Fair Game

Re: # 19
This article is about Valerie a spy betrayed by some members of her own government. It is not about Pakistani politics. So why not stick to the subject and discuss!

Kamath

Re: # 8
Zeemax:
I do not know the situation in Swat or Jamia Hafsa episode. Since you knowledgeable about opposing view point can you please educate us about the following:

1. How can peace be restored in Waziristan and Swat?

2. If another government building is taken over say the supreme court by pious muslims what should the authorities do?

3. If Sharia is to be implemented, what steps should be taken by the people who implement it?

People like us read the newspapers, see the stories such us Maulana coming on a black horse and then beating barbers first and then closing their shops. Secondly closing the video stores and lastly public beheading of six people.

Maybe all of these stories are wrong. All of us would like to be educated from the perspective of Maulana Fazalullah.

Thanks.

Re: # 17 Mohammad:
Thank you for your kind comments.
Wa Salaam.
Kamath

Kamath:

That I don't know. The contents of the book are of great interest to the media and the public. The publisher must have paid her a bundle.

But I am also inclined to believe that money was not the driving motivation for her to write the book.She and her husband took on the deceitful administration at the risk of their careers and their and their children's lives. She wrote in the book that she had received numerous threats.

Mohammad Gill

Re: # 14
What do you say Mohammad?
How much $$ Valerie might have received from publishers of the book.? Take a gusess!

Kamath

Gill writes "I wrote a review of the book reflecting the author's story as was described by her, without interjecting my personal views into it"

If you put your "personal views" into it, at least we would know you have a mind of your own rather than being a tape recorderesque summarizer of the rote type of education. On the other hand you did put some mind into it taking sides with one against the other (using others popular arguments) when both are damn criminals.

Regarding my criticism not dealing with the article, of course they do, they unmask the peon who sees his humanity by enslaving himself to others. Once people understand that they can deconstruct your (and Sohails) mass produced articles...

HP: #5

Political truths are not always as certified and credible as the scientific truths, Invariably there are at least two sides to a political event. I try to keep my mind open. I absorb various views of a political event in which I am interested and try to sort out what seems reasonable. The views you have expressed are the other side of the coin. The author has also described these dissident views in her book.
However, the subsequent events did prove that Wilson's report of the touted Iraq-Niger deal was correct. He was in Niger not for one day but at least a week.

At one place in the book (page 169), the author wrote, "The fact was however that I neither suggested Joe nor recommended him. There was no ulterior motive. I did not have the authority to send Joe to Niger or anywhere else, even if I had wanted to."

I wrote a review of the book reflecting the author's story as was described by her, without interjecting my personal views into it. You've every right to consider it a junket but at least read it before you do so. The book is very read-worthy in spite of heavy redations.

I do appreciate your feedback; at least it pertains to the subject matter of the article. Thanks and with regards,

Mohammad Gill

like Zia ul Fcuk's time, PTV is ruling the media airwaves....

Emergency has been declared in Pakistan, all private media channels have been taken off air. The military has taken over the courts and is deployed all across Karachi and Islamabad. Musharraf has gone against US wishes and preempted their marital law, he will now be deposed by the new army chief if not taken out by a US missile...

In #10 read "every human tradedy ", as "every human tragedy"

Gill writes "The book was published by Simons and Schuster in 2007 and is dedicated to Joe."

The book is not dedicated to Joe, it is dedicated to the long tradition and culture of the US elite that pervades the entire society that of turning every human tradedy (like the Iraq war) and every personal, family intimacy into a money making enterprise. In other words, by writing this book Valerie Plame has whored herself following the best traditon of the American elite....

HP writes "Finally, I cannot believe that some people actually bought this junk book and read it too. Helping some Charity in Pakistan with that money could have been a worthy effort."

Just look at where this person is coming from and it will become very easy to believe why he did it. For him helping a Pak charity would be helping "inferiors", since he says he "discovered" his own humanity in the US for the very first time, he is merely reaffirming his "humanity" by helping fill the pockets of his gods with his hard earned money, hoping that by doing so he might brush off some of theirs, in other words, it makes him feel like them, being intersted in their elite BS....

For the kanjars who thought that Jamia Hafsa should be stormed and Government 'writ' restored and all "Intiha Pasandi" will be over except a few sporadic bombings in some far-off border areas - will have smelled the coffee by now as within 3 months they have lost 'writ' over entire Waziristan plus half of the Swat Valley ...

Here's the latest update for the few Kanjars who can read Urdu. For the ones who can't, sorry:

http://express.com.pk/images/NP_LHE/20071103/Sub_Images/1100291753-1.j pg
http://express.com.pk/images/NP_LHE/20071103/Sub_Images/1100291753-2.gif

More to follow. Watch this space.

Masadi, my advice to you in this respect is to start publishing (or even copy/pasting) articles supporting gays and lesbians, and you will be honoured instead of being banned time & again.

Chowk-admin are gay/lesbian lifestyle campaigners. I don't think any doubt remains about that.

Re: # 4 Mr. Masadi... do not criticise any body by name. Doing that you are helping them to ban your thoughts. Do not cross guide lines and undefined boundaries which you can percive. This is request so people can get different view and commentary about events than just peons of Western Elites.

“It’s not easy to understand how an unpaid week interviewing ex-officials in the second-poorest country on earth could be construed as a boondoggle by even the most avid political operative, and the nepotism talking point did little to neutralize Joe Wilson’s fundamental and still-compelling claim: that the White House exaggerated the case for war to the American public.”

Gill Sahib this shows your naiveté. It was actually very easy to follow. You either don’t understand the political process or read too many democratic blogs. It was clearly a Junket specifically designed to embarrass the defense dept, the Vice president and the President. If you do a logic breakdown of the whole thing you will at a minimum come up with the following:

1. Why would the CIA send a person of known democratic leanings to investigate a major claim by the US President in the SOTU address?

2. The reason CIA did not pay Joe Wilson was also quite obvious. Any one who gets a paid CIA job has to sign a contract and that contract forces them to follow the CIA’s secrecy clauses on all matters and for all practical purposes they can not say any thing about the mission in public without first obtaining CIA’s permission. Similar to the rules that applied to Plame’s book.

3. Despite going on a CIA sponsored mission, Joe Wilson never signed any document to keep his mouth shut about the mission.

4. Wilson went to Niger for barely a day and never submitted any written report.

5. He only talked to the US ambassador and that was the end of his investigation. Any one in CIA could have done that by just picking up a secured phone and dialing the ambassador’s phone number.

I can cite more reasons but I would assume that you will now look for the other reasons yourself.

This all was enough for the VP to call his trip a junket or boondoggle and he was not wrong there.

You need to look at the whole affair as internal struggle between the CIA-State dept and the DoD over the control of the Iraq war. The CIA and the State dept clearly planned to embarrass the government and Joe Wilson was merely playing his part. Plame’s outing was a response by the VP office to the CIA. Just remember that after this incident a major power struggle broke out between the CIA and the DoD which eventually led to the President removing the CIA Chief and replacing him with his trusted man.

Instead of just following the news stories and the blogs, try and read between the lines and think about what is happening around you and don’t accept the words of a few journalists.

If you wanna continue to write about the political issues, I would recommend you develop some method for analyzing events and news accounts. Your current style shows that you have very little understanding of the political process.

Finally, I cannot believe that some people actually bought this junk book and read it too. Helping some Charity in Pakistan with that money could have been a worthy effort.