One of the most fervent promoters of this viewpoint is Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, the retired former head of Pakistan`s largest intelligence body, Inter-Services Intelligence.

``This is an Islamic army. This is a nuclear armed army. And this is our army,`` General Gul said in a lengthy interview, in which he praised the Taliban as ``absolutely remarkable`` for having imposed what he called a crime-free Islamic order on Afghan society.

``Why should people be afraid of Pakistan`s couple of dozen nuclear weapons,`` Mr. Gul said? ``America is not concerned. India has never raised an objection. It is the Zionists who object, because they feel threatened and vulnerable. They think that an Islamic country should not have this.``

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/25/international/asia/25MISS.html

Dangerous game of state-sponsored terror that threatens nuclear conflict

Pakistani leader`s attempt to rein in militants is met with defiance

Rory McCarthy in Islamabad

Saturday May 25, 2002

The Guardian

Around the table at army headquarters in Rawalpindi sat the leading officers in Pakistan`s armed forces, summoned to the most important meeting of their careers.

Hours after the September 11 attacks Washington had ordered Islamabad to halt unconditionally its long-criticised support for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Within days General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan`s straight-talking military dictator, called together his 12 or 13 most senior officers. Although he expects his generals to speak freely at these meetings they rarely oppose the army chief`s decisions.

This time the atmosphere was cold. Gen Musharraf laid out his proposal to support America in the imminent war against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. There was, he told them, simply no other choice. Officially the public was told the officers supported Gen Musharraf unanimously. But now it has emerged that four of his most senior generals opposed him outright. The Guardian has learned that the four openly challenged the president`s pro-US stance. In military terms it was a stunning display of disloyalty.

According to a source close to the military leadership the most angry among the four that night was Lieutenant General Mehmood Ahmed, the religious hardliner who headed the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) - responsible for internal security and covert operations - and was once Gen Musharraf`s closest ally.

Three other lieutenant generals joined his protest: Muzaffar Usmani, a corps commander who was instrumental in orchestrating the coup of October 1999 that brought the army back to power; Jamshaid Gulzar Kiani, commander of the powerful Rawalpindi corps; and Mohammad Aziz Khan, the Kashmir-born Lahore corps commander and a former ISI deputy chief.

Within a month the dissenters were silenced. Gen Ahmed and Gen Usmani were sacked. Gen Kiani lost his corps to become Adjutant-General while Gen Khan was promoted to the theoretically powerful, but largely ceremonial, position of chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee.

It was exactly what Washington wanted - firm leadership against the militant wing of the army. Four months ago Gen Musharraf went further - he made his second major policy change, vowing to rid his country of Islamic extremists who for years have relied on clandestine financial and military support from the army. Militants listened to the general scoff at their ``half-baked religious minds``.

Crackdown

His words shook Pakistan`s Islamist network to its core. Within weeks 2,000 militants were rounded up and jailed, including several prominent hardline clerics and militant leaders. Not only did this delight the Bush administration, it also served to calm tensions with India which for years had been complaining about the Pakistan state`s secret sponsorship of the extreme Islamist campaign in Kashmir.

Today, all that goodwill is fast disappearing. It is clear the general`s promises are not being kept. Most of the militants have been released without charge, among them the heads of groups listed as terrorist organisations by Britain and the US. Pakistan has allowed militants backed by its own intelligence agency to continue their war in Kashmir even though it threatens to plunge India and Pakistan into a devastating conflict.

A Guardian investigation has uncovered evidence that Pakistani militants are still openly raising funds and training young fighters to cross into Kashmir to fight the Indian army. They are closely watched by their Islamist supporters in the ISI. Despite the purges, several hundred in the core of 2,500 ISI officers remain opposed to Gen Musharraf`s alliance with America.

It is taking the newly appointed pro-western generals at the top of the intelligence agency longer than expected to root out dissenters. ``It`s hard to tell who are the renegades and that`s what they`re trying to do now,`` said the source close to the military leadership.

In the past week alone fundraisers from Lashkar-e-Taiba working in a district near Mardan, in the North-West Frontier, collected 500kg of wheat in donations for their fighters, according to a senior Lashkar official. Yet this group is listed as a terrorist organisation by Britain and the US and was banned in Gen Musharraf`s January speech when all militant fundraising was outlawed.

Every Friday lunchtime, as men gather at the mosques near Mardan for prayers, a Lashkar commander makes an impassioned speech about the fight in Kashmir and openly collects thousands of rupees in donations. ``Our fundraising hasn`t been affected at all,`` said the Lashkar official, a pharmacist who now works as one of the group`s leading fundraisers. ``We are still getting enough from local people and from the Arab world to keep us going.``

Lashkar trains thousands of raw recruits every year for the war in Kashmir. ``Last year every jihadi organisation was required to send 3,500 mojahedin across the border and that target was met,`` the official said.

At one religious seminary, or madrassah, near Mardan new recruits start with a 15-day course in religious teaching before a 21-day course in basic military skills. If they pass they move out to secret camps in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir - known here as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (free Kashmir) - where for three months they learn the tricks of guerrilla war and take classes in suicide attacks, the new weapon of the Kashmir campaign.

The Lashkar official claimed a suicide squad from the group`s newest armed wing, Al-Mansoureen, was responsible for last week`s attack on an Indian army base near Srinagar which killed 34 people, including soldiers` wives and children.

The ISI has for years helped to direct the militant war in Kashmir, and its officers, militants say, are well aware that the Islamist fighters are still in business. ``Training is under way in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and we are not under pressure from any government agency to stop,`` the Lashkar fundraiser said. ``When this training is going on do you think these agencies are not aware? Of course they are.``

The Pakistan army consistently denies giving the militants anything more than moral, diplomatic and political support. The reality is quite different. The ISI`s Kashmir cell issues money and directions to militant groups.

``Every jihadi has links with ISI,`` said a military source. ``You cannot be a jihadi without having links with the ISI.`` A select few are in very close contact with ISI officers.

Sympathies

The dilemma for Gen Musharraf is that many of his army officers are still deeply sympathetic to the militants and the Kashmir cause. The Islamist sympathies of many of ISI operatives are all too apparent.

Khalid Khawaja, a retired ISI officer, retains close links with the militants fighting in Kashmir as well as leaders from the defeated Taliban regime. He regards the fight in Kashmir as a legitimate jihad.

In chilling tones he describes Gen Musharraf`s policies since September 11 as a threat. ``We have done the worst possible thing. We have been responsible for the miseries of our brothers and sisters because we didn`t believe in God but we believed in Bush and Blair.``

Gen Musharraf insists he is fully in control of the ISI and aware of everything the officers do. ``Whatever they are doing now I take total responsibility,`` he said earlier this month.

His advisers say the government has a diplomatic imperative for supporting the militant campaign in Kashmir: without the militant struggle there would be no pressure on the Indian government over Kashmir, and Pakistan would have little sway at the negotiating table.

Unless Gen Musharraf can offer the Pakistani people a diplomatic success in Kashmir, which now seems well out of his grasp, he has little choice but to keep up the guerrilla war.

But the ISI is playing a dangerous game. Gen Musharraf is left trying to balance his promise to rein in Islamic militancy with his army`s belief in the moral justice and diplomatic necessity of the Kashmir war. It is a treacherous dilemma which may yet draw India and Pakistan into an unimaginable nuclear conflict.

Guardian, UK

http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=203566

sadna#154

That was food for thought sadna.

-h-

tahmed #137

Sounds like the hollodeck on the starship enterprise to me - could they arrange a vulcan mind-meld between sufis, sants, swamis, sadhus, saints and other persons with spiritual job descriptions and produce a world religion for the planet earth you think ?