SHUBHO Vijoya. Excellent Floor Adjustment
In 2009, Vijaya Dashami is celebrated on September 28, Monday. It is celebrated to commemorate the victory of good over evil. On this day, Mother Goddess Shakti demolished bufello demon Mahishasura.
And, Lord Sri Rama killed demon king Ravanasura and returned to his kingdon Ayodhya where his people celebrated the festival of success (Vijaya Dashami). On the day of Vijaya Dashami, Ravanasura, who is also called Dashakanta was killed, to commemorate his defeat this festival is also called as ‘Dussehra’ / Dasara / Dassara.
‘Ravanasura Vadha’ – a tradition of blasting the idol of Ravana is performed on Vijaya Dashami in some places in India.
http://www.hindupad.com/2008/10/vijaya-dashami-vijay-dasami-2009/
No Puja for 100 years in cursed Hooghly village
Palashi comprises around 20 localities, including an Adivasi para and five Muslim settlements. Whoever tried to organize Durga Puja in the village met with a mysterious and accidental death, claimed locals.
Around 100 years ago, Bhim Chandra Ghosh of Boinanpara, a well-to-do resident, tried organizing Durga Puja. He was killed by lightning on Saptami morning. The next year, Ghosh's cousin Dinabandhu Mandal tried to hold the Puja, but died under mysterious circumstances on the eve of Sashti.
Ever since, villagers have stayed away from Puja festivities. "The deaths might have been coincidental but we believe there is a curse. So, nobody dares to take the responsibility of holding Durga Puja," said Tarapada Ghosh, a resident.
Villagers, though, miss being part of the festival. As neighbouring villages dress up their pandals with lights and colours, Palashi remains dull and bare. There is no chanting of prayers or the usual rush to offer anjali. Most villagers leave for other places to soak in the festive spirit. "I can't bear the silence during Puja. It feels terrible to sit at home without getting to hear the dhak beats. So, I leave for my paternal home in Kalna," said Chaitali Ghosh. Youngsters prefer to travel to Kolkata for a round of the pandals. The others go to Burdwan.
It is believed that the village can only worship Patidurga an idol that was installed in Palashi 400 years ago. A priest named Akshay Pandit established a Patidurga temple a century ago and no other idol has been offered puja in the village since then. His descendant Uttam Pandit is now a priest at the temple.
Glowing tributes paid to Bhagat Singh
In his maiden Dussehra speech on Sunday, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat downplayed Hindutva rhetoric and stressed more on external and internal security risks, particularly singling out the Chinese threat.
“Apart from Pakistan, China and Bangladesh are creating problems for us with their expansionist designs. China has built bases all around us, it doesn’t respect the McMahon Line, and lays claim on Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Bangladesh has sent its people into Assam with the same design. We are less prepared for any potential war than China is and immediate steps are required to detect, delete and deport infiltrators,” he said.
He added, “The government has information that the ISI and many foreign mercenary agencies, in tandem with anti-national elements, are not only behind the so-called home-grown Maoist extremism and Jehadi terror but is also active in fomenting terrorism on both sides of the border.”
No electricity, a 10-km muddy stretch to connect it to the main road, no hospital for 20 km and just 11 handpumps for a population of 700 families, Tilhar village in Shravasti was godforsaken in every sense. That was till AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi decided to stay over for a night. For the villagers, who are still basking in the glory of the visit, this has come as a ray of hope that may bring some good news in days to come.
“No one ever comes here. But since Rahul’s visit, lots of officials have come visiting here,” says Chedaram Paasi, son of the village pradhan Jarvarshi Devi in whose house Rahul spent a night during his visit. He still cannot overcome how Rahul made him sit next to him and shared the ‘poori sabzi’ cooked by his mother.
The last time a VIP visited the village was way back in 1997 when Arif Mohammad Khan came calling along with a battery of senior officials, including the District Magistrate.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not have got a better birthday gift as he walked away with much of what New Delhi wanted at the Group of 20 Summit in Pittsburgh. Not only did the Summit pledge continuation of stimulus till a durable recovery is secured but it also acknowledged the shift in global balance of power by designating the G20 as the premier forum for discussing international economic issues.
The G20 will, in effect, replace the Group of Eight (G8) that was increasingly being seen as an outdated club, not reflecting contemporary economic realities.
Addressing the media after the G20 Summit declaration, Singh said the continuation of stimulus and emergence of G20 as a premier forum were very significant from India’s point of view. “We need an external environment that will enable us to grow our exports, attract larger capital inflows and better technology transfers,” he said, emphasising how crucial it is for developing countries that stimulus was not prematurely withdrawn.
"We've alerted the police and the district administration and asked them to be prepared for any untoward incident and retaliation by the Maoists extremists," West Bengal Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty told reporters here.
He said a high alert had already been sounded in all three Maoist-infested western districts-Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore.
Posing as journalists, police had sneaked in on Mahato, and arrested him from Birka near the headquarters of Lalgarh block in West Midnapore district.
The tribal leader had been eluding police ever since he went underground after the central and state governments launched a joint operation to flush out the Maoists.
Meanwhile, suspected Maoists Monday set fire to a bus at Dahijuri area of West Midnapore.
According to police sources, a group of Leftwing rebels stopped the vehicle and asked all the passengers to get down. After emptying the bus, the Maoists set it on fire.
Two policemen abducted by the Maoists in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district were released late Sunday, police said Monday.
“Two constables - Sisirkanti Nag and Siteswar Prasad Singh - were released last ((Sunday) night near Jamtalgore police camp. They are in good health,” West Midnapore Superintendent of Police M.K Verma told IANS.
Both policemen were abducted from Maoist-infested Belpahari region, about 50 km from troubled Lalgarh, late Saturday night.
According to police sources, the two men were returning to a police outpost at Banspahari area in a bus. Three Maoists stopped the bus and kidnapped the policemen at gunpoint.
A day after Chhattradhar Mahato, leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) was arrested, Lalgarh wore a deserted look on Sunday with shops and business establishments closed after Maoists called a bandh in the area.
The Maoists who abducted two constables of the state armed police last night, demanding the release of Mahato, however remain untraced even as the security forces launched combing operations in various parts of the area today.
“There is no doubt that Mahato is an important leader for the Maoists. They abducted two constables last night and demanded the release of Mahato. Moreover, the Maoists have called a bandh in protest against Mahato’s arrest,” said Manoj Verma, Superintendent of Police, West Midnapore, who is leading the joint forces.
The two constables — Siteshwar Prasad Singh and Sushil Nag — were picked up when they were returning to their camp in Lalgarh aboard a public bus. A group of armed Maoists stopped the bus near Tamajhuri in Belpahari and asked the two constables to alight.
"The present day's biggest enemy is terrorism and thus we have decided to burn the effigy of Kasab instead of Ravana," said Nikhil Agrawal of Khatiwala Tank Dussehra Utsav Samiti.
Kasab's effigy is 100 feet tall and weighs around 4,000 kg. The effigy has been prepared by the artists of Malwa.
"Since the government is unable to punish the terrorist, we could give a message regarding feelings of the citizens," he added.
"This is the only case in Madhya Pradesh when the effigy of a terrorist is being burnt on Dussehra. In Mumbai, Worli residents burn effigy of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden every year on the occasion of Dussehra," Agrawal said.
Meanwhile,Policemen impersonating as journalists to arrest PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato came in for criticism from intellectuals and journalists on
Sunday. Incensed with the impersonation, Press Club Kolkata shot off letters to Union home minister P Chidambaram, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti and home secretary Ardhendu Sen, condemning the way Chhatradhar was arrested.
On Monday the day Vijaya Dashami will be observed all over the state intellectuals will sit on a dharna to condemn the arrest. They are demanding immediate release of Chhatradhar. On Sunday, a rally was taken out in support of the PCPA leader, projected as a "leader of people's struggle".
"The way Chhatradhar Mahato was arrested is illegal. Policemen have to be in uniform and disclose their identity before arresting a person. Police cannot impersonate as other professionals and carry out their activities. There is no provision in the indian legal system for the police to do so. The Indian Constitution gives Mahato the right to know why he was being arrested. We doubt whether he had been told at all," said human rights activist Sujato Bhadra.
"Police have broken the law and should be punished for impersonation. They has violated the newly amended section of 50A of Criminal Procedure Code," Bhadra added.
Among those condemned the arrest are writer Mahasweta Devi, poet Shankha Ghosh, theatre personalities Bibhas Chakraborty, Kaushik Sen and poet Joy Goswami.
"Police claim that Chhatradhar is involved in 20-22 criminal cases. He had held meeting with state officials, chief electoral officer and even senior police officers. We suspect that he has been falsely implicated," said Bhadra.
The president of Press Club Kolkata Premananda Ghosh said the way Chhatradhar was arrested would pose problem for journalists.
"We don't have to say anything about the arrest. But posing as journalists they have endangered our lives. They even used Press identity cards. People will lose faith in journalists. We are protesting against this," Ghosh said.
Former public prosecutor Kazi Shafiullah said that Mahato can lodge a case against police. "Legally there is nothing to stop police from doing so. But morally this is wrong. No one will talk to unknown journalists after this incident," Shafiullah said.
It was a spectacle to behold. After four days and nights of revelry, Monday marked Bijoya Dashami, the last day of Durga Puja festivities when huge idols of the goddess were immersed by thousands of teary eyed devotees in West Bengal.
In keeping with tradition, the idols of Goddess Durga along with those of her four children - Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik - were immersed with much fanfare in the Ganga and other rivers across the state.
But this came only after the womenfolk smeared the deities and each other with red vermilion. They also offered sweets to the gods.
“I am thoroughly enjoying ’sindoor khela’ (smearing of vermilion). This is my first Durga Puja after marriage,” Sandipta Basu said. Vermilion, with its blazing red colour, is a symbol of marriage for Hindu women.
Married women pray for the well-being of their families and long lives of their husbands while performing these rituals.
Schoolgoers were also seen at the pandals or marquees with books and pens in the belief that the goddess would bless them with a good academic record.
“I come to the pandal to take the blessings from Maa Durga and her daughters and sons every year,” said Tanima, a student of Class 9.
Now begins a period when Bengalis wish each other “Shubho Bijoya” - Happy Bijoya Dashami - and visit each other’s places with sweets. All sweet shops in the state were overcrowded Monday and will be so for at least another week.
However, not all idols across the state are immersed on the same day. While the traditional puja organisers conduct the immersion on Dashami, some community puja organisers keep the idols in the pandals for one or two more days.
“We do the immersion on the day of Bijoya Dashami itself,” said Ratan Pal, whose family has been conducting Durga Puja for the last 65 years.
Babughat, a popular stretch on the banks across the Ganga river, was teeming with thousands of people who turned up to watch the grand immersion spectacle as chants of “Bolo Bolo Durga Mai Ki Jai” (Hail, Mother Durga) rent the air.
Many foreigners also descended with their cameras to watch and click the colourful spectacle that comes only once a year.
There were many other venues for immersion too.
“Tight security has been arranged at the ghats (riverbanks) where immersions will take place. Today mainly the traditional idols will be immersed along with a few community pujas and Tuesday and Wednesday the other community pujas will be carrying out their immersions,” a police official told IANS.
Men and women could be seen dancing to celebrate the occasion at Babughat.
For traditional pujas like Sovabazar Rajbari and Baghbazar Rajbari, several people carried the deities with their bare hands while others carried the idols on trucks. These revellers also carried a symbolic clay Neel Kontho Pakhi - a bird with a blue neck - with them. It was the carryover of a practice in the times of the zamindars, or big landowners, who used to set free these birds before immersion.
Indian mythology says that Durga Puja celebrates the annual descent of the goddess and her four children to her parental abode on earth. The goddess stays for four days to eradicate all evil from earth and on the fifth day of Dashami begins her return journey to her husband Lord Shiva’s abode at Mount Kailash in the Himalayas.
"We told Pakistan that India still has serious concerns about the threat which groups and individuals in Pakistan continue to pose to us," External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters after a 100-minute meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi at New York Palace hotel here.
He had thus underlined and reiterated "that concrete and effective steps against these individuals and entities can instill in us the confidence that commitments given by Pakistan that it would not allow its soil to be used for terrorist attacks against India would be adhered to."
Implicitly rejecting Pakistan's suggestion to look beyond Mumbai terror attacks and continue their composite dialogue, Krishna conveyed to Qureshi, "our appreciation that for a sustained and meaningful dialogue process to succeed, it is essential to ensure an environment free of violence, terrorism and the threat to use violence."
During what he described as "a useful, constructive and candid exchange of views on the present situation in our bilateral relations," Krishna said they both agreed that the future direction in their bilateral relations has to be one of deeper, sustained and meaningful relations.
"Being a neighbour, there is an imperative to have a mutually beneficial relationship with each other in the long term interests of our own countries and to realize our national developmental priorities."
Qureshi, in turn had conveyed to him "the seriousness of his government in bringing to book through their legal process those responsible for the terrorist outrage in Mumbai ten months ago," Krishna said.
Pakistan has taken some steps within its own legal system against those directly responsible for the attack on Mumbai and the processes thus instituted must gather further momentum, he said.
The case regarding Hafiz Sayeed, alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attacks is also one that concerns India as evidence available with New Delhi bring out his major role in the conspiracy.
Qureshi had also conveyed to him that the trial against those accused for the Mumbai attack would begin shortly and that the Pakistan government will take steps to see justice done. We will be monitoring developments on this score very carefully, he said.
At a separate press conference after a "successful" meeting, Qureshi said Pakistan wanted good neighbourly relations with its neighbours including India and the two sides had agreed to continue meaningful engagement and purposeful negotiations.
Qureshi said he updated Krishna on the headway Pakistan had achieved in Mumbai attack investigations and told him that Pakistan was taking action against the perpetrators. The hearing of a case in this connection will begin Oct 3, he said.
Qureshi said he had suggested to Krishna a road map to continue the bilateral talks, as talks were the only way to move forward. Pakistan is a responsible state and knows its responsibility, he said and no elements would be allowed to hijack the peace process between the two countries.
Pakistan wants to resolve all outstanding issues with India through dialogues and various issues including Siachin, Kashmir and Sir Creek were discussed in the meeting, Qureshi said.
DLF garners Rs 100 cr from bookings of Delhi flats
The country's largest realty firm, DLF, has mopped up about Rs 100 crore as booking amount for flats it had offered in the second phase
The company had launched 1,250 apartments in the second phase of its housing project -- Capital Greens -- at Shivaji Marg, near Moti Nagar in New Delhi. It sold all the apartments within just two hours of opening the bookings last week.
The selling prices of the housing units were increased by up to 26 per cent compared to that in the first phase and were offered at Rs 1.86 crore.
According to sources, DLF raised about Rs 100 crore from booking amount of the 2-, 3- and 4-BHK apartments.
The company had kept the booking amount at Rs 7.5 lakh for 2- and 3-BHK units and Rs 10 lakh for the 4-BHK flats.
When contacted, DLF Managing Director T C Goyal said: "If you have quality product, right pricing, good location and credibility of the builder, then there is no dearth of buyers in the market."
To keep away the speculators, against one PAN card the company allowed booking for only a single flat.
The second phase of Capital Greens was launched at Rs 6,750, Rs 7,500 and Rs 8,000 per sq ft depending upon the location of the dwelling units within the complex.
However, the effective rate would come down to Rs 5,677, Rs 6,363 and Rs 6,820 per sq ft respectively as DLF would offer a discount of Rs 500 a sq ft for timely payment and 8.5 per cent rebate on down payments. The company plans to deliver the project within next three years.
The sizes of the apartments would be from 1,210 sq ft 2,720 sq ft and would carry effective price tags between Rs 68.69 lakh and Rs 1.86 crore.
The price announced by DLF was higher than the rates at which the company had sold its flats in the first phase. It had launched about 1,400 units in Phase-I at a price of Rs 4,500 (2-BHK) and Rs 5,500 (3-BHK).
The 38-acre project site at Shivaji Marg, near Moti Nagar, was acquired by DLF in 2007 from DCM Shriram and Lohia Group for Rs 1,675 crore.
Another realty player Parsvnath has two residential projects in Delhi. The selling price of Subhash Nagar project is Rs 7,500 per sq ft and that of Civil Lines project is Rs 10,000 a sq ft.
Emaar MGF is selling apartments at Rs 12,700 per sq ft in its Commonwealth Games project.
Companies raise over Rs 14k cr in upbeat market
"The companies are in a quick money raising spree encashing the upbeat mood of the market and in order to meet their expansion plans or to use for any other purposes," brokerage firm SMC Global Vice President Rajesh Jain said.
The country's most valued firm, Reliance Industries, garnered Rs 3,188 crore by way of treasury share sale. The Petroleum Trust, one of the promoter entities in RIL, sold 1.5 crore equity shares of the company at an average price of about Rs 2,125 a piece in open market, according to the data available on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, is the sole beneficiary of the Trust.
JP Associates also sold some of its treasury stock to raise Rs 1,191 crore.
Treasury stock refers to shares of a company which are not issued to the public, as some are kept in the companies treasury to be used to create extra cash when needed.
The buoyant markets have also helped companies to raise funds by private placement of shares with institutional buyers.
The country's third largest private sector lender, Axis Bank, raised over Rs 4,880.61 crore through qualified institutional placement by issuing a total of 5.38 crore equity shares at Rs 906.70 per share, the BSE data showed.
Wind power major Suzlon Energy's promoters have raised funds to the tune of Rs 689 crore by offloading seven crore shares representing 4.50 per cent stake in the company in the open market.
The promoters of the company intend to provide the funds raised through the stake sale to Suzlon either in form of debt or equity subject to necessary approvals.
For a retail investor, Jain said that funding raising by companies is a positive thing since the price of their stocks may further move up, as there are deep pockets in the market waiting to invest in the stocks they hold.
Pharma firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals raised Rs 413 crore and IT software services provider 3i Infotech raised Rs 317.81 crore by allotting equity shares to qualified institutional buyers on preferential basis.
The companies such as domestic mining company Sesa Goa are in the process to raise USD 500 million (nearly Rs 2,400 crore) by offering foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) for financing the company's growth plans.
Foreign investors have turned net buyers in the debt market for the first time in the last six months investing net Rs 594 crore in debt
instruments so far this year.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), so far in 2009, bought debt instruments worth Rs 77,161 crore, while sold instruments valued at Rs 76,566 crore, resulting in a net buy of Rs 594 crore, as per data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
FIIs remained net investors in the debt segment in the first two months (January and February) of this year, but in March they were net sellers.
Heavy buying trend resumed in September and FIIs turned net buyer in the debt segment.
"FIIs are looking for investment in emerging markets and India is preferred choice. In coming days also, overseas firms will continue their investment strategy," Delhi-based Unicon Financial Intermediaries Chief Executive Gajendra Nagpal said.
In equity segment also, foreign fund inflow has witnessed significant rise in recent time. In first nine-months of this calendar year, overseas inflow in domestic stock markets has crossed a whopping 11 billion dollars (Rs 54,000 crore) mark.
What's government's role in making the Web secure?
There is no kill switch for the Internet, no secret on-off button in an Oval Office drawer.
Yet when a Senate committee was exploring ways to secure computer networks, a provision to give the president the power to shut down Internet traffic to compromised Web sites in an emergency set off alarms.
Corporate leaders and privacy advocates quickly objected, saying the government must not seize control of the Internet.
Lawmakers dropped it, but the debate rages on. How much control should federal authorities have over the Web in a crisis? How much should be left to the private sector? It does own and operate at least 80 percent of the Internet and argues it can do a better job.
"We need to prepare for that digital disaster," said Melissa Hathaway, the former White House cybersecurity adviser. "We need a system to identify, isolate and respond to cyberattacks at the speed of light."
So far at least 18 bills have been introduced as Congress works carefully to give federal authorities the power to protect the country in the event of a massive cyberattack. Lawmakers do not want to violate personal and corporate privacy or squelching innovation. All involved acknowledge it isn't going to be easy.
For most people, the Internet is a public haven for free thought and enterprise. Over time it has become the electronic control panel for much of the world's critical infrastructure. Computer networks today hold government secrets, military weapons specifications, sensitive corporate data, and vast amounts of personal information.
Millions of times a day, hackers, cybercriminals and mercenaries working for governments and private entities are scanning those networks, looking to defraud, disrupt or even destroy.
Just eight years ago, the government ordered planes from the sky in the hours after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Could or should the president have the same power over the Internet in a digital disaster?
If hackers take over a nuclear plant's control system, should the president order the computer networks shut down? If there's a terrorist attack, should the government knock users off other computer networks to ensure that critical systems stay online? And should the government be able to dictate who companies can hire and what they must do to secure the networks that affect Americans' daily life.
Government officials say the U.S. must improve efforts to share information about cyberthreats with private industry. They also want companies to ensure they are using secure software and hiring qualified workers to run critical systems.
Much like the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, cybersecurity has attracted the interest of a number of House and Senate committees, all hoping to get a piece of the oversight power:
Bills in the House Homeland Security Committee bills would protect the electric grid and require the department to secure its networks.
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee is writing legislation aimed largely at federal agencies.
Talks fail, Air India pilots to intensify agitation
The agitating pilots of the cash-strapped national carrier Air India Monday threatened to intensify their strike after talks between them and the airline management failed to resolve the impasse.
"The management has refused to address our concerns. We will continue our agitation. We expect our pilots across the country to join us soon," V.K. Bhalla, who represents the senior executive pilots, told reporters here soon after the talks ended inconclusive.
He said the management has refused to look into their demand on payment of three months' arrears and agreement on wages besides a neutral party intervention.
Bhalla also accused Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav of creating confusion among pilots.
Jadhav flew in from Mumbai Monday afternoon to meet the pilots. Air India has its head office at Mumbai.
The strike entered the third day Monday, forcing cancellation of at least 14 flights, including two international flights, out of the national capital alone.
The spokesperson for the airlines was not available for comments.
On Sunday, the management had met a section of pilots in Mumbai and agreed to their demands and assured them that a committee would reverse its decision concerning cut in their productivity linked incentives (PLI) and its modalities. The PLI constitutes the major chunk of their salary.
Despite that, the Delhi faction of executive pilots said they would continue the strike till the management also conceded their demand and paid them their last three months' salary arrears and other agreements on wages.
About 100 executive pilots reported for work between Friday and Sunday midnight, while according to another Air India official, executive pilots based in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata resumed duty Monday.
The civil aviation ministry has called a meeting of all airlines Tuesday to discuss the situation arising out of the Air India pilots' agitation as well as a similar protest by their counterparts in the Jet Airways earlier this month.
The Air India agitation began last week after the management's decision to slash the PLI of employees by 25 to 50 percent as part of cost-cutting measures. The airline's current debt is about Rs.16,500 crore and its losses stood at Rs.7,200 crore in fiscal 2008-09 that ended March 31.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday condemned the national carrier's decision to slash the wages and PLI of its pilots and demanded the government's intervention in the Air India strike.
Anil Ambani group says gas marketing margin illegal
The Anil Ambani group has called the marketing margin for the gas produced by Reliance Industries from the Krishna-Godavari basin illegal and asked the oil ministry to prevent the company from suspending supplies as threatened.
In a letter to Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pandey, Reliance Infrastructure, a part of the Anil Ambani group, has said Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has not conducted any form of marketing for the gas from the Krishna-Godavari fields.
"Reliance Industries is not sharing this part of sale consideration with the government. Thus, several crores of rupees that would belong to the government are being diverted by Reliance Industries," the letter alleged.
The letter, written by Reliance Infrastructure vice president Kamal Kant, has also asked the petroleum ministry to expeditiously resolve the issue of whether Reliance Industries is justified in charging marketing margin.
"You are requested to advise Reliance Industries to act in terms of the Bombay High Court order and continue the supply of gas on payment of $4.2 per unit," said the letter, referring to the judgement delivered in June.
The supplies, as stated in the letter, refer to that part of production from the fields that is over and above the 28 million units of gas a day at $2.34 per unit for 17 years for which a bitter legal battle is being fought by the two groups.
The Supreme Court is slated to hear the case Oct 20.
RIL diverting crores of govt revenue: ADAG
An Anil Ambani group company has asked the oil ministry to stop RIL from charging marketing margin on gas, alleging that the Mukesh Ambani-led firm was not sharing the revenue and "diverting" crores of rupees of the government's share.
In a letter to Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey, Reliance Infrastructure also sought to know whether RIL was entitled to charge the marketing margin despite the fact that "RIL is not sharing this part of sales consideration with the government.
"Thus, several crores of rupees that would belong to the government are being diverted by RIL".
Demanding an early resolution to the issue that whether Reliance Industries was justified to charge the marketing margin, R-Infra Vice-President Kamal Kant said in the letter: "You are requested to advise RIL to act in terms of the Bombay High Court order and continue to supply the gas on payment of 4.2 per mmBtu."
The letter coincided with the Power Secretary H S Brahma and state-run NTPC also questioning the marketing margin, which R-Infra has termed as "illegal" and declined to pay, prompting RIL to issue a notice for suspension of fuel to ADAG's power plant in Andhra Pradesh for payment default.
"The marketing margin being charged by RIL on sale of K-G D6 gas is fair and justified consideration for the risks and costs undertaken in the GSPA including such risks and costs beyond the delivery point," RIL President (Gas Business) wrote to Power Secretary H S Brahma.
R-Infra further told the oil ministry that RIL was not entitled to suspend the Gas Sale Purchase Agreement (GSPA), as it was continuing to pay the sale price of $4.2 per mmBtu.
"The issue as to whether RIL is justified and entitled to charge a marketing margin is required to be expeditiously resolved," R-Infra said, adding that RIL has not undertaken any marketing and it was violating the High Court order and the Empowered Group of Ministers' decision as it was permitted to sell gas as an interim measure at $4.2 per mmBtu.
"RIL has not undertaken any marketing and the said charge is essentially a part of sales consideration which is not shared with the government. Hence, RIL is not authorised to charge the same," R-Infra noted.
Residential property prices rise 15%
“The festive season (September-December ) has historically been a buying period, with a large chunk of overall sales being converted during this auspicious time. Some developers see as much as 30-40 % of the yearly sales taking place during the festive season,” says Aditi Vijayakar, the executive director (Residential Services, India) of Cushman & Wakefield (C&W ), a global realestate consultant. “Residential prices have increased by 5-15 % from the bottom it made in the first half of the year. If the developers continue to raise the prices then the renewed demand and interest that is being witnessed will start to abate,” she cautioned while talking about the upcoming season which is also a source of attraction for the cash-rich NRIs.
“The previous year has been a taxing one for the real estate industry and the initial signs of recovery are evident in the market, and as most of the sales happen during the festive periods, developers have to be cautious not to hike prices in projects and new launches as this will drive out the end users and prolong the revival in the residential space,” Ms Vijayakar remarked.
According to the expert, almost all cities are registering a rise in sale as transactions had frozen up during the start of the year. But now as the economy has stabilised and is back on the growth trajectory, there is a revived interest in buying homes by end users and this increase in confidence, better economy, favourable borrowing conditions, rationalised capital values amongst others which is promoting rising sales across India..
However, developers and builders are eyeing the renewed demand in the residential space as a huge opportunity. “After almost a year-and-a-half, we see a renewed demand in the residential sector. During the last three months, sales have picked up by almost 100%, and with a long buying season ahead, the property prices will definitely move up the graph,” says Sameer Sinha of Savvy Infrastructures Ltd.
“In Ahmedabad, going by conservative estimates, the prices of residential property is expected to rise by another 25-30 % in the next one year”, Mr Sinha said adding that the prices in the city have already risen by about 15% since the markets bottomed out earlier this year. The fresh demand in the housing sector has boosted the confidence of developers as well. Earlier this month, the city-based body of developers, GIHED (Gujarat Institute of Housing and Estate Developers) displayed about 500 projects worth Rs 3,000 crore at property show in Ahmedabad.
“As the economy recovers and grows on a pan-India basis, residential demand is expected to grow along side. C&W Research estimated demand to be over 7.5 million units by 2013 across all categories such as Economically Weaker Section, affordable mid segment and luxury segment. The residential demand for NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata is estimated to be 4.5 million units by 2013”, Ms Aditi Vijayakar added.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/news-/Residential-property-prices-rise-15/articleshow/5064201.cms
The demand for hospitality in Mumbai is expected to be strong at over 98,500 room-nights , by virtue of the fact that the city is regarded as the financial capital of India and therefore the volume of both domestic and foreign business travellers is expected to grow steadily. Demand for retail is expected to be 6.19 million sq ft.
On the other hand, Pune is expected to see the highest compounded annual growth in retail demand at 51% due to the current favourable demographics . The total expected demand for retail in Pune is approximately 1.76 million sq ft. Office demand in Pune is expected to be 21.7 million sq ft.
Bangalore emerges as a clear preference for sectors like office and retail, while it comes a close third in the residential and hospitality segments . Bangalore is expected to see the highest demand for office space in 2009-2013 of approximately 34 million sq ft.
The expected recovery in the IT/ITeS sector would have a positive affect on the demand in Bangalore, the preferred location for many IT/ITeS companies. The demand for retail sector is also expected to be the highest in Bangalore with approximately 7 million sq ft, while demand for residential is expected to be approximately 5,70,000 units over 2009-2013 , with the highest compounded annual growth rate at 14%.
Chennai is likely to witness the second highest demand for office spaces after Bangalore, of approximately 27.2 million sq ft, by 2013. Good infrastructure, high quality construction and competitive pricing would be the key reasons for the location to see high demand from corporate sector. Hyderabad is expected to witness an office demand of 16.6 million sq ft. The residential demand for Hyderabad is expected to be 2,90,000 units, and like Bangalore , is expected to see the highest compounded annual growth rate of 14%.
Kolkata is expected to see a demand of 9 million sq ft for office space while retail is expected to be a healthy 4.15 million sq ft. Residential space demand is expected to 2,90,000 units while hospitality demand is expected to be approximately 24,869 room-nights .
Real estate sector to witness a prolonged & robust demand 26 Sep 2009, 0839 hrs IST, Prabhakar Sinha, TNN Real estate sector in the country will witness a prolonged and robust demand. According to a report by global realty consultation firm Cushman The Cushman & Wakefield India Real Estate Investment report 2009 Survival to Revival Indian realty sector on the path to recovery estimates demand for retail space at around 43 million sq ft while the hospitality sector is expected to see a demand of approximately 6,90,000 room-nights in the same period. According to Anurag Mathur, MD of C&W , India, Though the highgrowth trajectory of the previous years saw a setback during the global economic slowdown, the inherent strong economic fundamentals, low exposure to debt and state intervention , would help the sector gradually return to the path of recovery and witness robust demand for real estate across sectors. The pan-India residential demand is estimated to be over 7.5 million units by 2013, across all housing categories , of which 85% is expected in the mid-segment and aff o r d a b l e housing segment , the report says. Of the total demand exp e c t e d across India, 60%, equivalent to 45 lakh units, would be generated in top 7 cities (see chart). Mumbai is expected to witness the highest cumulative demand of 16 lakh units by 2013, followed by the National Capital Region, which is expected to see a demand of 10.20 lakh units in the same period. That means, on an average, every year there will be a demand of two lakh units. This is far more than the expected supply in the area.
According to the report, the demand for housing units will keep on rising year after year. The total demand for the housing units in all the seven cities will rise from 11.96 lakh units in 2009 to 13.32 lakh units in 2010, and to 14.86 lakh units in 2011. The figure will further rise to 16.63 lakh units in 2012 and to 18.64 lakh in 2013. Bangalore and Hyderabad are expected to see the highest compounded annual growth rate of 14%. Total office space demand is expected to be 196 million sq ft during 2009-13 , of which approximately 42% is expected to be generated in the seven cities. According to the C&W report, though office market is expected to witness a fall in demand in 2009 with an expected absorption of 27 million sq ft, the period from 2010 onwards will see the markets experience a healthier demand with a compounded annual growth of 19% from 2009-2013 . The commercial office market in India is likely to head towards a more balanced demand and supply situation in the next few years. The highest demand in the next five years is expected to be in Bangalore at 34 million sq ft followed by Chennai at 27 million sq ft. This increase in demand is largely due to improving economic conditions, positive market sentiments and growing corporate confidence. Retail sector is expected to see a demand of approximately 43 million sq ft, mostly concentrated in the seven cities. Bangalore would see the highest demand of approximately 6.8 million sq ft however, Pune is expected to record the highest compounded annual growth of 51% for the next five years. The demand for the hospitality sector is expected to see a surge and is expected to be approximately 6,90,000 room-nights between 2009-2013 . NCR and Mumbai are expected to see the highest demand due to the higher volume of business travellers to these cities. Approximately 35% or 2,42,000 room-nights of the pan-India demand for hospitality is expected to be generated in the top three cities owing to various initiatives taken by the Indian government to promote commercial and tourism activity in these locations. Mathur says, While the upcoming 2010 Commonwealth Games have been the key demand driver for hospitality segment in NCR, the significant expected rise in office demand in the peripheral locations is also likely to play a role is boosting room-night demand . Factors like increase in urbanization, income growth, relatively high disposable incomes are likely to positively impact retail as well as residential demand in the city. NCR is expected to see the highest demand in the hospitality sector, owing to its growing importance as commercial and political centre. The maximum surge for demand in hospitality is expected to be witnessed in 2010 during the Commonwealth Games. The retail demand is expected to be 66.6 million sq ft by 2013 and the residential demand in the same period is expected to be approximately 10.20 lakh units. The office space demand on the other hand is expected to be approximately 25 million sq ft. | ||||||||
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In Mumbai, Huwaida seeks Indian support for Free Gaza Movement
"What Israel is doing since last so many years is against every international law and is contradiction of all UN resolutions. Its actions are inhuman to say the least. Yet not only the various governments in the world, but barring few people the entire civil society is a mute spectator to what is happening to poor Palestinians", wondered Huwaida Arraf.
http://www.ummid.com/news/September/27.09.2009/huwaida_in_mumbai.htm
Chandrayaan-II to further probe water on Moon
Thiruvananthapuram: With India's maiden Moon mission making a path-breaking discovery about water presence on lunar surface, the objectives of Chandrayaan-II would be modified for further probes into that aspect, ISRO Chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair said on Monday.
"This major achievement has been taken very seriously by scientists the world over. There should be more enquiries on the source of water. It has to be found out whether there would be more water towards the pole (of the Moon)," Nair told reporters here.
Certain changes would have to be made on the mission objectives of Chandrayaan-II for further enquiries in that direction. "We are thinking about it," he added.
Nair also said the GSLV in the present cryogenic stage is expected to be launched by this year end.
Source: PTI
Israel eyes big arms sales in Africa
Sept. 14, 2009
http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/09/14/Israel-eyes-big-arms-sales-in-Africa/UPI-46891252956171/
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's recent five-country tour of Africa was more about building up intelligence links and selling arms than diplomacy, according to one Israeli intelligence specialist.
Lieberman didn't sign any arms deals during his swing through Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda. But Israeli officials estimate there are African arms contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars waiting to be grabbed by Israel's export-hungry defense firms.
Yossi Melman, who writes extensively on Israel's intelligence establishment, questioned whether Israel should be engaging in such activities instead of sending in agricultural advisers and medical and educational experts to such economically distressed countries.
He noted that the publicly announced objective of the tour was "Israel's willingness to assist counties … to find solutions to their problems: hunger, insufficient clean water, epidemics."
But he wrote in the liberal daily Haaretz that the main but "less publicized" aspect of the tour was boosting "defense exports," such as the arms deals worth $500 million that Israel has signed with Nigeria in recent years.
Melman observed that an "even more secretive" goal was "the hope of developing intelligence ties and cooperation in the effort against international jihadist elements, and especially countering the activities of Iran in some of these African countries" where Israel has been engaged in some murky dealings over the years.
Lieberman's entourage included representatives of many key Israeli defense firms, both state-owned and private enterprises. These included Israel Military Industries, Israel Aerospace Industries, Soltam, Silver Shadow Advanced Security Systems, Israel Shipyards and Elbit Systems.
There was also a delegation from the Defense Ministry's foreign assistance and military sales department, known as Sibat.
And finally there was a team from Israel's intelligence community, including a senior official from the Mossad, the foreign intelligence service.
Israeli intelligence has operated in Africa for decades, and military teams have been active in training Africa armies, often clandestinely, with weapons sold by the Jewish state.
Melman observed: "Secret funding from the United States Central Intelligence Agency was channeled by American trade unions to (Israel's) Histadrut labor federation …to finance various activities.
"Among other things, the money was used to post an impressive array of Mossad agents in the African states."
These activities, Melman noted, "gave Mossad agents and Israeli Defense Forces officers an excuse to be involved in the internal affairs of African regimes."
Indeed, Israelis were reportedly involved in military coups in Uganda and Zanzibar, or as Melman drily observed "at least had prior knowledge of them."
The African countries where the Israeli agents operated included those of geostrategic interest to Israel on the periphery of the Arab world, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan.
These remain of some importance to Israel today because of their proximity to Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Ethiopia and Sudan control the Red Sea shipping lanes to Eilat, Israel's only southern port in the Gulf of Aqaba.
In July and August, amid growing tensions with Iran, Israel deployed one of three German-built Dolphin-class submarines and two corvettes into the Red Sea in a clear warning to Tehran.
In January and February, Israeli warplanes were reported to have destroyed at least two convoys in the Sudanese desert that were carrying Iranian arms to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Israelis have long had close intelligence links with Ethiopia, a Christian-dominated Red Sea state ringed by Muslim countries. Addis Ababa is currently propping up the Western-backed transitional government in neighboring Somalia, where al-Qaida is reputed to be operating.
Melman lamented: "It is a sad truth that … almost all Israeli activity on the African continent is related to weapons exports.
"The 'ugly Israeli' in the guise of the arms dealer (mostly former intelligence and military officials), who promotes weapons sales on behalf of Israeli military industries, with the backing of the defense establishment, has given Israel a bad name worldwide.
"Israelis have been involved in civil wars (in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast) and in aiding dictatorial regimes such as in Equatorial Guinea and the two Congo republics."
Obama pledges to defeat Al Qaeda By Masood Haider and Anwar Iqbal
Thursday, 24 Sep, 2009
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/obama-pledges-to-defeat-al-qaeda-499
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23: US President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday to defeat Al Qaeda and said the United States would permit no safe havens for terrorists to launch attacks from Afghanistan or any other country.
"The violent extremists who promote conflict by distorting faith have discredited and isolated themselves," the US president told the 192-member UN General Assembly.
"They (terrorists) offer nothing but hate and destruction," he said, adding that the "United States will stand by its friends on the front lines" — in a reference to Pakistan.
Without mentioning the summit level meeting of Friends of Democratic
Pakistan to be held here on Thursday, he said that the US and many nations would "pledge support for the Pakistani people tomorrow".
"We will pursue positive engagements that build bridges among faiths and new partnerships for opportunity."
President Obama asked the world leaders to step up and do their part in tackling global challenges in promoting security and prosperity, rather than waiting for America to do it alone.
"The people of the world want change," Mr Obama said. "They will not long tolerate those who are on the wrong side of history."
About the war against extremism, he said: "We have set a clear and focused goal: to work with all members of this body to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda and its extremist allies — a network that has killed thousands of people of many faiths and nations, and that plotted to blow up this very building."
He pointed out that "in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we — and many nations here — are helping those governments develop the capacity to take the lead in this effort, while working to advance opportunity and security for their people".
On the US decision to withdraw all forces from Iraq, Mr Obama said: "In Iraq, we are responsibly ending a war. We have removed American combat brigades from Iraqi cities, and set a deadline of next August to remove all of our combat brigades from Iraqi territory. And I have made clear that we will help Iraqis transition to full responsibility for their future, and keep our commitment to remove all American troops by the end of 2011."
On the issue of nuclear non-proliferation issue on which he has called a special UN Security Council meeting on the sidelines of the assembly debate, Mr Obama said: "I have outlined a comprehensive agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. In Moscow, the United States and Russia announced that we would pursue substantial reductions in our strategic warheads and launchers. At the conference on disarmament, we agreed on a work plan to negotiate an end to the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.
And this week, my Secretary of State will become the first senior American representative to the annual Members Conference of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty."
Obama pointed out that upon taking office, he had appointed a special envoy for Middle East peace, and America had worked steadily and aggressively to advance the cause of two states — Israel and Palestine — in which peace and security take root, and the rights of both Israelis and the Palestinians are respected."
28/09/2009
Don't quit politics, seer tells Advani
New Delhi: Sri Vishwesh Teerth Swamiji of the Udupi Pejavar Math on Monday told Leader of Opposition L.K.Advani not to retire from politics but to guide youngsters by remaining in the field.
Advani had called on the Pejavar seer here on the occasion of Vijay Dashami.
Advani's wife Kamala Advani also accompanied him.
"Advaniji expressed his desire to retire from politics, but I suggested to him to stay back, because the younger generation needed his guidance," said the Pejavar seer.
"I have not asked him anything about this, but looking at the pace in which the present political scenario is heading Advaniji expressed his desire to retire from politics," the seer added.
The seer, who is also one of the trustees of the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas Trust, said: "There was no discussion about the Ramjanmbhoomi movement during the meeting."
Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, Advani recalled his relations with Swamiji since the emergency period, and said: "I met him to seek his blessings on the occasion of Vijay Dashami and I am happy about the meeting."
Rumours about Advani's retirement from politics is going on the political circles since the Lok Sabha results were announced in May this year.
The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat has also said that it is for the party to decide on Advani's future.
Source: ANI
Don't read politics, but Rahul is good, says 'Shotgun' Sinha
Nagpur: While speaking to the media persons in Nagpur on Sunday, Shatrughan 'Shotgun' Sinha, leader of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), applauded Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary of Congress party by saying he has a bright future in Indian politics.
Take Jaswant Singh back
After a hiatus, BJP leader `Shotgun' Shatrughan Sinha was back (of course with a bang), this time `firing' left, right and centre. He first offered `cover' for ex-Army man and expelled leader Jaswant Singh wanting the BJP to take him back into the party fold, backed partyman Arun Shourie (who called BJP president Tarzan, Alice in Blunderland and wanted the RSS to bomb BJP headquarters) and then made the saffron brigade see red when he praised Rahul Gandhi as a `promising leader'.
"Jaswant Singh has been a founding member of the BJP and he was associated with it significantly from day one of its formation," Sinha, BJP MP from Patna Saheb, told reporters in Patna Sunday.
Asked whether Jaswant Singh's expulsion was justified, Sinha said, "Yeh bade logun ki baat hai (this is an issue concerning bigwigs). Moreover, I am not a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board which took the decision."
Friends
Probably you will be surprised. Raj's next book is a novel. It is an an advanced stage of
production with PublishAmerica, a US based reputed publisher. The title of the Novel is
"KAKAPEE", the Self-actualization That Changed the Genes of a Crow's Shit. It is a very
interesting novel, hero-centric novel with a Dalit as the hero.
You may directly place your orders with PublishAmerica as it would cost you much less
now. They do not have yet a retail outlet in India. You may please write to:
hannah@publishamerica.com
You may mention the title of the novel as Kakapee and mention the name of the author as
M C Raj. Some friends of Raj's who read the manuscript said they could not put it down as it
is very absorbing. I am sure you will enjoy reading this novel much more than we did when
he was writing it.
Raj is now working on the research he did in Norway on the Sami Parliament to bring it out
as a book and is also slowly writing his next novel.
Warm regards
Raj
Jyothi and Raj
REDS
Shanthinagar 572102
Tumkur-Karnataka
Phone: ++91-816-2277026; Fax: ++91-816-2272515
Mobile: Jyothi-(0)9880184667; Raj-(0)9845144893
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Web: www.dalitreds.org
Friends
--
M C Raj
REDS, REDS Road
Shanthinagar
Tumkur 572102
Karnataka, India
Obama makes a plea for Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
NEW YORK - United States President Barack Obama's speech on Wednesday, the second day of the 64th summit of the United Nations General Assembly, was a strident challenge to world leaders - an ostensible rallying cry to join the US and its allies in the war in Afghanistan.
"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," said Obama, in what many see as preparation for an expected troop surge in Afghanistan.
An even clearer signal of Washington's quest for stronger participation from its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the non-NATO allies, was a secret meeting between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Central Intelligence
Agency director Leon Panetta at New York's Barclay Hotel earlier this week.
The meeting, reluctantly confirmed by Pakistani officials, was meant to review the next stage in the post-Afghan presidential elections and the regional "war on terror" theater. This next chapter in the war, many experts believe, will be its hottest time to date.
A formal request to Obama from the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, to send more troops in Afghanistan is likely to be made soon. The Pentagon's rationale for the increase is the upward spiral of Taliban violence - but some feel it has as much to do with protecting Pakistan.
Despite the excellent performance of the Pakistani armed forces against the Taliban in the Pakistani tribal areas and the Malakand area, Washington remains unsure over the level of the Pakistan army's cooperation. The Pentagon was quick to note that Pakistan army leaders recently refused a ground operation in the North and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, McChrystal is expected to ask for at least 40,000 additional troops to be deployed mainly in the southern border provinces with Pakistan, such as Helmand and Ghazni, and provinces such as Wardak and Kapisa, in Afghanistan's northeast. The troops will reportedly undertake active operations against the Taliban as well as regular ground campaigns.
The Obama administration is worried that if Pakistan changes course and becomes inactive, US forces could be trapped along the border - resulting in an horrific casualty rate that would be catastrophic for the White House in the mid-term US elections next year.
The indications from different Asia Times Online sources are that next summer the battle between the Taliban and NATO forces will no longer be restricted to Afghanistan - it will expand inside Pakistan. The primary reason for this, sources say, is the deployment of coalition forces in Afghan border provinces such as Helmand.
The Taliban's main sanctuary in Helmand is Gereshk district, which borders the Pakistani district of Noshki. The porous border between Noshki and Gereshk serves as a haven for anti-Western Taliban fighters as well as anti-Pakistan Baloch insurgents.
Neither Afghan nor NATO authorities have any control in the region - and neither does Pakistan. As a result, it is inevitable that in hot pursuit of the Taliban through the area, NATO troops will cross into Pakistan and expand the war. This threat also looms over Afghanistan's Kunar province and Pakistan's Mohmand area and some other tribal areas, but to a lesser degree compared to Helmand.
In preparation for the anticipated military expansion, the US has revamped its embassy in Islamabad, taken over a five-star hotel in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, and procured other land in Pakistan. The US has also rented 200 bungalows in the capital - a move now under investigation by Pakistan - and increased the operations of controversial US contractors in the country. The US is seemingly intent on directly targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistani cities.
What is now a low-intensity insurgency in Pakistan may develop into a full-scale offensive which sweeps through the country. In this scenario, American resources would be insufficient and the US establishment is actively looking for international help.
It may be a tough sell; the UN has noted that the number of foreign troops killed in action so far this year is 334, the highest total since the invasion of 2001. The UN also reports the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan this year has jumped 24% compared to 2008 - making the coalition ever more unpopular. So far, only Britain has committed to sending additional troops to Afghanistan, and is unlikely to send more than 1,000 soldiers.
France, Germany and Italy - among other Western countries - have already been shying away from combat operations. The recent killing of six Italian soldiers raises yet another question mark about additional European support for the Afghan war.
Although the world's reaction to Obama's military plea has yet to coalesce, his administration was due to gather a blue-chip crowd in New York on Thursday to give a boost to Pakistan. Obama and five high-ranking US officials were to attend a summit-level meeting of the FODP - Friends of Democratic Pakistan - including a host of world leaders [1] as well as other European Union officials and officials of the Islamic development bank and the International Monetary Fund.
In all, it has been a week of unprecedented pleas for international unity with Pakistan - such support was not even seen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Still, pledges of support are not the same as boots on the ground - and as the war in Afghanistan spills into Pakistan, the US may find itself increasingly alone in Islamabad.
Note
1. The president of the Asian Development Bank Harukhiko Kuroda; Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; the Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Lokke Rasmussen; the European commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy; French President Nicolas Sarkozy; Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama; Korean President Lee Myung-bak; the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenende; the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg; the Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero; Swedish Premier Fredrik Reinfeldt; Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan; the United Arab Emirates ruler Sheikh Muhammad; UK Premier Gordon Brown; UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon; and the president of the World Bank Robert Zoellick.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KI25Df02.html
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Dear Friends,
BHARATIYA MUSLIM MAHILA ANDOLAN
Is happy to invite you to the
THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION
Vikas Hum Se Door Kyon?
WHEN WILL WE BECOME FULL CITIZENS?
The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, a mass organization of Muslim women completes three years in 2009. We can say with a degree of satisfaction that with over 20,000 members we have been successful in organising and mobilising Muslim women across the country to assert themselves and demand their citizenship rights. We are also aware that we have a long way to go in this struggle! As we move ahead to address many more challenges we would like to share our vision of development through our third annual convention to be held in Lucknow. The Convention will highlight the achievements of the Andolan as well as raise pertinent questions about the role of state in safeguarding the citizenship rights of the Muslim community in general and of the Muslim women in particular. We will discuss the ground situation following the Sachar Committee recommendations. As you are aware, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan is committed to work for ameliorating the exclusion of the Muslim community with special focus on Muslim women and towards demanding the citizenship rights granted by the Constitution of India.
You are invited to the third national convention.
Date: 11th October 09 Time: 11 am to 4 pm
Venue: Jyotiba Phule Park, Chawk, Lucknow
PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
Third Annual Convention of the
Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
Agenda | Time | Key holders |
Welcome | 11.00 – 11.10 | Naaz Raza |
Dua - | 11.10 – 11.20 | Hashmi & team |
Tarana | 11.20 – 11.30 | Singing team |
BMMA, a perspective | 11.30 - 11. 45 | Zakia Soman |
Sachar Committee Implementation Campaign | 11.45 – 12.00 | Naish Hasan |
State reports on Sachar Implemention - UP [faizabad, fatehpur, lucknow, benares districts 5 min each] TN, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa, UP state, | 12.00 – 1.10 [5 min each U.P district convenors, 10 min state convenors] | Iram, Rubina, Shehnaz, Shabina, Kamila A., Nishat Husain Noorjehan Dewan, Farhat Amin, Naaz Raza |
Government schemes for Muslim women: Promises and Reality | 1.10 – 1.30 pm | Ms Syeda Hamid, member, Planning Commission |
State reports on Sachar Implemention – delhi, Bombay, Maharashtra, Karnataka, MP, Chattisgarh, Bihar | 1.30- 2.40 pm | Sarwar Raza, Khatun Sheikh, Naghma Nadaf, Safia Akhter, Zulekha Jabien, Shahida, Muskan Sheikh |
Collective struggle of the excluded | 2.40 – 2.50 pm | Prof Babu Mathew, Action Aid |
Women leaders for future generations | 2.50 – 3 pm | Maulvi Kalb-e- Sadique |
World’s largest Democracy & Muslims | 3 – 3.30 pm | Ms. Shabana Azmi, artist, activist |
Charter of Demands to be read out & adopted | 3.30 – 3. 40 pm | To be read out by Shabana Azmi repeated by all |
Conclusion & Vote of Thanks | 3.40 – 3.50 pm | Noorjahan Safia Niaz |
RSVP:
Founder Members:
Noorjehan Safia Niaz, Naish Hasan, Zakia Soman
Naaz Raza, State Convener, UP
G-2 Padma Apartment, Birbal Sahni Marg, New Hyderabad, Lucknow. Ph. 09792363133, 09839562674
Indian Holocaust Museum must reflect Indian Identity & History
I pity all those Hindus who need a Frenchman Francois Goutier to learn Hinduism and history of Bharat, the first Democracy in the history of the world with equality, liberty, freedom of free speech for every one from major and minor religions as well as to those who do not believe in any religion.
Then I pity those Hindus who need foreigners (Jews) to solve their domestic disputes with fellow Muslims or Christians or Sikh citizens.
The Hindu Holocaust Museum accusing Muslims only is the most insane idea by Francois Gautier who has been earning his bread and butter by flaming hatred for Indian Muslims. He is another Sir Henry Elliott a Jew, Lord Curzon, George Francois Hamilton, Lord Dufferin, M. A McAuliffe, Ernest Trumpp (1876-1925) who pursued the policy of division of religious feelings between Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs for the advantage of British Empire to maintain their power in India.
These Christian and Jew rulers rewrote the history of India by taking advantage that Indians were too lazy to write their own history. Present day Hindu leaders for their blind hate for Indian Muslims are forgetting that East India Company who laid the foundations of British Rule also has Jew stock holders and merchants with a history of trading in slaves. Indian Jews openly supported the East India Company & British. Jews were also in British Army and occupying post in government who brutally crushed the first Indian Independence War of 1857. Then it was a Jew Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli who advised in 1877 Queen Victoria to take the title of Empress of India. Disraeli was twice Prime Minister of UK between 1868 to 1880.
It is an irony no one including the Indians themselves has ever talked about the 40-50 million Indians starved to death from 1876-1943 during 25 major famines by the British colonizers of India . Under the Jew Prime Minister Disraeli in 1876-1879 famine 20 million Indians died of starvation and neglect by their rulers. In the last famine of 1943 alone more than 4 million Indian Bengali victims including new born children perished alive under the British occupants. British Christian and Jew Rulers inhuman attitude towards human disaster & sufferings of Indians became more visible in 1943 when in a response to an urgent request by the secretary of State for India, Leo Amery and Wavell to release food stocks for India, Prime Minister Winston Churchill responded with a telegram to Wavell asking, “If food was so scare, “why Gandhi hadn’t died yet.” Another Christian Democrat President FDR of America refused to release food stocks for dying Indians.
1857 the First War of Indian Independence was the world’s first holocaust, resulting in the loss of an estimated 10 million Indians under East India Company’s Christian and Jew owners. The Revolt was not confined to just North India . There were widespread risings in Gujarat, the modern-day Pakistan & Bangladesh , North Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Bengal , Assam . From Gilgit to Madurai , from Manipur to Maharashtra , not one area was unaffected. It was amazingly well coordinated Indian Independence War popularly known as Indian Mutiny spreading to the length and breadth of India . 100,000 Indian soldiers were slaughtered in savage reprisals, but no one bothered to tally the number of rebels and civilians killed by East India Company forces desperate to impose order.
If any Holocaust Museum is to be built in India it must reflect Indian Identity. It should be dedicated to almost 10 million Indians; Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists who were slaughtered by the Britishers to quell the First War of Freedom of India which was the First Holocaust in the world. Then it must be dedicated to over 40 million Indians who were starved to death by Britishers during various famines in India and all those millions who gave up their lives for the Freedom of India from British Christian and Jew rulers.
Every Indian political, religious and business leader must pay attention to the vast majority of Indians whose voice they are ignoring. In Parliamentary Elections their voices are barely heard because all the Indian Politicians are promoting their early 19th century policies based on caste, religion and backwardness not nationalism the Indian identity. They are the sane and rational India with their hopes for better future, looking for progress, prosperity along with peace and harmony among all citizens.
Dave Makkar
Hindu Holocaust ?
Vijay Prashad - Professor of South Asian History Trinity College Hartford , Conn.
http://www.newsindia-times.com/
A fundraiser in New Jersey on Aug. 16 raised $50,000 for a "Hindu Holocaust" museum to be built in Pune. The museum is the brainchild of a Frenchman, Francois Gautier, and is under the auspices of the Viraat Hindu Sabha (VHS). They claim that over the past thousand years, millions of Hindus were killed, with the intention to wipe Hindus off the map.
The numbers are vague, as one might expect, but the culprit is precisely defined: Islam. The VHS uses the phrase "Islamic genocide of Hindus" to make its case. To me this is remarkable stuff. It reduces the complexity of the subcontinent's rich history into a simple morality play that has only two characters: the Hindu and the Muslim. The latter is the invader who has come and killed the former. Nothing else matters.
The idea of the Hindu Holocaust casts the Hindu as history's victim, who should now become history's aggressor to avenge the past. But the Hindu was not always the victim. If you read the historical records carefully, you will find that many Hindus participated in the slaughter of other Hindus, and that the HinduBuddhist battles of the ancient world were perhaps more bloody than anything that comes afterward. Or indeed, that the systematic violence against dalits and other subordinate castes should hold our attention far more than it does.
Between Hindus and Muslims there has not been an endless rivalry for social power. When Islam enters the subcontinent, it does not come in the saddlebags of the Ghaznis or the Ghouris, but amongst the rumble of goods brought by traders. Early conversions are not by the sword but by the merchants . There was killing, but that was as much for reasons of warfare and plunder as for reasons of God and tradition. An interested reader might want to look at the distinguished historian Romila Thapar's superb book "Somnatha: The Many Voices of a History" (Penguin, 2005). There, Professor Thapar shows us that Mahmud Ghazni's destruction of the Shiva temple in 1026 was driven not so much by a fanatical religious belief but because his father, Subuktigin, needed money to sustain his faltering kingdom in Central Asia. Now it is certainly true, as historian Mohammed Habib put it, that there was "wanton destruction of temples that followed in the wake of the Ghaznavid army."
When one looks at the sources contemporaneous with the Ghaznavid attacks, one finds that they mention these but only as a series among many. There was nothing about them that merits the term "Holocaust," even as they were certainly destructive of the temples and of the people who worshipped there. What Thapar points to is that this was not all done by the Central Asia marauders.
Many Hindu rulers led attacks on Hindu and Jain temples at this same time, and for similar reasons, as can be seen in the destruction of the Jain temples of Karnataka (which were converted into shrines of Shiva).
Indeed, there is little evidence of animus between Hindus and Muslims in the few hundred years after the entry of Ghazni. In the 13th century, a local raja, Sri Chada, granted a merchant from Hormuz the right to build a mosque on temple land. He also provided the mosque with a disbursement for teachers and preachers, for the daily reading of the Quran and for the celebration of festivals.
The Veraval-Somanatha inscription of 1264 shows us that even orthodox Shaivite priests cooperated in the building of the mosques. In the centuries that followed, common people of Gujarat followed the kind of tradition that runs from the padas of Narasimha Mehta to the padmavat of Malik Mohammed Jayasi, the ethos of mutual cultural development that was the hallmark of India for hundreds of years. Things developed to such a pass in Gujarat that in 1911, more than 200,000 people returned themselves as "Hindu-Musalman." In Kathaiwar and Kutch , wedding services were, until very recently, solemnized by both a Saraswat Brahmin and a Qazi. Such is the history that is thrown to the wolves by the creation of a "Hindu Holocaust" museum.
Gautier came to India from France about 30 years ago, and settled in Pondicherry . He has written a few tracts and writes occasionally for the newspapers. His work reads like another European apologist for extreme Hindutva, Koenraad Elst. Both went to strict Catholic schools and now hold a deep animus against Christian missionaries, but seem to take their venom out mainly against Islam. Gautier and Elst want to make plain the "Muslim genocide against Hindus." But neither is a serious student of history, with little idea of how to read historical texts. They draw more from a misplaced passion than from a real, sober scientific exploration of the facts. That they are taken seriously is a sign of the degradation of reason in the world of Hindutva.
Vijay Prashad Professor of South Asian History Trinity College Hartford , Conn.
Forwarded by:
Dave Makkar
Indian Holocaust Museum can unite every Indian
Dear Mr. Deva Samaroo & supporters of Mr. Francoise Gautier, I stand by my words that Francois Gautier is a Madman for suggesting a Hindu Holocaust Museum . He and his supporters mainly living outside India are living in Biblical Times. The Hindus who are living in Europe, USA and Canada supporting Gautier have no intentions of going back to India and moreover has failed big time to give Hindu values to their own next generation. Under no circumstances I am going to apologies to a Madman and his history ignorant supporters who want to destabilize India for their fanatic pursuit to see India without Muslims and Christians. I have a simple questions to them are you going to slaughter or put in the Gas Chambers or drown in Ganga all those Muslims & Christian citizens of India? I am always in favor of One Country One law rule for India . Like USA ; every one must be governed by same civil and criminal law. All Indians must be treated equal and must have the right to buy property in any part of the India . I can not dream insanity to think of Bharat without Muslims & Christians under the current situation, in Biblical time may be it was possible.
Out of 1.2 billion Indians almost 20% are Muslims, 76% Hindus and Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Buddhist come in the rest 5%. India is a multi religious, multi ethnic and multi lingual society like America . India is a dying nation desperately in search of an Identity. No one in India wants to be called an Indian they prefer to be called Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist, Sikhs, Jains, Christians etc then they want to be called Gujarati, Bengali, Bihari, Kannad, Tamil, Shia, Sunni, Bhapey, Lobhaney, Catholic, Protestants etc.
Gautier’s proposal for Hindu Holocaust Museum is totally insane under current turmoil going on in India in search of National Identity. Hindu Holocaust Museum rather than uniting people will divide the society more on religious lines. History tells us that Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains every one fought the war of Independence together in which millions of them were slaughtered by British Christians & Jew forces. Then millions were starved to death during various famines under these British occupants.
A Holocaust Museum dedicated to all those millions who died under British Christian and Jew occupants can bring all communities together. India can learn from the American experience a nation of mixtures of races, religions and country of origin, skin-colors and non believers. It is an open and diverse society all of the members are equal with the right to identify themselves with America ’s “Founding Fathers and Freedom Fight Hero’s”. An African-American Barack Obama son of a Kenyan Muslim immigrant and native white American mother; can speak with pride of George Washington the father of the nation and Hero of the American Revolution war of independence against the British Rulers.
Obama a Democrat also has the right to speak with pride about Republican Abraham Lincoln who enacted the Emancipation of Declaration ending slavery which later paved the way for equal rights for blacks in America . The people of America elected Obama as its first African-American President by ignoring the race factor. This is the definition of a democratic nation, multi-cultural and multi-racial; a person joins it by acquiring citizenship by birth or by naturalization and from that moment on is the heir to all its cultural and social history.
For India to be at peace with its neighbors namely Pakistan , it must first be at peace with itself. It is a hefty and long delayed process, Indian leaders across the board from every religion, caste, region and every citizen must join together to work towards building an Indian identity. An Indian Holocaust Museum dedicated to all those millions of Indians; Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhist who died in Indian Freedom Struggle against the British Christians and Jews will be a small step in right direction. Let every Indian identity themselves with India ’s Founding Fathers and Freedom Hero’s of the war of Independence against the British Rulers and let them say proudly we are all Indians.
Dave Makkar
India heading for worst drought, says report
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/india-heading-for-worst-drought%2C-says-report-499
NEW DELHI, Sept 23: India's monsoon was about 20 per cent below
strength just over a week before the official end of the rainy reason,
putting the country on course for its worst drought since 1972, weather data showed on Wednesday.
"Until September 21, for the country as a whole, the rain deficiency
was 22 per cent," said B.K. Bandopadhyay, a spokesman for the weather
office.
"We expect the total rain deficiency will be roughly about 20 per cent (at the end of the monsoon season). It depends on the rainfall, but it seems it will be around this number," he added.
Low rainfall early in the monsoon period ravaged India's rice, cane
sugar and groundnut crops, and has disrupted the flow of water into the main reservoirs that are vital for hydropower generation and winter irrigation.
The drought is expected to dampen India's economic growth this year and has sent food prices rocketing, leading to huge hardship for India's poor masses.
Chicken prices, for instance, rose 16 per cent in the week to September 5 and fruit and vegetables climbed eight per cent from the previous week, official data shows.
In August, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted that the country faced a "severe drought" but he said that ample food grain stock would ensure no one went hungry.
Bandopadhyay said that a rain deficit of 20 per cent would be worse than previous droughts in 2002, 1987 and 1979 when the shortfall was about 19 per cent.
In 1972, the deficit measured 23.9 per cent, he said.
The monsoon period in India runs from June to the end of September, though late rains have been experienced in October.
India's weather service said recent reports showed that more than half
the country was affected by the drought and the key farming areas in
the north, northeast and some parts of western India were worst
affected.
Rains in the northwest were 34 per cent less than average, in central regions they were down by 19 per cent, and the northeast had a 26 per cent shortfall.
Experts said the farming population faced tremendous pressure due to the severe water shortage this year. Much of India's farmland lacks irrigation, meaning farmers are dependent on the monsoon rains.
"This is a crisis for sure," Devender Sharma, a food policy analyst based in New Delhi, told AFP.
Sharma said India had 50 million tonnes of wheat and rice as buffer stock, ample to ensure steady food supplies.
"Food will have to be supplied to the worst affected areas efficiently
to prevent wastage," said Ravi Jalan, an agriculture scientist.
Jalan said India wasted more than 50 billion dollars of food grains
every year, mainly due to the lack of post-harvest infrastructure such
as appropriate storage facilities and transportation.
Officials at the weather service said they would collect all the rain
distribution data at the end of the monsoon season to assess the
drought situation.—AFP
The 9/11 Commission Rejects own Report as Based on Government Lies
Gordon Duff
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september112009/911_truth_9-11-09.php
(CINCINNATI, Ohio) - In John Farmer fs book: gThe Ground Truth: The Story Behind America fs Defense on 9/11 , the author builds the inescapably convincing case that the official version... is almost entirely untrue...
The 9/11 Commission now tells us that the official version of 9/11 was based on false testimony and documents and is almost entirely untrue. The details of this massive cover-up are carefully outlined in a book by John Farmer, who was the Senior Counsel for the 9/11 Commission.
Farmer, Dean of Rutger Universities' School of Law and former Attorney General of New Jersey, was responsible for drafting the original flawed 9/11 report.
Does Farmer have cooperation and agreement from other members of the Commission? Yes. Did they say Bush ordered 9/11? No.. Do they say that the 9/11 Commission was lied to by the FBI, CIA, Whitehouse and NORAD? Yes. Is there full documentary proof of this? Yes.
Farmer states... gat some level of the government, at some point in time cthere was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened... I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described c. The [Norad air defense] tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years. This is not spin. h
The 9/11 Commission head, Thomas Kean, was the Republican governor of New Jersey. He had the following to say... gWe to this day don ft know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us, it was just so far from the truth. . . " When Bush's own handpicked commission failed to go along with the cover up and requested a criminal investigation, why was nothing done?
9/11 Commission member and former US Senator, Bob Kerrey, says, "No one is more qualified to write the definitive book about the tragedy of 9/11 than John Farmer. Fortunately, he has done so. Even more fortunately the language is clear, alive and instructive for anyone who wants to make certain this never happens again."
With the only "official" 9/11 report now totally false, where do we go from here? Who is hurt by these lies? The families of the victims of 9/11 have fought, for years, to get to the truth. For years, our government has hidden behind lies and secrecy to deny them closure.
In 2006, The Washington Post reported..."Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission..."
What does Farmer's book tell us? Farmer offers no solutions, only a total and full rejection of what was told and his own his own ideas concerning the total failure of honesty on the part of the government, a government with something to hide.
Farmer never tells us what. Nobody could keep a job in the public sector speaking out more than Farmer has. What were Farmer's omissions? There are some. Now that we know that intelligence given the 9/11 Commission wasn't just lies from our own government but based on testimony coerced through torture from informants forced to back up a cover story now proven false, a pattern emerges.
We know that, immediately after 9/11, many more potential suspects and informants were flown directly to Saudi Arabia by Presidential order than were ever detained and questioned. We will never know what they could have said. Their testimony would have been vital to any real investigation were they not put beyond the reach of even Congress and the FBI.
Putting aside all other questions of recent evidence of CIA involvement with bin Laden prior to 9/11 or altered physical evidence involving the Pentagon attack, any failure to call to account the systematic perjury committed by dozens of top government officials, now exposed as a certainty is an offense to every American.
What do we know? We know the conjecture about 9/11 still stands but for certain, we know we were lied to, not in a minor way, but systematically as part of a plot covering up government involvement at nearly every level, perhaps gross negligence, perhaps something with darker intent.
Are we willing to live with another lie to go with the Warren Report, Iran Contra and so many others? Has the sacrifice of thousands more Americans, killed, wounded or irreparably damaged by a war knowingly built on the same lies from the same liars who misled the 9/11 Commission pushed us beyond willingness to confront the truth?
Have we yet found where the lies have begun and ended? There is no evidence of this, only evidence to the contrary. The lies live on and the truth will never be sought. The courage for that task has not been found.
Can anyone call themselves an American if they don't demand, even with the last drop of their blood, that the truth be found?
How long have we watered the Tree of Deceit with the blood of patriots?
Addameer on the Arrest of Human Rights defender and activist
Mohammad Othman
Sumud
09/25/2009
http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/1378
[Ramallah, 24 September 2009] Addameer expresses its concern at the arrest and detention of human rights defender and activist, Mohammad
Othman, on 22 September 2009. Mohammad, 33, originally from Jayyus village, is a human rights activist and a volunteer with the grassroots "Stop the Wall Campaign".
At 8:00 am, on 22 September 2009, Mohammad arrived at the Allenby Bridge Crossing. He was returning home, to the West Bank, via Jordan,
from his travels in Norway where he attended several speaking events and advocacy meetings. At the Israeli border control, Mohammad's passport was taken away, and he was asked to wait on the side. Mohammad waited until 10 pm at the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing without any information for the reasons of his detention. At 10:00 pm, he was arrested and transferred to Huwwara provisional detention center, located on the outskirts of Nablus. Two days later, on 24
September, he received a visit from an ICRC delegate and was allowed to see a lawyer. Since the moment of his arrest, he has not been either questioned or interrogated once. Mohammad is due to appear before the military court on Tuesday, 29 September 2009.
Addameer believes that Mohammad Othman's arrest is related to his human rights activism. In the last few years, Mohammad has been extremely active in his lobbying and advocacy efforts by briefing
activists and officials, locally and internationally, on Israel's illegal construction of the Apartheid Wall, informing the media on daily developments and monitoring human rights violations in wall-affected villages.
This is not the first time that the Israeli authorities have attempted to deter Mohammad from his human rights work. On 18 February 2009, during a night incursion and mass arrest of youth in Jayyus village, located in Qalqilya governorate, the Israeli soldiers raided several houses, including that of Mohammad. They confiscated documents and information related to his advocacy against the Annexation Wall. In an interview given to "Stop the Wall" on 15 June
2009, Mohammad states: "in my house, they took all the information about the Wall, information that had been collected from 2002-2009, CDs, boxes, pictures".
Addameer stresses that Mohammad's case is not isolated. In a
report (Repression allowed, Resistance denied) jointly published with "Stop the Wall" last July, Addameer argues that arrests of demonstrators and human rights defenders are a strategy designed to stifle activism and deter Palestinians from participating and organizing weekly protests against the Apartheid Wall, as a form of resistance to land confiscation. Collective punishment, including night raids and curfews, as well as individual threats of detention are also often applied. There is strong evidence that the Israeli Occupying Forces target the more active youth for arrest, such as the members of youth committees, but also members of Popular Committees, in order to break up protests and create disunity.
Most recently, in a similar event, on 20 July 2009, Mohammad Srour, a member of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Ni'lin, another
village affected by the construction of the Annexation Wall, was detained by Israeli border officials while crossing the Allenby Bridge from Jordan and taken to Ofer prison for interrogation. He was released on bail three days later. Although Srour was not charged, the courts said they were likely going to charge him, but they did not say on what grounds he was to be charged, or when. No court date has been set for his reappearance. In its final report submitted to
the Human Rights Council, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict expressed its concern that his detention "may have been a consequence of his appearance before the Mission".
Indeed, on 6 July 2009, together with an Israeli activist, Srour testified before the Mission in Geneva and described the fatal
shooting of two Ni'lin residents, by Israeli forces during a demonstration against the conflict in Gaza in Ni'lin on 28 December 2008. This arrest, like the arrest of Mohammad Othman, is an indication of the increasing oppression of Palestinian communities engaging in ongoing protest against the Wall. Addameer is alarmed at the growing number of arrests of human rights defenders and protestors against the Apartheid Wall and stresses that such arrests are in violation to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and infringe on everyone's "right to freedom of opinion and expression" and the "right to freedom of assembly".
Addameer strongly condemns Mohammad Othman's arbitrary arrest and detention, and calls for his release. At the same time, Addameer reiterates its call to establish real mechanisms to protect the
popular resistance against the Annexation Wall and their right to freedom of assembly.
For more information, please contact:
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
P. O. Box: 17338, Jerusalem,
Israel
Tel: +972 (0)2 296 0446 / 297 0136
Fax: +972 (0)2 296
0447
Email: info@addameer.ps
Website: www.addameer.info
Dear All, As we had predicted, the Obama missile deal with Russia was precisely in order to pressurise Iran to surrender it's legitimate & legal Nuclear programme or face sanctions.
'“I told His Excellency Mr. President that we believe we need to help Iran to take a right decision,” Mr. Medvedev said, adding that “sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases, sanctions are inevitable.” - Medvedev“if the governments of Iran and North Korea choose to ignore international standards; if they put the pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of regional stability and the security and opportunity of their own people; if they are oblivious to the dangers of escalating nuclear arms races in both East Asia and the Middle East — then they must be held accountable.” - Obama . . .
& his distortion, hypocrisy & lies . . . continue . . .
I guess a better name for him would be Mr. O-Drama.
Regards
Feroze
Obama Makes Gains at U.N. on Iran and Proliferation
UNITED NATIONS — President Obama, in his first visit to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, made progress Wednesday on two key issues, wringing a concession from Russia to consider tough new sanctions against Iran and securing support from Moscow and Beijing for a Security Council resolution to curb nuclear weapons.
The successes came as Mr. Obama told leaders that the United States intended to begin a new era of engagement with the world, in a sweeping address to the General Assembly in which he sought to clearly delineate differences between himself and the administration of President George W. Bush.
One of the fruits of those differences — although White House officials were loath to acknowledge any quid pro quo publicly — emerged during Mr. Obama’s meeting on Wednesday afternoon with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, the first between the two since Mr. Obama decided to replace Mr. Bush’s missile defense program in Eastern Europe with a version less threatening to Moscow.
With a beaming Mr. Obama standing next to him, Mr. Medvedev signaled for the first time that Russia would be amenable to longstanding American requests to toughen sanctions against Iran significantly if, as expected, nuclear talks scheduled for next month failed to make progress.
“I told His Excellency Mr. President that we believe we need to help Iran to take a right decision,” Mr. Medvedev said, adding that “sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases, sanctions are inevitable.”
White House officials could barely hide their glee. “I couldn’t have said it any better myself,” a delighted Michael McFaul, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser for democracy and Russia, told reporters after the meeting. He insisted nonetheless that the administration had not tried to buy Russia’s cooperation with its decision to scrap the missile shield in Europe in favor of a reconfigured system.
Privately, several administration officials did acknowledge that missile defense might have had something to do with Moscow’s newfound verbal cooperation on the Iran sanctions issue.
Whether Mr. Medvedev’s words translate into strong action once the issue moves back to the Security Council remains to be seen. American officials have been disappointed before by Moscow’s distaste for tough sanctions, and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin seemed to cast doubt on the need for stronger sanctions just last week.
Convincing China to agree to toughen sanctions would be the Obama administration’s next hurdle. A Chinese government spokesman reiterated Thursday China’s long-standing opposition to increased sanctions against Iran, and as one of the Security Council’s five permanent members, China has veto power over decisions by the body. But Beijing has made some exceptions to its general antipathy toward sanctions in the past, including agreeing to a package of financial and trade restrictions against North Korea in June.
Mr. Obama did have success with China on the issue of strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in a Security Council session scheduled for Thursday. Russia has also agreed to support a resolution on the matter, officials said.
In an effort to lay the groundwork for toughening the treaty, the Obama administration circulated drafts of a resolution that “urges” countries to put conditions on their nuclear exports, so that international inspectors would be authorized to continue monitoring the use of some nuclear materials even if a country withdrew from the nonproliferation pact. That is a rare occurrence, but North Korea declared it was withdrawing in 2003, and inspectors were thrown out.
The Obama administration hailed the pending resolution as a significant step forward. But it would not be binding, and would become so only if the Security Council required countries to make their nuclear exports subject to such restrictions. Many countries balked at that requirement, an indication of how difficult it may prove to toughen the treaty itself when it is up for review next year.
Mr. Obama will preside over the Security Council meeting on Thursday, and is expected to call for a vote on the draft resolution. White House officials said they expected the measure to pass unanimously.
During his address to the General Assembly, Mr. Obama sought to present a kinder, gentler America willing to make nice with the world. He suggested that the United States would no longer follow the go-it-alone policies that many United Nations members complained isolated the Bush administration from the organization.
“We have re-engaged the United Nations,” Mr. Obama said, to cheers from world leaders and delegates in the cavernous hall. “We have paid our bills” — a direct reference to the former administration’s practice of withholding some payment due the world body while it pressed for changes there.
But even as Mr. Obama sought to signal a different tone, it was clear that old, entrenched issues would remain, including Iran’s nuclear ambitions and a Middle East peace process. And while much of his language was different and more conciliatory, the backbone of American policy on some issues remained similar to the Bush administration’s.
As Mr. Bush used to do before him, for instance, Mr. Obama singled out Iran and North Korea, which he said “threaten to take us down this dangerous slope.”
“I am committed to diplomacy that opens a path to greater prosperity and a more secure peace for both nations if they live up to their obligations,” Mr. Obama said.
But, he added, “if the governments of Iran and North Korea choose to ignore international standards; if they put the pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of regional stability and the security and opportunity of their own people; if they are oblivious to the dangers of escalating nuclear arms races in both East Asia and the Middle East — then they must be held accountable.”
As he spoke, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sat in the fifth row, showing no reaction.
But a glittering array of world leaders sat in the hall for Mr. Obama’s speech, which was often interrupted by applause and the flashes of cameras, including from some delegates.
Mr. Obama said he planned to work toward a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and its Arab neighbors. He indicated again that he was impatient with the slow pace of work on interim measures like a settlement freeze. He called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to address the tough “final status” issues that had bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979.
“The goal is clear,” he said, “two states living side by side in peace and security.”
But the difficulty of achieving that goal was also on full display on Wednesday, one day after Mr. Obama held meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and admonished them to meet in person and negotiate a peace deal. The two Middle Eastern leaders and their spokesmen spent much of the day Wednesday explaining why that could not happen soon.
In an interview on NBC, Mr. Netanyahu called Israeli settlements “bedroom suburbs” of Jerusalem and suggested Israel would not withdraw from all the territory it occupied after the 1967 Middle East war. Meanwhile, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, told The Associated Press that the two sides will “continue dealing with the Americans until we reach the agreement that will enable us to relaunch the negotiations.”
Andrew Jacobs contributed reporting from Beijing and David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Boston.by Jacob G. Hornberger
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
http://www.fff.org/blog/index.asp
Consider this excerpt from The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post:
Gorbachev had concluded that the sprawling Soviet defense
establishment — the army, navy, air force, strategic rocket forces, air defense forces, and all the institutes, design bureaus and factories that supported them — was a monumental burden on the country. "Defense spending was bleeding the other branches of the economy dry," he recalled. The extent of the bleeding was concealed by such deep secrecy that even Gorbachev said he had trouble obtaining
accurate information.
Why can't the American people recognize that that's precisely what is
happening in the United States today? The U.S. military — euphemistically called the "defense" establishment — or as President Eisenhower described it, the "military-industrial complex" — is a monumental burden that is bankrupting our country, especially in combination with the ever-increasing burden of the domestic welfare state.
First, it takes tax dollars to support soldiers. That's a burden — a drain — on the private sector. With the dismantling of the wartime military machine, the taxes necessary to support the machine can be ended, leaving all that money in the hands of the private sector. That means more savings, investment, and consumption and increasing wage rates and profits.
The basic idea is more taxes mean more poverty. Lower taxes mean more
prosperity and higher standards of living. That's what Gorbechev was alluding to when he referred to the enormous burden that the military-industrial complex was placing on the Soviet Union.
Second, by being discharged the soldiers themselves cease being
non-productive members of society and become productive members of society. As soldiers, they're not producing anything. They're a burden, a drain on the private sector. It's only the private sector that is productive.
Thus, the dismantling of an enormous military-industrial complex would have the doubly positive effect of ending an enormous tax burden on the citizenry and adding productive people to the marketplace.
After every U.S. war, the custom had been to dismantle the military and discharge the soldiers into the private sector, which would cause economic prosperity to soar. After World War II, however, the U.S. military and military-industrial complex convinced policymakers not to dismantle the wartime machine. The Soviet communist threat, the militarists claimed, required the permanent and ever-growing existence of the military and military-industrial complex in American life.
Ironically, the new enemy that the U.S. militarists claimed justified this enormous and ever-growing military burden was the U.S. government's very own ally in World War II, an ally into whose control the U.S. had just delivered East Germany and Eastern Europe, including Poland, a country to whom Great Britain had promised freedom at the outset of the war.
What happened when the Soviet communist threat ended in 1989? The Pentagon went desperately searching for a new mission to prevent the dismantling of its permanent wartime machine. After poking hornet's nests in the Middle East throughout the 1990s, it came up with a new enemy after 9/11 — a permanent one — to justify its existence, an enemy that its very own poking had helped to produce — terrorism.
Today, we've got the Pentagon telling President Obama that it needs an
increase of 40,000 troops in Afghanistan to succeed against "the terrorists" in Afghanistan. But if 9 years of bombing and killing "terrorists" hasn't been enough to achieve "success" by now, that's failure itself. The problem, of course, is that the permanent bombing and killing have only served to generate a perpetual terrorist-producing machine.
Why in the world do we need this enormous permanent military burden on
America? Why not bring all the troops home, from Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe, Korea, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and everywhere else and discharge them? Why not dismantle the military and military-industrial complex, thereby relieving the private sector of this tremendous burden? Why not restore a constitutional republic to our land, as the Founding Fathers intended? Why not restore peace, prosperity, and harmony to the United States?
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom
Foundation.
Jeff Gates | Arab News
IN the early 1960s, Sen. William J. Fulbright fought to force the American Zionist Council to register as agents of a foreign government. The council eluded registration by reorganizing as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has since become what Fulbright most feared: A foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as a domestic lobby.
Israelis and pro-Israelis object when they hear that charge. How, they ask, can we so few wield such influence over so many? Answer: It’s all in the math. And in the single-issue advocacy brought to bear on US policy-making by dozens of “domestic” organizations that now compose the Israel lobby, with AIPAC its most visible force.
The political math was enabled by Sen. John McCain whose support for all things Israeli ensured him the GOP nomination to succeed George W. Bush. McCain’s style of campaign finance reform proved a perfect fit for the Diaspora-based fundraising on which the lobby relies. Co-sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, this change in federal election law typifies how Israeli influence became systemic.
“McCain-Feingold” raised the amount (from $1,000 to $2,300) that candidates can receive from individuals in primary and general elections. A couple can now contribute a combined $9,200 to federal candidates: $4,600 in each of the primary and general elections. Primary elections, usually low-budget, are particularly easy to sway.
Importantly for the Diaspora, this change also doubled the funds candidates can receive without regard to where those contributors reside. A candidate in Iowa, say, may have only a few pro-Israeli constituents. When campaign support is provided by a nationwide network of pro-Israelis, that candidate can more easily be persuaded to support policies sought by Tel Aviv. Diaspora-based fundraising has long been used by the lobby with force-multiplying success to shape US foreign policy. Under the guise of reform, John McCain doubled the financial resources that the lobby can deploy to elect and retain its supporters.
Fulbright was Right. The influence-peddling process works like this. Candidates are summoned for in-depth AIPAC interviews. Those found sufficiently committed to Israel’s agenda are provided a list of donors likely to “max out” their campaign contributions. Or the process can be made even easier when AIPAC-approved candidates are given the name of a “bundler.”
Bundlers raise funds from the Diaspora and bundle those contributions to present them to the candidate. No quid pro quo need be mentioned. After McCain-Feingold became law in 2003, AIPAC-identified bundlers could raise $1 million-plus for AIPAC-approved candidates simply by contacting 10 like-minded supporters. Here’s the math:
The bundler and spouse “max out” for $9,200 and call 10 others, say in Manhattan, Miami, and Beverly Hills. Each of them max out ($10 x $9,200) and call 10 others for a total of 11. (111 x $9,200 = $1,021,200.)
Imagine the incentive to do well in the AIPAC interview. One call from the lobby and a candidate can collect enough cash to mount a credible campaign in most congressional districts. From Tel Aviv’s perspective, that political leverage is leveraged yet again because fewer than 10 percent of the 435 House races are competitive in any election cycle (typically 35 to 50).
Additional force-multipliers come from: (a) sustaining this financial focus over multiple cycles, (b) using funds to gain and retain seniority for those serving on congressional committees key to promoting Israeli goals, and (c) opposing any candidates who question those goals.
“Jewish Achievement” reports that 42 percent of the largest political donors to the 2000 election cycle were Jewish, including four of the top five. That compares to less than two percent of Americans who are Jewish. Of the Forbes 400 richest Americans, 25 percent are Jewish according to Michael Steinhardt, a key funder of the Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC was led by Jewish Zionist Sen. Joe Lieberman when he resigned in 2000 to run as vice president with pro-Israeli presidential candidate Al Gore.
Money was never a constraint. Pro-Israeli donors were limited only by how much they could lawfully contribute to AIPAC-screened candidates. McCain-Feingold raised a key limit. The full impact of this foreign influence has yet to be tallied. What’s known, however, is sufficient to apply the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Of the top 50 neoconservatives who advocated war in Iraq, 26 were Jewish (52 percent).
Harry Truman, a Christian Zionist, remains one of the more notable recipients of funds. In 1948, he was trailing badly in the polls and in fundraising. His prospects brightened dramatically in May after he recognized as a legitimate state an enclave of Jewish extremists who originally planned to settle in Argentina before putting their sights on Palestine.
That recognition was opposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the bulk of the diplomatic corps, the fledgling Central Intelligence Agency and numerous distinguished Americans, including moderate and secular Jews concerned at the troubles that were certain to follow. Not until 1984 was it revealed that a network of Jewish Zionists had funded Truman’s campaign by financially refueling his whistle-stop campaign train with $400,000 in cash ($3 million in 2009).
To buy time on the public’s airwaves, money raised from the Israel lobby’s network is paid to media outlets largely owned or managed by members of the same network. Presidents, senators and congressmen come and go but those who collect the checks rack up the favors that amass lasting political influence.
The US system of government is meant to ensure that members of the House represent the concerns of Americans who reside in congressional districts — not a nationally dispersed network (a Diaspora) committed to advancing the agenda of a foreign nation. Federal elections are meant to hold senators accountable to constituents who reside in the states they represent, not out-of-state residents or a foreign government.
In practical effect, McCain-Feingold hastened a retreat from representative government by granting a nationwide network of foreign agents disproportionate influence over elections in every state and congressional district. Campaign finance “reform” enabled this network to amass even more political clout — wielding influence disproportionate to their numbers, indifferent to their place of residence and often contrary to America’s interests.
This force-multiplier is now wielded in plain sight, with impunity and under cover of free speech, free elections, free press and even the freedom of religion. Therein lies the perils of an entangled alliance that induced the US to invade Iraq and now seeks war with Iran. By allowing foreign agents to operate as a domestic lobby, the US was induced to confuse Zionist interests with its own.
NOTE: I would really appreciate hearing from you if you have constructive criticism or learned from this article. You may contact me offlist if you like. If so, please let me know where you saw this post. Thanks. Peace and best wishes, Hajja Romi
Dear All, It is important that we launch a campaign & resist the efforts to bury the Goldstone Report on Gaza.
Please forwardd widely....
Regards
Feroze
| Location of incident | Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestinian Territory | |||
| Nature of incident | Acts of aggression in densely populated areas | |||
| Date of incident | 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 | |||
| Number of fatalities | Over 1,400 including 352 children | |||
| Number of injuries | Over 4,000 including 860 children | |||
From a Human Rights advocate in Gaza:
Dear All,
Please consider taking these urgent actions and forwarding to all of your contacts.
Unless the UN Human Rights Council endorses the findings and the recommendations of the independent UN Fact Finding Mission which found that the Israeli military perpetrated serious international law violations during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza (over 1400 people killed including over 350 children) the perpetrators of these crimes will not be held to account, and undoubtedly further invasions will be carried out which destroy the lives of countless more civilians.
The UN Human Rights is meeting in two days (Tuesday 29th September) so this appeal is urgent.
Best wishes,
Sara
ACTION 1: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Gaza: Your urgent action needed today | ||||
There is a real danger that the best chance for accountability and justice for civilians in Gaza and Israel could be lost in the next few days - we need as many people as possible to email David Miliband right now to prevent this from happening. An independent UN fact-finding mission into the Gaza conflict has just published its findings. This major report outlines powerful evidence of war crimes and other violations of international law on both sides, consistent with the results of Amnesty's own investigations. And the UK Government is reviewing it right now. The UN Human Rights Council will debate the report next Tuesday (29 September), when a vote will be taken on how its recommendations should be acted upon. Alarmingly, we understand that the UK Government (a member of the council) is not planning to support key recommendations, which Amnesty believe offer the best chance of ensuring justice and accountability, as a well as a deterrent to future conflicts. Instead, they appear to be taking a lead from the US Government in dismissing the findings. War criminals are literally getting away with murder. Act now There can be no long-term peace and security in the Middle East without an end to impunity - please email David Miliband today and urge him to support the Goldstone Report.
Sincerely, Kristyan Benedict | ||||
| ||||
If you have any queries or feedback about this email or Amnesty's work, please get in touch with our Supporter Care team on sct@amnesty.org.uk or on +44 (0)20 7033 1777. Amnesty International UK is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England no 01735872, registered office |
ACTION 2: DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=1256&CategoryId=1
UA - 6/09 : URGENT APPEAL : DCI-Palestine
A letter sent by the President of Defence for Children International (DCI) to members of the Council can be viewed here. (Letters to Council members should be addressed ‘Your Excellency’)
| ||||||||||||
Media hypes terror plot, despite the fact
no one is charged with terror
By John Byrne
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
http://rawstory.com/2009/09/media-hypes-terror-plot-despite-the-fact-no-one-is-charged-with-terror/
It has a familiar ring: "Investigators are looking for about a dozen more people in connection with a wide-ranging terror investigation that has already netted arrests in Colorado and New York City, a source familiar with the investigation said Tuesday."
That's the lead sentence of a CNN "breaking news" report filed Tuesday about a frantic search for alleged terrorism plotters within the United States. But a closer inspection of the story — and that of others in the past week — reveals that despite the hoopla, federal authorities have yet to charge the men they're accusing of a terror-related crime.
In fact, they're only actually charged with lying to federal agents. But you wouldn't know that from reading the headlines.
Problematic in this and other recent reports is the use of anonymous law enforcement sources, who repeatedly hype alleged ties to al Qaeda, identify "persons of interest," and detail dramatic but unspecified plots.
These sources, notes CBS News' Chief Legal Analyst and Legal Editor Andrew Cohen, began "clicking off all of the elements of their perennial song-and-dance number in terror-plot cases; this time from New York to Denver to Washington and back. The prejudicial leaks from law enforcement; the prompt (and promptly repeated) links to al Qaeda; the dramatic headlines, the identification of a "person of interest;" the assurances that no particular target had been specified; the intercession of an overwhelmed defense attorney; the denials, the meetings, the breakdown in talks, and, finally, the arrest (late at night, but with the tipped-off news cameras hovering above and about)."
"We've seen various iterations of the perp-walk parade hundreds of times before, in cases that merited the attention or not, and certainly dozens of times since Sept. 11, 2001," Cohen continues. "Often, way too often, the government has in the end been able or willing to prove far less than the initial (and often hysterical and hysterically received) allegations — distributed (typically without challenge) via cable television and the Internet — suggested. For example, off the top of my head, I give you: Zacarious Moussaoui, who was not the `20th hijacker,' Jose Padilla, who was not the `dirty bomber' and John Walker Lindh, who was not the `American Taliban.'"
Federal agents arrested three individuals over the weekend in connection with what officials described as a plot to bomb targets in the United States. The three men — who are from Afghanistan — are Najibullah Zazi, his father Mohammed Wali Zazi and cleric Ahmad Wais Afzali.
They've been charged with lying to federal agents; a judge set their bail at $50,000.
Cohen says the story has echoes of previous hyped terror cases where little actually pans out.
"We see only the old, familiar story; a prosecution for the alleged cover-up but not the alleged crime," the court reporter remarks. "But about the heart of the matter we still know very little. Are the Zazis really dangerous? If so, how dangerous are they? How strong is the evidence against them? What did they allegedly lie about and what didn't they allegedly lie about? And how long is it going to take for us to know the rest of the story."
"If, for example, the feds believe that Zazi, the younger, really did attend an Al Qaeda terror training camp why is he only charged with "lying"? If the feds really did find incriminating bomb-making plans on a laptop taken from Zazi's rental car then why no "material support" or conspiracy charge? If his fingerprints were on a "black scale" and batteries (two items which are legal to possess) what other physical evidence suggests a crime?
"Maybe both sides were plotting to inform on each other and the feds decided they could simply charge all of them with lying since neither version offered could both be true? Maybe neither version is true… Of all the starts to all the terror cases in all the world since 9/11 the start to this terror case cries out more than most for a little more patience."
Cohen concludes: "As Churchill might have said, we are not remotely close to the end of the beginning."
COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-25
25/09/09
PRESS Note
(Circulated to the media persons at a press conference held at Press Club, New Delhi)
The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) after its Mulaakat with senior Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy in the Tihar jail would want to bring a few important facts, which are of vital significance for his life, before the democratic citizens of this country. Moreover, after the meeting of the lawyer Mr. Rajesh Tyagi on 24 /09/09 with Kobad Ghandy, the details of his arrest and mistreatment have come to light. Some of the important facts are as follows:
Hiding the exact date of arrest
Kobad Ghandy was arrested on the 17/09/09 at the Bhikaji Cama Place around 4 pm by the Intelligence Bureau. About 5-6 people who pulled up in a white sumo car pounced on him at the bus terminal near Bhikaji Cama where he was waiting for about 5-7 minutes. All the claims of the police that he was arrested on the 21/09/09 are patently false. He was kept under illegal detention for four days and interrogated torturing him for three days and three nights.
Kobad Ghandy was under medical treatment
Kobad Ghandy had visited the Sitaram Bhartia Hospital for a kidney problem. He had taken medical advice from the urologist there. Since 12/09/09 he has been going there for various tests till the date of his abduction by the intelligence officials. On 17/09/09 he had received the PSA report which showed the high possibility of prostrate cancer. He was advised to take a tablet for 14 days and return for further PSA tests and a possible biopsy. The time he was abducted by the intelligence agencies and kept under illegal detention he was having Veltam tablet as advised by the doctor.
Deteriorating health conditions
Chest pain and dizziness: Kobad Ghandy, while under illegal detention and then in the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) on 21/09/09 had persistently brought to the notice of the officials and the magistrate about his failing health. He was having severe chest pain and almost fainted while on the way to the CMM on 21/09/09. On that day under direction from the CMM who heard him in the court, Mr. Kobad Ghandy was taken to the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital where his BP and ECG were checked and later he was put on oxygen for about an hour. He was then shifted to a ward with 25 gun totting security personnel hovering around. He was having the life saving drug sorbitrate for acute chest pain and dizziness from 20/09/09. After being shifted to the Tihar jail he was not provided with this vital life saving drug.
He has been also taking medicines for high blood pressure for the last 10 years. He is having arthritic trouble (knee pain) and spondylytis.
Severe Diarrhoea /dysentery: He has been undergoing medical attention for years for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He has been taking Digiplex, Neksium 40. Due to the severity of the problem, he has to have special food and safe/boiled water. Normally prescribed diet as the one provided in hospitals is to be provided to him, which is in practice for the inmates having severe health problems of Tihar prison. But all his pleas for such facilities have fallen on deaf ears in the prison. This is a matter of grave concern.
As has already been mentioned he has been taking Veltam tablets for prostrate cancer.
Callous attitude of the Jail doctor: When he took up the case of his ailing health with the prison officials he was referred to the jail doctor who casually called him to the OPD the following day. Kobad Ghandy had taken up the issue of overcrowding in the cell several times with the prison officials especially the Superintendent. In a cell where only one person can be kept, there were four. But the attitude of the Superintendent was that “why even 6 can stay in the cell”. Due to overcrowding on 23/09/09 night he had complained of severe breathing problems and demanded medical attention. The prison staff came twice but did nothing.
While under medical attention in Bara Hindu Rao Hospital the doctor on his discharge for production before the CMM court referred him to the Cardiac department of GB Pant Hospital or AIIMS.
The CRPP strongly condemn the callous, insensitive treatment being meted out to Kobad Ghandy, a political prisoner whose life is in danger due to his failing health. The jail officials and the authorities cannot play with his life for his political convictions as it is complete violation of law and all norms of guarantee to dignity and life for a political prisoner or for that matter any detainee as has been assured by the Constitution not to say the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights to which India is also a signatory.
Kobad Ghandy is yet to get proper medical attention as he was taken to the GB Pant Hospital on 24/09/09. The GB Pant doctors have called him back again on 30/09/09 for further tests. Kobad Ghandy has asked the GB pant doctor to take his Sitaram Bharati records pertaining to prostrate cancer also.
No FIR furnished till date
Kobad Ghandy has not yet been given the FIR on him. He was not even provided a lawyer. In protest he had refused medicines and food while in the Bara Hindu Rao hospital. Only then the officials relented a bit. But he could only get access to a lawyer after the police made official his arrest on 21/09/09 and produced him before the duty magistrate. Later his judicial custody was confirmed and only then he could get access to a lawyer. And it took the CRPP and the lawyer to tell him about the charges on him! The police has systematically evaded all possibilities of the detainee to take recourse to legal remedies from any possibilities of being falsely implicated.
Torture under illegal confinement
Kobad Ghandy, after being abducted by 5-6 intelligence officials, was kept in illegal confinement for 3 days and 3 nights in a house in the outskirts of Delhi and was continuously questioned. They did not allow him to sleep. On 21/09/09 night they tied his hands and legs to a table and asked him to sleep! This is nothing but torture and all those responsible for such inhuman torture should be held responsible. Not allowing a detainee to sleep continuously for hours and days tantamount to physical and mental torture that is universally condemned by all civil and democratic rights bodies and the UN. This is a matter of grave concern particularly because of his failing health. The CRPP feels that these acts are deliberately being done to shorten his life.
Attempts by the police to take him under police remand
In these circumstances all democratic forces and civil rights organisations should raise their voice against the continuing attempts of the police to get him under police remand. They are systematically maintaining that as soon as his health condition improves he will be taken for further questioning. But from the details provided it is amply evident that the health problems of Kobad Ghandy need to be given more attention and ample time for treatment. He should not be handed over to the police.
Attempts to transfer him to other states
There are also reports in the press that the Jharkhand and other State police are preparing to move court to shift him to other states. There is also talk that they are preparing to put him under narco analysis tests. Already several medical experts and international bodies have unequivocally condemned narco-analysis as another form of inhuman torture which damages health of the person under subjection fatally. Given the seriousness of Kobad Ghandy’s failing health we strongly feel that such inhuman torture would only put his life in danger. And all efforts of other states to take him away can only endanger his life as he has still the possibility of getting medical care in Delhi. The efforts to shift him to Jharkhand and other states are to jeopardise any such attempt for proper medical care as well as protection from all forms of torture. CRPP strongly demand that all such efforts should immediately stop and his medical treatment on prostrate cancer should start henceforth.
The CRPP appeals to the media and through the media, to all people with a democratic conscience to join hands to stop these devious designs of the state to silence the life of a political prisoner who has given his flesh and blood for the cause of the poor and the oppressed. We cannot let such people to be silenced forever! The CRPP does neither endorse nor criticise the ideology or line of action Kobad Ghandy stands for. But it strongly feels that Kobad Ghandy does have the right, like all others, to hold and express his political conviction and methods of struggle.
The CRPP demands:
- Provide immediate medical care to Kobad Ghandy for all his health problems including cardiac and prostrate cancer.
- Allow him provision for prescribed diet as provided in the hospitals and either safe/boiled water.
- Stop all attempts to transfer him to other states under false charges which will endanger his life.
- Allow a team of specialist doctors to take immediate stock and continuous monitoring of his health.
- Stop all attempts to put him under the illegal narco-analysis which would endanger his life.
- Shift him to a cell which is not over crowded.
- Provide him with materials to read and write.
- Provide him the status of Political Prisoner.
Amit Bhattacharyya
Secretary General
S A R Geelani
Vice- President
Rona Wilson
Secretary, Public Relations
Dear Sir / Madam,POLICE STATE UP CLOSE IN PITTSBURGH at G20, AND OTHER PLACES
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/09/police-state-up-close.html
Here is how a POLICE STATE looks:
police advance on g20 pittsburgh protesters
General Information email: info@visitpittsburgh.com
phone: 412.281.7711 toll free: 800.359.0758
address
Regional Enterprise Tower, 30th Floor
425 Sixth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Watch our Police State with your own eyes.
This is where the term "police state" originates
California police use a Taser on an unarmed, legless man in a wheelchair?
Cell phone video shows highway patrol grabbing paramedic by the throat
The Office of Intelligence and Analysis uses a broad brush to define
dozens of supposedly extremist ideologies inside the United States, in a
report called "Domestic Extremism Lexicon":
Read the entire document here:
http://www.constitution.org/abus/dhs/hsra-domestic-extremismlexicon_165213935473.pdf
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=96916
abortion, anti-immigration, animal rights, black separatism, anti-technology
extremism, Cuban independence activism, tax resistors, and religious
extremism of various faiths.
Tax resistance extremists are people who "vehemently believe taxes
violate their constitutional rights.
rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority”; “may include groups
and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to
abortion or immigration”.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104009
Obama Handshake Snub in Russia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHEposwhovk&feature=related
LOCAL GOVERNMENT can be a defense against central tyranny.
The incident occurred on Highway 62 near Boley in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma.
Full Dash Cam Video of Oklahoma Highway Patrol vs EMT
http://www.infowars.net:80/articles/may2009/280509Fight.htm
Who will protect us from our Protectors?
============
More Cops Gone Wild
Even More Reporters getting arrested filming cops!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMP_F8aIt20
===========
Sociopaths are taking command in all areas
This contains inappropriate language. Do not watch if this offends you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4-7BKrmH7c&feature=ytn%3Amptnews
Col. Ralph Peters - "Kill Em All".
How does a sociopath get to be a Colonel in the Army? He gets promoted by a sociopathic GENERAL Sociopaths are our leaders now, as they are in every dictatorship. Hail Caesar! How long will it be before have a coliseum for burning, crucifying, and feeding people to lions for amusement?
========================
Grandmother Tasered at Traffic Stop
http://www.myfoxaustin.com:80/dpp/news/local/052909_Grandmother_Tasered_at_Traffic_Stop
This was done by a CONSTABLE in Precinct 3 to a 72 year old woman during a TRAFFIC STOP because she didn't want to sign the ticket. Constable McCain approves it.
Read the story, http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/news/local/052909_Grandmother_Tasered_at_Traffic_Stop The constable who stopped her must be quite a MAN.
This has made Lew Rockwell: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/027060.html#more
Call Constable McCain and tell him what you think of a wuss who feels compelled to use a taser against an old lady.
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/constables/3/default.asp
Phone: (512) 854-2100
Fax: (512) 854-2116
========================
First amendment is gone: Journalists arrested
==========================
Story might be on local (Phoenix) late news tonight:
http://stevenandersonfamily.blogspot.com/
First they tortured him for refusing to answer questions. THEN they told him that he had the right to remain silent. How can there be a duty to answer questions if there is a right to remain silent?
Amendment IV - Search and seizure. http://usconstitution.net/const.html#Am4
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060830956?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Theme Song for the Tea Party Movement
Mr. Jefferson -The Mike Church Show Band
Feds Slander Christians, founding fathers and homeschoolers as terrorists.
http://www.24hourforums.com/view_topic.php?id=25587&forum_id=109&jump_to=252929
IS THIS A GOOD ENOUGH REASON TO SUPPORT A STATE SOVEREIGNTY RESOLUTION IN YOUR STATE? Contact your state legislators!
Nineteen Eighty-four (Paperback) by George Orwell
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GD3Z3O?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
We might want to contact the Arizona Hospitality Authority and let them know what is happening in their state. They should be quite concerned that the "law enforcement" activities will most certainly curtail travel and tourism.
http://www.az-sta.com/
in the lower right side, select "tourism and hospitality".
For updates visit:
http://stevenandersonfamily.blogspot.com/
Is Freedom Failing? by Geb Sommer
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LNJLD2?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
This is a PATTERN, not an isolated incident:
Video Caught On Tape: cop arrests reporter for filming traffic in Arizona... (hmmm) Beware of traveling in Arizona.
Is Arizona still a part of the United States? Or is this what is happening everywhere now? Is Arizona giving a "storm trooper of the month" award?
Ron Paul Campaign For Liberty worker detained at Missouri Airport
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/04/ron-paul-campaign-for-liberty-worker-detained-at-missouri-airport.html
Abusive Border Patrol Agents w/ Nun Chucks at NM Checkpoint
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=KFS7oZtE8Ks&feature=player_embedded
You will notice that one jack boot refers to the expectation that he will honor his oath to "support and defend the constitution" as "playing a little game." This is NOT "playing a little game." This is respecting the law, as law enforcement should.
OHP Trooper Charged With Assault
http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=10319280Profiling and Criminalizing Political Dissent
Profiling and Criminalizing Political Dissent
(With embedded link to The New American)
Written by William F. Jasper
A Nation of Sheep by Andrew P. Napolitano
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595550976?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Is it time?
Mass. Police Gets Grenade Launchers . Federal program donates surplus weapons
On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty (Paperback)
by Larry D. Pratt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MXQWHO?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Visit the ultimate resource for defending liberty
CLICK HERE:
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/
1. Links to liberty defending organizations
2. Links to liberty defending web pages
3. Links to A MASSIVE assortment of liberty defending videos
4. A stream lined system for contacting legislators with suggested letters
5. Links to liberty defending egroups
6. Links to magazines, literature and other materials
Are you looking for a book about defending liberty?
Many rare and out of print books are still available.
Look here:
Censorship of these kind of links is rampant. Adding spaces is the usual method.
If the link is not clickable try pasting it into the address bar.
Remove extra spaces if need be.
Or try clicking on the link as it appears in the blog at:
Surf the REST of the blog while you are there.
IF CENSORSHIP OCCURS THE CREDIBILITY OF THE MESSAGE IS AFFIRMED. WOULD GOVERNMENT TRY TO STIFLE A MESSAGE THAT IS NOT EXPOSING THE TRUTH?
Oppression of expression is confession
Is Freedom Failing? by Geb Sommer
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LNJLD2?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
This is a PATTERN, not an isolated incident:
Video Caught On Tape: cop arrests reporter for filming traffic in Arizona... (hmmm) Beware of traveling in Arizona.
Is Arizona still a part of the United States? Or is this what is happening everywhere now? Is Arizona giving a "storm trooper of the month" award?
Ron Paul Campaign For Liberty worker detained at Missouri Airport
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/04/ron-paul-campaign-for-liberty-worker-detained-at-missouri-airport.html
Abusive Border Patrol Agents w/ Nun Chucks at NM Checkpoint
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=KFS7oZtE8Ks&feature=player_embedded
You will notice that one jack boot refers to the expectation that he will honor his oath to "support and defend the constitution" as "playing a little game." This is NOT "playing a little game." This is respecting the law, as law enforcement should.
Profiling and Criminalizing Political Dissent
(With embedded link to The New American)
Written by William F. Jasper
| Profiling and Criminalizing Political Dissent |
| Written by William F. Jasper |
A Nation of Sheep by Andrew P. Napolitano
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595550976?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Is it time?
Mass. Police Gets Grenade Launchers . Federal program donates surplus weapons
On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty (Paperback)
by Larry D. Pratt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MXQWHO?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty (Paperback)
by Larry D. Pratt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MXQWHO?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Visit the ultimate resource for defending liberty
CLICK HERE:
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/
1. Links to liberty defending organizations
2. Links to liberty defending web pages
3. Links to A MASSIVE assortment of liberty defending videos
4. A stream lined system for contacting legislators with suggested letters
5. Links to liberty defending egroups
6. Links to magazines, literature and other materials
Are you looking for a book about defending liberty?
Many rare and out of print books are still available.
Look here:
Censorship of these kind of links is rampant. Adding spaces is the usual method.
If the link is not clickable try pasting it into the address bar.
Remove extra spaces if need be.
Or try clicking on the link as it appears in the blog at:
Surf the REST of the blog while you are there.
IF CENSORSHIP OCCURS THE CREDIBILITY OF THE MESSAGE IS AFFIRMED. WOULD GOVERNMENT TRY TO STIFLE A MESSAGE THAT IS NOT EXPOSING THE TRUTH?
Oppression of expression is confession
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