PARIS (AP): A majority of French people want their troops pulled out of Afghanistan, a poll suggested on Friday, days after an ambush there killed 10 French soldiers.
A survey in Le Parisien daily showed 55 percent of respondents think France should leave the NATO mission fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, compared to 36 percent who say they should remain following Monday’s bloody attack.
The ambush, east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, was the deadliest for French forces in years and has sparked widespread criticism of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision in April to boost France’s contingent in Afghanistan by 700 troops to about 2,600.
France’s lower house of parliament said on Friday the country’s defense and foreign ministers would appear Tuesday before a panel to answer lawmakers’ questions about the incident. In a statement, the National Assembly also said a delegation of lawmakers from across the political spectrum would travel to Afghanistan soon as part of a parliamentary investigation into the attacks.
Despite the mounting criticism, Sarkozy has stressed his commitment to keeping French troops in Afghanistan. At a funeral ceremony Thursday for the 10 victims, the French leader pledged to stay the course in Afghanistan, saying: “We don’t have the right to lose there.’’
The poll suggested the French are nearly equally divided on Sarkozy’s handling of Afghanistan, with 48 percent of respondents saying they have confidence in his handling of the issue, compared to 46 percent who said they don’t.
The survey, by the CSA polling agency, was conducted nationwide with 1,008 people on Thursday. No margin of error was given.
Blue cheese is a general classification of cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, or goat’s milk cheeses that has had Penicillium cultures added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue or blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell. Some blue cheeses are injected with spores before the curds form and others have spores mixed in with the curds after they form. Blue cheeses are typically aged in a temperature-controlled environment such as a cave.
The characteristic flavor of blue cheeses tends to be sharp and a bit salty. The smell of this food is widely considered to be pungent, even compared to other cheeses. They can be eaten by themselves or can be crumbled or melted over foods.Blue cheese is believed to have been discovered by accident. The caves that early cheeses were aged in shared the properties of being temperature and moisture controlled environments, as well as being favorable to many varieties of mold. Roquefortis said to have been invented in 1070 AD. Gorgonzolais one of the oldest known blue cheeses, having been created around 879 AD, though it is said that it did not actually contain blue-veins until around the 11th century. Stiltonis a relatively new addition occurring sometime in the 18th century.
Many varieties of blue cheese that originated subsequently were an attempt to fill the demand for Roquefort-style cheeses that were prohibitive either due to cost or politics.
Written by Dawud Walid, Executive-Director of CAIR-Michigan, from Denver
Denver – 8/24/08 – American Muslims today participated in the first “Interfaith Gathering†in the history of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The interfaith program, which was also the first official program of the conference, was attended by some 500 people including many important figures within the Democratic Party such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and DNC Chairman Howard Dean.
Opening the service was Imam Mohammad Mardini of the American Muslim Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Imam Mardini began his litany by praying, “All praises due to God the Lord of the universe, God who created us and created for us to live and enjoy and be righteous as well as strong.†His opening prayer was then followed by invocations from representatives of the Jewish and Christian communities.
Other official participants of the program from the Muslim community were Sr. Fatema Biviji from Irving, Texas, who read from the Qur’an, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, who delivered a thought provoking speech based upon the theme of “Our Sacred Responsibility to Our World†and Imam Abdur-Rahim Ali of the Northeast Denver Islamic Center, who led the closing prayer.
The spirited program left all of the attendees in an exuberant as a kick off the rest of the conference despite three interruptions in the beginning when “pro-life†protesters yelled that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is a “murderer of babies†because he’s “pro-choice.†Participants of the interfaith program were met outside by anti-abortion protesters.
BERLIN (Reuters) – A four-year-old cat in Germany called Bonny has survived after being walled in beneath a bathtub for seven weeks, its owner said on Tuesday.
“It’s a miracle,” said Monika Hoppert, a 60-year-old widow from the western town of Stadthagen. “I’m a strong believer, I think she must have had a guardian angel. I’m so happy.”
Bonny disappeared on June 19 while workmen were replacing pipes in the block of flats where Hoppert lives. The black cat was last seen in a neighboring apartment, where the cladding around a bathtub had been removed.
Just before tub was sealed up again, Bonny had probably crept underneath, Hoppert said.
By the time the neighbor heard Bonny’s plaintive meowing from behind the tiles on August 8, the cat’s weight had dropped from 6 kg to 2 kg (from 3 lb to 1 lb).
“I couldn’t believe it. But when I got down there, I knew it was my cat because they all have their own voice,” said Hoppert.
Bonny was so weak the vet recommended she be put down. But Hoppert nursed her back to health with watered down kitten food.
“She’s almost back to normal now. This morning was the first time she’d jumped onto my bed again,” Hoppert said.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Islam is still establishing itself in China under Beijing’s watchful eye and decades have been spent building a fragile trust between the country’s Muslims and the Communist central government. People & Power profiles two key Chinese imams who walk a fine line between their followers and the political authorities.
Osaka (August 19, 2008): An Islamic awakening in the Muslim intelligentsia can be seen in that Doctorate and Post-doctorate students in Japan from several Muslim countries including Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia,Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine and others gathered here for 3 days to attend an annual conference of Muslim Students Association, Japan (MSAJ).
Tokyo Mosque.
It was held here during the Obon holidays in Japan on August 15, 16 and 17th August in Chisun Shin-Osaka Hotel. the conference was attended by 280 foreign Muslim delegates from all over Japan and 130 local Japanese from near about Osaka areas.
Two Professors, Esam Hamed Ai-Abdul Hafidh and Mohammad Al-Bbatairy, well-versed in Islamic subjects were invited from World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Saudi Arabia and one, Dr, Samir El-Shaikh, Professor of Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University, Cairo. They gave 5 lectures in Arabic and English during the 3-day conference on various Islamic topics, as requested by MSAJ, and answered questions from the attendants satisfactorily.
Two separate sessions were held for Non-Muslim Japanese. These were attended by 130 Japanese people. The morning session of about one and a half hour was devoted to lectures in Japanese language by a non-Muslim lady Prof. Aisa Kiyosue and by the Islamic Japanese scholar, Mr. Sulaiman Hamanaka. The 2nd session was devoted to Posters, showing important features of Islamic history and Islamic teachings.
There is a very strong Muslim Students Association in USA as well since long. Students of lower and higher levels are both included in it. But MSAJ does not have any lower level university students. This the difference between the two. Japanese government has changed its policy. During the Fifties and Sixties, it used to offer scholarships to under-graduate students. But during the last few decades, it stopped scholarships for the under-graduates. Now all scholarships are given to doctorate and post-doctorate students only and their number has increased tremendously during the last few years. Now hundreds of such students are attending almost all universities all over Japan, specializing in several technical subjects. Every student is given around $1500 with cheap housing facility. This amount is barely sufficient for them to stay in Japan with their families and children.
It has suddenly increased the percentage of highly-educated Muslim residents in Japan. It is a new phenomenon for Islam in Japan and is an addition of a new chapter to the history of Dawah Islamiah in Japan. MSAJ has collected huge sums, mostly from among themselves, and have built Mosques around different Universities all over Japan, costing from a minimum of $250, 000 to $450,000 each. So far they have completed building 8 beautiful mosques in different parts of Japan. It is continuing to build or financially support building of one or two additional mosques each year in some part of Japan where there is no mosque in the city or near the university.
A Kobe Mosque.
So far mostly Pakistani and a few Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan or Burmese Muslims, settled as businessmen of used cars or some other professions have built 40 to 50 mosques in various areas of Japan during the last two decades. After the emergence of MSAJ, this trend is now changing. Now MSAJ has started taking lead in such matters.
After the dissolution of Ottoman empire and the end of the two Great World Wars, Muslim countries started getting political independence from Western imperialism. But during the period under the colonial tutelage, they were impregnated with the poison of anti-Islam Western education and its glittering civilization. Most of the Muslim intelligentsia had lost faith in divine guidance for the social, economic and political ills of the modern civilization and confined their faith into the boundaries of mosques and madressahs only. A lot of them became secular and lost interest in 5-times prayers or even in weekly Jumah prayers. Ataturk was the first culprit who started secularization of a Muslim country, Turkey, and tried to changed its Islamic character to imitate West and its degenerated civilization. Political leaders in most of the newly independent Muslim countries are still not much interested in implementing Islamic Shariah in their own countries.
The phenomenon, like the emergence of MSAJ, gives hope in this regard. Highly educated class of Muslim countries, as represented by MSAJ, shows that the future leaders in Muslim countries will be more serious for Islam than their previous generation, which was brought up under Western colonial rule over their countries. The generation of Muslim youth and the intelligentsia that has been brought up in independent Muslims societies is becoming more and more Islamic than their previous generation under Western slavery.
The anti-Muslim attitude of the West with regard to Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya and etc. has also served as an eye-opener for the Muslim youth and the intelligentsia that their deliverance lies in this world and in the hereafter in their seriousness in following the teachings of Allah and His Prophet Muhammad (s). This Islamic awakening among the Western educated Muslim intelligentsia is a sign of hope for the Muslim revival and renaissance in 21st century.
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf salutes as he leaves the presidential house after his resignation in Islamabad August 18, 2008. Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday in the face of an impending impeachment motion by the ruling coalition government.
REUTERS/Mian Khursheed
Effectively abandoned by his domestic allies and international backers, Pakistan’s military strongman Pervez Musharraf formally resigned yesterday as the country’s president rather than face impeachment proceedings that were due to commence this week.
Musharraf’s resignation followed more than a week of behind-the-scenes manoeuvres involving US, British and Saudi officials as well as the Pakistani army to pressure the government to grant the former dictator immunity from prosecution. While Musharraf denied that he had been given any favours in return for his resignation, there is little doubt that a deal has been reached to allow him a “dignified exit."
The writing has been on the wall since Musharraf’s Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) suffered a humiliating defeat in national elections in February at the hands of opposition parties—the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Musharraf is widely hated for his nine years of dictatorial rule and support for Washington’s “bogus war on terrorism” that has triggered what amounts to a civil war in Pakistan’s tribal border areas with Afghanistan.
For months, the Bush administration and its allies pressed the PPP-led coalition government to collaborate with Musharraf, which the PPP endeavoured to do. The PML-N and its leader Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted as prime minister by Musharraf in a military coup in 1999, sought to exploit popular opposition by demanding impeachment and the reinstatement of 57 supreme court judges sacked by Musharraf last year. Sharif pulled the PML-N ministers out of the cabinet in May and threatened to leave the coalition completely if agreement could not be reached on these issues.
Confronting a steady loss in support for the government, PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari finally announced plans on August 7 to impeach Musharraf. Opinion polls showed overwhelming popular support—some 75 percent of respondents—for ousting the president, which was reflected yesterday in spontaneous celebrations in the streets of Pakistani cities. While Zardari declared impeachment would commence, no formal charge sheet was presented to parliament, however, allowing time for a deal to be worked out behind the scenes.
Considerable international pressure was bought to bear to end the impasse without initiating impeachment proceedings. While reluctantly recognising that the president had to go, the last thing that Washington wanted was any public airing of Musharraf’s crimes and anti-democratic methods. Any such probe threatened to expose the extent of US involvement with the Pakistani security forces in the suppression of Islamist groups inside Pakistan and war being waged against armed militia in the Afghan-Pakistani border areas supportive of anti-occupation insurgents inside Afghanistan. The CIA and FBI may well be implicated in the hundreds of “disappearances” for which Musharraf and the army are allegedly responsible.
Having relied on Musharraf since the US occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, the Bush administration was also concerned that the fragile Pakistani government would fail to continue to back military operations against Islamist militias in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA). After winning the February election in part by branding Musharraf as a US stooge, the coalition government initially proposed to end the fighting by reaching peace deals with the various armed groups—a move that was sharply opposed in Washington.
Senior Bush administration and Pentagon officials have mounted an intense campaign to pressure the Pakistani government into taking military action in the border areas. There is every sign that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was issued with an ultimatum during his trip to Washington in July—either take action against anti-US guerrillas, or the US military would. In response, Gilani declared that the US “war on terrorism” was “our war”. Just one day before impeachment proceedings were announced, the Pakistani military launched a major offensive into Bajaur agency. Intense fighting is now taking place in areas from the Swat district, through the Peshawar districts, to the Bajaur and Kyber agencies. After 12 straight days of air and ground bombardment, it is estimated that up to 300,000 people have fled the border areas. The timing points to a tacit understanding with Washington to initiate extensive military action in return for US backing to remove Musharraf. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was fulsome in her praise of the former Pakistani dictator yesterday. Musharraf, she declared, had been “a friend of the United States and one of the world’s most committed partners in the war against terrorism and extremism”. It was precisely Musharraf’s decision to withdraw Pakistani support from the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and his backing for the ongoing US occupation that was one of the major factors in the collapse of his initial post-coup support. British and Saudi officials have also been engaged in closed-door talks to secure a deal that would allow Musharraf to resign in return for immunity from prosecution and other assurances. Saudi Arabia’s powerful intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz arrived in Islamabad over the weekend and was reported to have threatened to withdraw oil subsidies worth $5 billion a year unless Musharraf was allowed to leave gracefully. Likewise the Pakistani military, while publicly insisting that it would stay above politics, nevertheless quietly made clear its opposition to impeachment proceedings—a point underscored yesterday by the decision to give Musharraf a final guard of honour.
If Musharraf were to be tried for breaches of the constitution and other crimes, then the army top brass on which he rested during his nine years in power also risked being implicated. As Najam Sethi, editor of Pakistan’s Daily Times, commented to the Guardian: “Nobody wants the Pandora’s box opened up. The issue of impeachment is really a non-starter.”
An unstable government
While Musharraf has now stepped down, the political crisis in Islamabad is certain to intensify. The two major coalition parties—the PPP and PML-N—are longstanding and bitter rivals. As a number of commentators have noted, opposition to Musharraf was the main glue holding their alliance together. Even on the immediate issue of Musharraf’s future, there is no agreement.
PPP officials have hinted that a deal was reached to give legal immunity to the former president as long as he agreed to go into exile. At this stage, spokesmen for Musharraf have indicated that he wants to remain in Pakistan and has plans to take up residence in a villa being constructed outside Islamabad. In his hour-long televised speech yesterday, Musharraf delivered a strident defence of his period in office, insisting that he had done nothing wrong and blaming the government for the deterioration of the country’s economy. The PPP certainly does not want Musharraf within striking distance as opposition grows to its rule. The PML-N continues to insist, publicly at least, that Musharraf should be charged and prosecuted for his crimes. Last week Sharif told a meeting in Lahore: “How can safe passage be given to someone who has done this to Pakistan?” There are also differences between the two parties over the reinstatement of supreme court judges, in part because PPP leader Zardari fears that the judges may allow the revival of corruption convictions against him.
Another immediate bone of contention will be Musharraf’s replacement as president. He has been formally succeeded by the chairman of the Senate, Mohammed Mian Soomro, a close ally who was prime minister until the election in February. A new president will be elected via country’s electoral college—the national assembly and four provincial assemblies meeting together. Zardari is known to have ambitions to fill the post, but such a move will be forcefully opposed by Sharif. The constitution drawn up by Musharraf gives the president considerable power, such as to sack the government and to make key appointments, including the army commander.
More fundamentally, the government now faces the same dilemmas that confronted Musharraf. It is under intense pressure from Washington to intensify military operations in the border areas with Afghanistan where the army has largely lost control. Gilani faces the prospect of being branded a US puppet and rapidly losing support. Any retreat risks the prospect of unilateral US military action, which would also trigger a popular backlash against the government.
At the same time, the Pakistani economy is being hit by rising oil and food prices as well as weakening demand in the US and Europe for its exports. The annual inflation rate is running at a 30-year high of nearly 25 percent; the Pakistani rupee has fallen 22 percent against the declining US dollar this year; and in the past five weeks, the country’s foreign exchange reserves have dwindled by nearly $US1.1 billion to $10.15 billion, mainly as a result of the cost of imported oil. The trade deficit has ballooned by 53 percent to $20.7 billion for the 2007-08 fiscal year that ended in June. The share market has slumped by 30 percent since April. Share values and the rupee rose yesterday on news of Musharraf’s resignation, but further political turmoil will rapidly reverse those gains. Rising prices will only fuel social unrest and opposition to the government. While Musharraf’s resignation is being presented in the Pakistani and international media as a step toward democracy in Pakistan, both the PPP and PML-N have a record of autocratic rule. Whatever its final makeup, the regime holding the reins of power in Islamabad will not hesitate to use anti-democratic methods to suppress any political opposition to its policies.
There should be little doubt that the Israeli government is making every effort to jump-start a war against Iran sooner rather than later. Many Israelis not surprisingly believe it is in their interest to convince the United States to attack Iran so that Israel will not have to do it, and they are hell-bent on bringing that about. Unfortunately, their efforts are being aided and abetted by a U.S. mainstream media that is unwilling to ask any hard questions or challenge the assumptions of the Israeli government.
Israeli intellectuals such as Benny Morris have been provided a platform to argue implausibly that a little war is necessary right now to prevent a larger nuclear conflict. The repeated visits to Washington by Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi to pressure Washington to commit to a military option are generally unreported in the US media, and no one is asking why the US should be involved in what is clearly a “wag the dog” scenario.
For once, however, some officials in Washington appear to have developed a backbone and are pushing back. A flurry of visits to Israel by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, and intelligence chiefs Mike McConnell and Michael Hayden have made clear that there is considerable opposition at the Pentagon and in intelligence circles to starting a third war at this time. Israel says that Iran is about to obtain a nuclear weapon while the Pentagon and American intelligence services are providing a more cautious assessment, putting forward the U.S. view that Iran is still far removed from having nuclear capability. Mullen went so far as to tell the Israelis flatly that Washington does not want another war. He even brought up the subject of the USS Liberty, a not-so subtle hint that Washington knows that Israel might try to engineer a Gulf of Tonkin-type surprise to force American involvement. Mullen may have been implying that any incident in the Persian Gulf that might lead to armed conflict will be scrutinized carefully to determine if it is a false flag operation initiated by Tel Aviv.
On the home front there is also some additional good news for those who prefer diplomacy to warfare: Congress is in recess and won’t be able to do anything truly stupid, at least not until next month. House Resolution 362 has 261 co-sponsors, but it is still in committee and the word is that it will be rewritten because of concerns about some of its language. Though not binding, it would have recommended a blockade of Iranian ports to stop the import of petroleum products, which many have rightly seen as an act of war. Senate Resolution 580, which has 49 senators as co-sponsors, is also reportedly being redrafted. The antiwar movement has claimed some credit for stopping the two resolutions in their original versions because of a mobilization that produced thousands of calls to congressmen, but AIPAC has been lobbying heavily for the approval of both resolutions. I expect that the Israel lobby will prevail. Both resolutions should pass with overwhelming majorities when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day.
The principal problem in attempting to derail the rush to war has been the mainstream media, which provides a bully pulpit for those who want war. The media also accepts the framework of the Iran “problem” as defined by Washington and Tel Aviv, refusing to enter into any kind of serious, adult discussion of how the outstanding issues between the US and Iran might be resolved. A good example of how it all works was provided on Aug. 3, when Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was interviewed on CNN’s Late Edition by Wolf Blitzer, who himself once worked for AIPAC.
Livni has an interesting resume. Her father was one of the Irgun terrorists who blew up the King David hotel in 1946 and later massacred Arab villagers in Deir Yassin. As a teenager, Livni participated in demonstrations on behalf of the nationalist extremist group Greater Israel, which advocated expelling all Arabs and extending Israeli domination over all of historic Palestine to include the West Bank, parts of Jordan, up to the Litani River in Lebanon to the north, and down to include Sinai and the Suez Canal in the south and west. She is reported to have mellowed somewhat since that time. She was close to Ariel Sharon, became justice minister, switched over to Kadima with Sharon, and was elected to the Knesset. She was rewarded with the Foreign Ministry by Sharon and now serves Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. She is a former intelligence officer, a lawyer by training, bright and articulate, and generally regarded as a “realist” vis-à-vis the Palestinians and the Muslim world, meaning that she supported the Sharon policy of “disengagement” and seeks a negotiated solution and normalization rather than continuing armed conflict. She appears to be the leading candidate to replace Ehud Olmert when he steps down later this year due to his acceptance of gifts from an American businessman.
Livni has been reported as having said privately in October 2007 that Iran poses no existential threat to Israel and was highly critical of attempts to hype the danger, but her private views have not in any way influenced her public pronouncements. In her interview with CNN she made a number of statements that are inaccurate or at best speculative, but predictably, she was not challenged in any way by Blitzer. Most viewers probably came away from the interview convinced that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, is unwilling to negotiate over its nuclear enrichment program, and is a danger to the entire world.
File: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Following a lead-in by Blitzer affirming that Iran is “showing absolutely no indication they’re going to stop enriching uranium,” Livni – representing a country that has ignored more UN resolutions than any other, engaged in ethnic cleansing, and attacked all of its neighbors without warning – asserted that “It is clear that Iran doesn’t pay attention to talks … Iran is a threat, not only to Israel, but this is a global threat.”
Blitzer then obligingly provided another softball, referring to Ehud Barak’s assessment that there is only a window of 15 to 36 months before Iran crosses the “line of no return.” While it is not clear what the expression “line of no return” means, Livni jumped on it, saying that “any kind of hesitation … is being perceived by the Iranians as weakness. … Iran is a threat to its neighbors, as well. … We shouldn’t wait for what we call ‘point of no return.’” Blitzer then asked, “You don’t even give them 15 months necessarily. You think it’s a more urgent matter?” “Yes,” Livni answered.
Blitzer then suggested that the U.S. might not ready for a “third front” in the Middle East at the present time, to which Livni replied, “[T]he world cannot afford a nuclear Iran and weapons of mass destruction everywhere in this region, in the hands not only of states, but also of terrorist organizations.” Livni clearly believes that it is all right for Israel to have a secret nuclear arsenal but unacceptable for any of Israel’s neighbors, because they cannot be trusted to behave responsibly. The allegation that Tehran would give nuclear weapons to terrorists surfaces frequently from Israeli and neocon sources. It is speculative and in all likelihood a complete fantasy, given the apocalyptic consequences of such an action for Iran, but Blitzer failed to contest the point. The terrorist argument is an essential line in the script for those who want the U.S. to engage in a war with Iran.
Tzipi Livni should not be blamed for reciting her lines in spite of her personal misgivings, because she is, after all, the government official responsible for explaining Tel Aviv’s foreign policy. It is the American media that continues to play the patsy. If interviewers like Wolf Blitzer are the best that the U.S. mainstream media can come up with, then we are in serious trouble. The interview format itself is a travesty, particularly as it suggests that some rational process is being applied to either critique or validate what the interviewee is saying. As the Livni interview demonstrates, if the subject is the Middle East and the interviewer is Wolf Blitzer, that is not likely to be the case.
The American people should be eternally grateful to Old Europe for having spiked the Bush-McCain plan to bring Georgia into NATO.
Had Georgia been in NATO when Mikheil Saakashvili invaded South Ossetia, we would be eyeball to eyeball with Russia, facing war in the Caucasus, where Moscow’s superiority is as great as U.S. superiority in the Caribbean during the Cuban missile crisis.
If the Russia-Georgia war proves nothing else, it is the insanity of giving erratic hotheads in volatile nations the power to drag the United States into war.
From Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, U.S. presidents have sought to avoid shooting wars with Russia, even when the Bear was at its most beastly.
Truman refused to use force to break Stalin’s Berlin blockade. Ike refused to intervene when the Butcher of Budapest drowned the Hungarian Revolution in blood. LBJ sat impotent as Leonid Brezhnev’s tanks crushed the Prague Spring. Jimmy Carter’s response to Brezhnev’s invasion of Afghanistan was to boycott the Moscow Olympics. When Brezhnev ordered his Warsaw satraps to crush Solidarity and shot down a South Korean airliner killing scores of U.S. citizens, including a congressman, Reagan did nothing.
These presidents were not cowards. They simply would not go to war when no vital U.S. interest was at risk to justify a war. Yet, had George W. Bush prevailed and were Georgia in NATO, U.S. Marines could be fighting Russian troops over whose flag should fly over a province of 70,000 South Ossetians who prefer Russians to Georgians.
The arrogant folly of the architects of U.S. post-Cold War policy is today on display. By bringing three ex-Soviet republics into NATO, we have moved the U.S. red line for war from the Elbe almost to within artillery range of the old Leningrad.
Should America admit Ukraine into NATO, Yalta, vacation resort of the czars, will be a NATO port and Sevastopol, traditional home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, will become a naval base for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. This is altogether a bridge too far.
And can we not understand how a Russian patriot like Vladimir Putin would be incensed by this U.S. encirclement after Russia shed its empire and sought our friendship? How would Andy Jackson have reacted to such crowding by the British Empire?
As of 1991, the oil of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan belonged to Moscow. Can we not understand why Putin would smolder as avaricious Yankees built pipelines to siphon the oil and gas of the Caspian Basin through breakaway Georgia to the West?
For a dozen years, Putin & Co. watched as U.S. agents helped to dump over regimes in Ukraine and Georgia that were friendly to Moscow.
If Cold War II is coming, who started it, if not us?
The swift and decisive action of Putin’s army in running the Georgian forces out of South Ossetia in 24 hours after Saakashvili began his barrage and invasion suggests Putin knew exactly what Saakashvili was up to and dropped the hammer on him.
What did we know? Did we know Georgia was about to walk into Putin’s trap? Did we not see the Russians lying in wait north of the border? Did we give Saakashvili a green light?
Joe Biden ought to be conducting public hearings on who caused this U.S. humiliation.
The war in Georgia has exposed the dangerous overextension of U.S. power. There is no way America can fight a war with Russia in the Caucasus with our army tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nor should we. Hence, it is demented to be offering, as John McCain and Barack Obama are, NATO membership to Tbilisi.
The United States must decide whether it wants a partner in a flawed Russia or a second Cold War. For if we want another Cold War, we are, by cutting Russia out of the oil of the Caspian and pushing NATO into her face, going about it exactly the right way.
Vladimir Putin is no Stalin. He is a nationalist determined, as ruler of a proud and powerful country, to assert his nation’s primacy in its own sphere, just as U.S. presidents from James Monroe to Bush have done on our side of the Atlantic.
A resurgent Russia is no threat to any vital interests of the United States. It is a threat to an American Empire that presumes some God-given right to plant U.S. military power in the backyard or on the front porch of Mother Russia.
Who rules Abkhazia and South Ossetia is none of our business. And after this madcap adventure of Saakashvili, why not let the people of these provinces decide their own future in plebiscites conducted by the United Nations or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe?
As for Saakashvili, he’s probably toast in Tbilisi after this stunt. Let the neocons find him an endowed chair at the American Enterprise Institute.
A Kashmiri Muslim man selling household items made from wood and mud waits for customers during ‘Meeraj-un-Nabi’ celebrations at Hazratbal shrine on the outskirts of Srinagar July 31, 2008.
REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli
NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: Tragically, the Indian government’s approach towards the Kashmir-crisis seems to have been largely rhetoric, marked by meetings and discussions. What else is indicated by crisis in Kashmir Valley over the Amarnath land transfer row remaining unresolved for more than six weeks, with the death toll in the state increasing with each passing day. The crisis – begun over a land row – has now drawn international attention over the economic blockade faced by Kashmiri Muslims and their being discriminately targeted by Indian security forces. Suffering from the economic blockade, the local residents, fruit growers and traders decided to march over to Pakistan to break the blockade (August 11). The tear gas and live ammunition used by security forces to thwart the march injured many protestors and also led to death of a prominent Hurriyat Conference leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz and several others.
Defying curfew and unprovoked incidents of firing by Indian forces, around 200,000 people participated in the funeral prayers of Aziz, the following day. Thousands of Kashmiris took to streets again (August 16), to mourn the death of Aziz.
The crisis began with the state government’s decision to transfer 40 acres of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) in May. But with it provoking strong protest in the Valley, the government withdrew the order leading to agitation from Hindus in Jammu. Continuance of agitations coupled with Kashmiri Muslims being killed and economic blockade of the Valley has led the situation assume disturbing proportions.
Different leaders are raising their voices on what has led the crisis reach this stage and the possible solutions. Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said: “Now it is beyond land transfer. Now people are saying that anytime fundamentalists in India or in other regions of Jammu can cause an economic blockade in Kashmir. People are demanding that they have a birth right to trade with other side of Kashmir. Why can’t we look for alternative market if we can have.”
The Kashmiris are raising questions at the discriminatory nature in which agitators in Valley have been targeted by Indian security forces, while they have remained virtually mute spectators to demonstrations in Jammu. “Excesses are being committed by security forces in the name of controlling the ‘highly volatile situation’ in the state,” People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti said.
Questioning the security forces’ discriminatory approach, a Kashmiri Muslim pointed out: “They used water cannons against protestors in Jammu, while in Srinagar they have fired bullets at us. More than 20 people have been killed in Srinagar, while 2-3 have been killed in Jammu.” “What explains this discrimination?” he asked.
Describing the situation as “critical,” the PDP has reiterated its demand for a probe into killing of “unarmed” protestors in Kashmir. It has also appealed to the center to “renew, with fresh resolve and a sense of urgency, the peace and resolution process through a purposeful dialogue with all sections of the society, including the Hurriyat Conference” (August 17).
Condemning the excessive force in Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, president of National Conference (NC) said: “We condemn excessive use of force and appeal the administration and forces to exercise restraint. They should show same restrain in Kashmir as they have shown in Jammu.” “If unbridled force is used against the agitators I would have no option but to resign from parliament and I will do it,” he said.
A meeting called by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), specially convened to discuss the situation in Kashmir was also attended by representatives of Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, Sikh Coordination Committee, Trade Union Center, Chamber of Commerce and Industries Kashmir, Valley Citizens Council, People’s Development Trust and others.
Condemning the “brute state force used against the peaceful and unarmed protestors,” which in a week claimed 34 lives and injured more than 600, the participants “unanimously emphasized that no vested interests shall be allowed to harm the traditions of communal harmony, and the majority community in Kashmir shall continue to work together with the minorities during these testing times.” They laid stress on “immediate restoration of all the historical routes to ensure the political, psychological, economic, physical security of the besieged people of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Referring to the attack on more than 40 ambulances by “Indian armed forces that even beat up the patients, with serious bullet wounds, across Kashmir in last 7 days, the participants condemned the phenomenon as it is in contravention to the Geneva Conventions.”
PM Singh reviewed the situation with senior cabinet colleagues, following which the government issued a statement, announcing its willingness to resume trade with Pakistan across the Line-of-Control (LoC). “India is ready to commence cross-LoC trade, but awaits Pakistani willingness to implement the agreement reached in April 2005,” the government stated (August 16). Dismissing “reports” and “statements” on “alleged economic blockade” of the Kashmir Valley, the Indian government said that the authorities have given “particular emphasis” to “transportation of fruits from the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country, and to alleged shortages of essential commodities in the state.”
Besides, Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani discussed the issue on phone on Friday evening (August 15). The latter had called Singh to congratulate him and the people of India on the 62nd Independence Day of the country.
“Both countries should resolve all bilateral issues, including the Kashmir dispute, through dialogue and adhere to the peace process,” Singh told Gilani. “At times harsh statements emanating from either side cast a shadow over the cordiality of relations between India and Pakistan but the regular contacts at the highest level would help to dispel the uncertainties created by them,” Singh said. Gilani had called Singh in response to a felicitation received from the latter on Pakistan’s Independence Day (August 14).
Amid the backdrop of Kashmir-crisis, the diplomacy displayed by two leaders suggests that they do not want their peace process to be adversely affected. On ground, as expressed by a senior official, the ceasefire along LoC is “still holding.” In his Independence Day address, Singh highlighted the need to “defeat” terrorists, whom he referred to as “enemies of people of India and Pakistan, of friendship between the two countries and of peace in the region and the world.”
But till innocent people in JK continue to be ruthlessly targeted by the so-called “security” forces, such words and diplomatic moves can only be viewed as meaningless rhetoric!
Courtesy Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now!
Security officers march near Tiananmen square in Beijing August 13, 2008.
REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen
With 300,000 security cameras in Beijing alone, China is at the forefront of the surveillance boom — and U.S. corporations are reaping the profits.
Juan Gonzalez: China deported five international activists [last week] for unfurling a “Free Tibet” banner over the top of an Olympic Games billboard. It’s the latest incident in what has become an almost daily crackdown on both domestic and international protesters who have had to contend with a brand new surveillance system that China set up ahead of the games. This includes 300,000 security cameras and an estimated 100,000 security officers on duty in Beijing.
But it’s not just Beijing that’s gotten a security upgrade. There are now over 600 “safe” cities in China that have received new surveillance gear. The equipment and integrated security systems will remain long after the Olympics, to be used, many fear, on China’s own population. The domestic surveillance market in China is expected to reach $33 billion next year. And some of the biggest beneficiaries of this boom are U.S. hedge funds and corporations, such as Cisco, General Electric and Google.
Amy Goodman: Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Naomi Klein calls this “McCommunism.” Her latest article published in the Huffington Post is called “The Olympics: Unveiling Police State 2.0.” Naomi Klein is author of The Shock Doctrine. She joins us on the phone from Canada.
We’re also joined in our firehouse studio by investigative journalist and author Christian Parenti, who’s also just back from China. His latest piece for The Nation magazine is called “Class Struggle in the New China”.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Naomi Klein, let’s begin with you. Lay out what you also called in Rolling Stone the “all-seeing eye.”
Naomi Klein: Well, there’s an incredible operation going on in China to use the latest, what’s now called homeland security technology — networked surveillance cameras, biometric identification cards, facial recognition software — networking all of these cameras and running the software through it as a way to control an increasingly rebellious population. There’s an incredible statistic from 2005 that there were 87,000 mass incidents, which means protests and riots, across the country.
So it is already being used as a way to control the population and also to keep an eye on what in China is called the floating population, the migrant population, who are displaced by mega projects, who travel to cities like Beijing and Guangzhou and Shenzhen looking for work. This is a mobile population that is right now 130 million people. And this technology is used to keep track of those people, because in a sort of Maoist time in China, you had — where people stayed in their communities, you had networks of control and surveillance that were really about people snitching on their neighbors. When people are moving across long distances, the technology is replacing that. So “Police State 2.0” is really about upgrading the surveillance system, with the help, as you said earlier, of U.S. companies like Cisco, General Electric, who have been providing these technologies.
Juan Gonzalez: Your article talks about — calls it the “Golden Shield,” as the Chinese refer to it, and you focus especially on the city of Shenzhen, in terms of the enormous reach of this. I was struck that you mentioned, for instance, that every internet cafe in China has surveillance cameras that are hooked up to local police stations so that they can keep an eye on who is using the internet cafes?
Naomi Klein: Yeah, and the internet cafes are — you know, they’re really like internet bowling alleys. They’re huge. An average-size internet cafe has 600 terminals. And there are dozens of cameras in the — not just obviously the cameras on the computers, but surveillance cameras. And this is a huge market. You mentioned that it’s worth $33 billion a year now. It’s actually — that’s even increased since I wrote that article. The latest estimate is that it’s going to be worth $43 billion, and — a year within two years.
And the reason why this is such a fast-growing market is that it’s not just that the internet cafes are installing these cameras; it’s that it’s a law now in China that they are required to install the cameras. So are at religious sites, so are entertainment sites, karaoke bars, restaurants. So, the government passes a law and says you must install these surveillance cameras, the companies comply, and then you have another set of companies who are connected to the party and also, as you said, to American companies. Many of them are listed on the NASDAQ, the New York Stock Exchange. And they are benefiting directly from this created market, this mandated market. You must install security cameras, so no wonder this is such a fast-growing market.
And we know that the global homeland security industry, which is now worth $200 billion globally, it really follows the money. So, after September 11th, that money was, in the U.S., in these huge expenditures on surveillance technology. It then moved to Iraq, and now it’s really moved to China.
Amy Goodman: Can you talk about the significance of when the Olympics was awarded to China?
Naomi Klein: Yeah. I think this is really important for us to look at, at this point, because, in many ways, I think this moment provides us with a benchmark to understand exactly how much the standards on human rights have been eroded since September 11th, because China was awarded the Games exactly seven years ago, in July 2001, so right before the September 11th attacks. And, of course, it was very controversial. But there was of virtual consensus, among U.S. officials, at least, that the global scrutiny that would be placed on China in the lead-up to the Olympics would lead to an opening up, would force a democratization process, would lead to a freer press, would lead to more freedoms for human rights activists.
And that really hasn’t happened. In fact, I think it’s quite surprising how little scrutiny there has been on China’s human rights record. And part of that has been that there — any kind of moral suasion that there could have been, certainly from the United States — and obviously one has to temper this, because I don’t think that the U.S. — the human rights record pre-September 11th was anything to brag about — but any ability to sort of put moral pressure on China on human rights has really been eroded since September 11, and particularly when you see that China has moved to this high-tech version of repression and surveillance, which means it’s much less in your face, it’s four security cameras on a block as opposed to tanks.
And it looks a lot like what’s happening in London, what’s happening in New York, with the normalization of these technologies, and also, in the U.S., with the normalization of the loss of habeas corpus, of indefinite detention, of the normalization of torture. So, what we see in this timeline, from when China was awarded the Games to now in this moment when they are staging the Games, is not just that human rights have taken a step back in China, but that globally we’ve really lost our bearings.
Juan Gonzalez: And, of course, with China, there is the reality that the country has become the industrial heartland of worldwide capitalism, in terms of the sheer number of production workers that are churning out goods. And, Christian, your article deals with what’s happened to the workers in China and to all — in all of these factories, and what is life like in this surveillance state, but also a state that has become critical to worldwide capitalism.
Christian Parenti: Yeah, and despite a long history of repression under Chinese communism and the legacy of the Cultural Revolution in this increasing use of surveillance, there’s actually quite a lot of class struggle, to use an old-fashioned term. By one estimate, supposedly from the Chinese government leaked to independent labor activists, a thousand people a day in Shenzhen, the main industrial city in the south, are involved in some sort of labor action.
So, what I looked at in this article was peasant and worker resistance. And there is actually evidence that despite the odds against them, they’re having some success. And one major measure of this is the fact that the new government that came in 2002, 2003, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, have responded to the growing discontent, not necessarily out of some sort of enlightened set of theories, but pragmatically they’ve actually passed a number of laws, which may or may not pan out to be good, but on paper give greater rights to peasants. They removed one of the main taxes on them, giving them more legal rights to oppose displacement, passed a very good labor law that gives workers basically tenure status. They used to be basically serving at the pleasure of their employers, could be fired without cause. Now they have to have cause, and after a certain period of time they have long-term contracts. Business pundits condemn the law as introducing European-style inflexibility. And this is giving workers some leverage and is actually raising wages.
And, interestingly, there’s a long tradition, dating from Tiananmen days, of trying to create an independent trade union movement in China. That has been crushed. That is a non-starter. But the current government has encouraged workers — well, it said that it wants to see all private — 80 percent of private firms unionize, but through the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. So I thought this was kind of ridiculous as a state union. But when you actually go to Shenzhen and connect with the underground labor movement, many of whom are suffering from severe repression, usually from local authorities in league with Hong Kong, Taiwanese and local capitalists producing stuff on contract for Wal-Mart, Kmart, everybody else, surprisingly, these underground labor activists and their allies in Hong Kong, some of whom are veterans of Tiananmen, have actually — their position is that now what has to happen is that they have to renovate the official union and, you know, not take it over, but actually work within it to turn it into a real union that will defend workers’ rights.
So there’s something interesting going on in response to this rising discontent over the last couple years, whereby the central government is growing concerned about the really wild brutality and corruption of many local governments, the way that’s antagonizing workers, the way workers are pushing, pushing, pushing, and they realize there has to be something given to the working class of China. Wages have to rise. And there has to be some modicum of rights for that class, which is, as you say, absolutely essential to the engine of global capitalism.
Juan Gonzalez: But yet, the vast majority of people in China are still in the countryside, right? So what is happening in terms of the peasantry of China? Christian Parenti: Yeah, in the countryside, one of the main problems people face is, along with environmental degradation is, these continued land grabs. One of the — the village I profiled in the article was fighting to keep its land because a big state-owned coal company wanted to strip mine it. And so, this is one cause of displacement.
The other thing is that the countryside is still very, very poor. There has been, in the last two decades, the rise of what are called the township and village enterprises, which are these usually kind of hybrid local-, state- plus foreign capital-owned firms, which are providing some industrial work. But due to displacement by industry and poverty, people are leaving the countryside, and they’re organizing there. In last year in Anhui, a group of villages refused to pay taxes, and that actually led to the government saying, “OK, we’re going to abolish this, this tax law, because the peasants are clearly under serious pressure, and we can, you know, use repression to force them to continue to live in poverty and pay their taxes and ask for serious trouble, or we can just remove this tax and, you know, force employers to actually pay a little bit more.” And, you know, ten percent growth for ten years in a row means there is enough money to go around for the working class to — you know, for there to be greater redistribution through higher wages.
Amy Goodman: Do you feel the Olympics has had an effect on what is going on now in China, this increased international scrutiny, or is there?
Christian Parenti: In terms of international scrutiny, it seems mostly to be around the issue of Tibet and broad human rights stuff. And the issue of labor has not come up that much.
In China, I was struck by the way that the earthquake and the Olympics really re-instilled or reignited an intense nationalism and almost a defensiveness around people who, in many cases, were actually involved in struggles against local authorities and were very apologetic about it. In the article, I discuss these guys who organized basically an independent trade union and had these wildcat strikes, but they’re, “Well, no, they weren’t protests. They were just big meetings at the factory. We just wanted to communicate with the bosses.” And they were like, you know, almost apologetic about opposing the country and causing troubles for the country. So that’s one main effect that the Olympics is having internally, is to sort of, you know, change the subject and instill this kind of national state of mind.
Amy Goodman: Well, Naomi Klein, following your line on surveillance in China, let’s go back to the United States. We’re moving into the conventions. And by the way, Democracy Now! will be there for the Democratic convention in Denver — we’re expanding to two hours — and in St. Paul, where also we’ll be broadcasting two hours every day. But we’re just getting word out of Denver, for example, CBS 4 exposed that there are warehouses prepared with pens and barbed wire for jailed protesters, with warnings on the wall: stun guns — beware of stun gun use.
Naomi Klein: Yeah. And I mean, I think the timing of this is really interesting, that — you know, that the global sort of media spotlight is going to move from Beijing to Denver to Minneapolis. And we’re really going to have an opportunity to actually see how globalized this surveillance state is. And, you know, I really think we’re seeing a kind of a global middle ground emerge, where China is becoming more like the United States in very visible ways, and the United States is becoming more like China in less visible ways. So, many of the things that people are really ready to condemn about the surveillance and police state tactics being used in Beijing right now — the surveillance cameras everywhere, the banning of protests or the pushing of protesters into these protest pens that are empty because people are too afraid to use them, pre-emptive arrests — you know, we are going to see this in Denver — unmanned drones and so on. So I think we are very vividly going to see this meeting in the middle, if you will, of these tactics.
Amy Goodman: And in China, the corporations that are involved with supplying China with this surveillance equipment that will be there long after the Olympics?
Naomi Klein: Exactly. This — you know, one of the things that I think people forget is that it’s actually illegal to sell police equipment to China. This was a law passed after Tiananmen Square, precisely to prevent American technology from being used for repressive purposes. And the Olympics have really been just this incredible opportunity for high-tech — American high-tech surveillance firms, because they’ve been able somehow to sell police equipment to China, very high-tech police equipment to China, not in the name of domestic policing, but in the name of securing an international sporting event, which of course is attended by the President of the United States, and nobody wants anything bad to happen to him. So, you know, in many ways, the Olympics have provided this backdoor way for all of this American technology and equipment, policing equipment, to flow into China.
And of course, as people like Sharon Hom, head of Human Rights in China, have been saying now for months, all of this equipment is staying in China after the Games. And it will be directed at many of the workers who Christian is talking about.
Amy Goodman: And the corporations involved?
Naomi Klein: Honeywell, IBM, General Electric, Google, Yahoo — I mean, we’ve heard about this. But in terms of building the surveillance state, one company to really watch is L1. They are doing the fingerprinting and iris scanning in the United States, and they’ve been selling this software to Chinese companies that are embedding it in their Golden Shield network.
As the rhetoric between Iran and Washington heats up once again, so have the ‘warden notices’ from the American Embassy in Kuwait been increasing in my inbox. They all basically say the same thing–telling Americans living abroad about recent perceived terrorist threats in the region and reminding US citizens to be aware of their surroundings at all times while eschewing congregations in public. The warnings come so often that it’s easy to become desensitized to the threat and just quickly delete the messages while moving on with life. But all it takes is a simple reminder, such as this week’s launch of a satellite test rocket by Iran, to put things into a dangerous perspective.
As an American living in the Middle East for the past 12 years, I have somewhat adapted to the continuous threats that are a part of daily life in the Gulf. The first I remember occurred right after September 11 when reports that a powdery white substance had been left at various American installations in Kuwait. They turned out to be bogus and not what they were suspected to be which was Anthrax. The second happened when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 and again Americans were told to either leave the country or create a ‘shelter’ in their home in the event of Iraq using the purported biological warfare and WMD’s that the U.S. convinced the world it possessed. The latest threat, which has gone on the longest and thankfully has not materialized as of yet, is what has been keeping me up at night.
Will they or won’t they? That’s the question on the tip of just about everyone’s tongue these days. Only time will tell if Iran will be attacked by the US or Israel because of their nuclear enrichment program. No one knows what Iran’s response will be, but President Ahmadinejad has promised that his country will attack any Gulf State that helps in an aggression against them. So, keeping a low profile is paramount for me as the Holy Month of Ramadan is set to commence in Kuwait.
I am pretty much the only American that I know of in my city. My children are the only Americans in their school, which has a complete English curriculum along with Islamic and Arabic courses. As a parent, I constantly worry about them each day as they head to school. Everyone, of course, knows they are American. However, when it comes to meeting new kids on a public playground or even talking to a waiter at a restaurant, I’ve told them to say they belong to a different nationality. The reason is again in line with keeping a low profile. There is a lot of hatred in the Gulf directed towards the American government for the continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And although I have always been treated well and with the utmost of hospitality while living in the Middle East I would much rather be safe than sorry.
For me, keeping a low profile means that I don’t always go to the fancy American grocery stores in Kuwait that carry my beloved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kraft Mac-n-Cheese. Instead I make do with the local grocery stores and the limited American brands they have on offer. It also means I am scrupulous when making new friends or giving out my contact info. This is the hardest as I am a ‘people person’ and have always been surrounded by friends. As a result of my guardedness, it takes me longer to make friends and the isolation creeps in fast. Thankfully, the Internet has proven to be my saving grace as I have ‘web buddies’ from all over the world.
Americans living in the Gulf enjoy many perks–like no taxes, cheap gas and high salaries–however it all comes with a hefty price tag. Safety and peace of mind are two commodities that are priceless.
[Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.]
Pervez Musharraf, the puppet installed by the US to rule Pakistan in the interest of US hegemony, resigned August 18 to avoid impeachment. Karl Rove and the Diebold electronic voting machines were unable to control the result of the last election in Pakistan, the result of which gave Pakistanis a bigger voice in their government than America’s.
It was obvious to anyone with any sense — which excludes the entire Bush Regime and almost all of the “foreign policy community” — that the illegal and gratuitous US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel’s 2006 bombing of Lebanon civilians with US blessing, would result in the overthrow of America’s Pakistani puppet.
The imbecilic Bush Regime ensured Musharraf’s overthrow by pressuring their puppet to conduct military operations against tribesmen in Pakistani border areas, whose loyalties were to fellow Muslims and not to American hegemony. When Musharraf’s military operations didn’t produce the desired result, the idiotic Americans began conducting their own military operations within Pakistan with bombs and missiles. This finished off Musharraf.
When the Bush Regime began its wars in the Middle East, I predicted, correctly, that Musharraf would be one victim. The American puppets in Egypt and Jordan may be the next to go.
Back during the Nixon years, my Ph.D. dissertation chairman, Warren Nutter, was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. One day in his Pentagon office I asked him how the US government got foreign governments to do what the US wanted. “Money,” he replied.
“You mean foreign aid?” I asked.
“No,” he replied, “we just buy the leaders with money.”
It wasn’t a policy he had implemented. He inherited it and, although the policy rankled with him, he could do nothing about it. Nutter believed in persuasion and that if you could not persuade people, you did not have a policy.
Nutter did not mean merely third world potentates were bought. He meant the leaders of England, France, Germany, Italy, all the allies everywhere were bought and paid for.
They were allies because they were paid. Consider Tony Blair. Blair’s own head of British intelligence told him that the Americans were fabricating the evidence to justify their already planned attack on Iraq. This was fine with Blair, and you can see why, with his multi-million dollar payoff once he was out of office.
The American-educated thug, Saakashkvili the War Criminal, who is president of Georgia, was installed by the US taxpayer funded National Endowment for Democracy, a neocon operation whose purpose is to ring Russia with US military bases, so that America can exert hegemony over Russia.
Every agreement that President Reagan made with Mikhail Gorbachev has been broken by Reagan’s successors. Reagan’s was the last American government whose foreign policy was not made by the Israeli-allied neoconservatives. During the Reagan years, the neocons made several runs at it, but each ended in disaster for Reagan, and he eventually drove them from his government.
Even the anti-Soviet Committee on the Present Danger regarded the neocons as dangerous lunatics. I remember the meeting when a member tried to bring the neocons into the committee, and old line American establishment representatives, such as former Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, hit the roof.
The Committee on the Present Danger regarded the neocons as crazy people who would get America into a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The neocons hated President Reagan, because he ended the cold war with diplomacy, when they desired a military victory over the Soviet Union.
Deprived of this, the neocons now want victory over Russia.
Today, Reagan is gone. The Republican Establishment is gone. There are no conservative power centers, only neoconservative power centers closely allied with Israel, which uses the billions of dollars funneled into Israeli coffers by US taxpayers to influence US elections and foreign policy.
The Republican candidate for president is a warmonger. There are no checks remaining in the Republican Party on the neocons’ proclivity for war. What Republican constituencies oppose war? Can anyone name one?
The Democrats are not much better, but they have some constituencies that are not enamored of war in order to establish US world hegemony. The Rapture Evangelicals, who fervently desire Armageddon, are not Democrats; nor are the brainwashed Brownshirts desperate to vent their frustrations by striking at someone, somewhere, anywhere.
I get emails from these Brownshirts and attest that their hate-filled ignorance is extraordinary. They are all Republicans, and yet they think they are conservatives. They have no idea who I am, but since I criticize the Bush Regime and America’s belligerent foreign policy, they think I am a “liberal commie pinko.”
The only literate sentence this legion of fools has ever managed is: “If you hate America so much, why don’t you move to Cuba!”
Such is the current state of a Reagan political appointee in today’s Republican Party. He is a “liberal commie pinko” who should move to Cuba.
The Republicans will get us into more wars. Indeed, they live for war. McCain is preaching war for 100 years. For these warmongers, it is like cheering for your home team. Win at all costs. They get a vicarious pleasure out of war. If the US has to tell lies in order to attack countries, what’s wrong with that? “If we don’t kill them over there, they will kill us over here.”
The mindlessness is total.
Nothing real issues from the American press, which is about demonizing Russia and Iran, about the vice presidential choices as if it matters, about whether Obama being on vacation let McCain score too many points.
The mindlessness of the news reflects the mindlessness of the government, for which it is a spokesperson.
The American media do not serve American democracy or American interests. They serve the few people who exercise power.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the US and Israel made a run at controlling Russia and the former constituent parts of its empire. For awhile the US and Israel succeeded, but Putin put a stop to it.
Recognizing that the US had no intention of keeping any of the agreements it had made with Gorbachev, Putin directed the Russian military budget to upgrading the Russian nuclear deterrent. Consequently, the Russian army and air force lack the smart weapons and electronics of the US military.
When the Russian army went into Georgia to rescue the Russians in South Ossetia from the destruction being inflicted upon them by the American puppet Saakashvili, the Russians made it clear that if they were opposed by American troops with smart weapons, they would deal with the threat with tactical nuclear weapons.
The Americans were the first to announce preemptive nuclear attack as their permissible war doctrine. Now the Russians have announced the tactical use of nuclear weapons as their response to American smart weapons.
It is obvious that American foreign policy, with its goal of ringing Russia with US military bases, is leading directly to nuclear war. Every American needs to realize this fact. The US government’s insane hegemonic foreign policy is a direct threat to life on the planet.
Russia has made no threats against America. The post-Soviet Russian government has sought to cooperate with the US and Europe. Russia has made it clear over and over that it is prepared to obey international law and treaties. It is the Americans who have thrown international law and treaties into the trash can, not the Russians.
In order to keep the billions of dollars in profits flowing to its contributors in the US military-security complex, the Bush Regime has rekindled the cold war. As American living standards decline and the prospects for university graduates deteriorate, “our” leaders in Washington commit us to a hundred years of war. If you desire to be poor, oppressed, and eventually vaporized in a nuclear war, vote Republican.
San Francisco–August 12–Curiously, with the crisis in Georgia (an Orthodox Christian country) raging last week, I was able to catch up with the first Post-Soviet high level Parliamentarian Delegation to this country from its overwhelmingly majority Turkic Muslim South Caucasus neighbor, Azerbaijan. A leading M.P., Asim Mollazada, gave a formal address on “Post-Soviet Azerbaijan: Progress Since Independence” with his colleagues sitting at his side.
The Consul-General from his government at Baku, Elin Sulyeymanoy, who is stationed in Los Angeles, said Moscow should draw back from its invasion of Georgia. Further, he stated that there were “many Azarbaijanis – citizen and non-citizen alike — who called [Georgian capital] Tiblsi their home.”
The Azerbaijan Parliament is celebrating its 90th year – it is the oldest in the Muslim world. Baku has been blessed with contemporary wealth in oil and gas.
Strangely Azerbaijan had adopted Western cultural forms from the earlier Russian Empire. This Westernization began before the Bolshevik Revolution (1918): for instance, consider the first full Symphony Orchestra (followed more recently by the first Jazz Band in Asia), both headquartered in the Azeri capital.
Even under Stalin’s regime, Azerbaijan has been able to develop a secular, democratic republic. Although Muslim by ancestry and tradition, personal expressions of Islamic identity have been dulled by decades of autocratic Soviet rule. Now there is barely a nominal individual and civic identification with Islam.
The Honorable Mr. Mollazzada was first elected to office in 2005, but formerly was the Director of Foreign Affairs for a previous administration; he now serves on Parliamentary Committees on External Policies.
The largest internal problems in Azerbaijan are with Armenia. Asim believes that the difficulties between these two nations (one Muslim; the other Armenian Orthodox) go back before the Soviet period – in fact among many Armenians there is a deep-seated hatred of Islam which is partially rooted in the use from ancient times of Armenians by Russians against the Ottoman Empire and the more recent pogroms against Armenians at the end of Ottoman rule.
Although an Islamic state, the Republic holds to a canon of ethnic and religious toleration. This principle evolved from the suffering of the peoples during the Soviet regime. Therefore, Mr. Mollarzada stated that “We are building a Democracy! Our goal is to join the European Union (EU) and its military wing — NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).”
The Azeris have already joined the Council of Europe. Mollarzada made an interesting statement, that “all former Soviet nations are making Western-style reforms, and Europe can do much in helping the C.I.S. (the Commonwealth of Independent States, an organization of the Republics of the former Soviet Union) achieve Democracy.”
This Muslim nation in the Southern Caucasus mountains bordering the Caspian Sea is quite rich in oil and gas. This is the reason they are close to the Georgians, for Azerbaijan’s pipeline goes through Georgia to its port on the Black Sea, and then on to Europe.
Regarding Georgia, he asserts, “We are brothers moving together…” Because of Europe’s prerequisite for [our] energy, a new trade system between East and West has developed. “This has increased the pace between the exchange of ideas.” This new dynamism for the acceptance of European views is accelerating. The Country has serious Challenges, though: The most perilous security threat to it is its Eastern neighbor, Armenia.
Yerevan’s (Armenia’s capital) central argument with Baku (Azerbaijan’s capital) is over Nargorno-Karabakh, that is nominally part of Azerbaijan but is in actuality an independent Republic due to Armenian influence.
Further, Azerbaijan wishes transit rights through Armenia to connect with Baku’s enclave of Narcian. Asim Mollarada is of the opinion that Armenia should join in partnership with Georgia and Baku in the Organization of Central Asian Republics. Because the Southern Caucasus republics are sandwiched between Iran and Russia, the Parliamentarian deems that that the United States should take more responsibility for its security.
Probably the most pressing predicament in the Caspian Sea region is that it is perhaps the most ecologically devastated zone in the world.
If Baku and its neighbors are to thrive, they must cleanse their environment as soon as possible!
As I write this column in mid-August, we are witnessing quite an amazing series of events in the U.S. The dollar is rallying despite the multi-billion dollar financial bailout schemes initiated by our Washington leaders, as unpaid liabilities in Social Security and Medicare obligations continue to ramp up. The domestic stock market is rallying regardless of bad underlying fundamentals. And while we are sending troops into a foreign country as an offset to forces already positioned there to defend interests of another nuclear power, Russia, oil and gold are headed ever lower!
Does any of this makes any sense at all? While none of it seems to mesh for me, Wall Street and the financial media find no shortage of justifying rationale to call all these events bullish for stocks. I do not share this enthusiasm, not only because their rationale makes no sense to me but also because these short-term trends and developments will, undoubtedly, not last very long. Let’s look more closely at what we’re hearing as justification for the dollar’s current rally. It seems that economic activity has slowed in Europe, meaning that its central bankers will elect to withhold raising interest rates any further, and they may decide to cut rates, as the U.S. has done, to combat recession.
We heard this past week that U.S. headline inflation is running at a 17-year high, and, with inflation raging around the world as well, why would central bankers think about cutting rates? And if they did, what support for their currency could be expected from the markets? Weren’t low interest rates, in large part, the cause of our inflationary environment in the first place?
Another popular rationale to explain the rising dollar is that America was first to see falling economic activity, with Europe and Asia following our lead. So, the logic goes, first in means first out. So that, I suppose, indicates that since our economy was the first to slow, we will be the first to enjoy a recovery.
That’s it? That is ample reason and justification to explain the rising dollar?! Wouldn’t that case be stronger if accompanied by something a little more substantial? Does this imply that the root cause of our economic woes, the cratering housing market, will rebound soon, in spite of the dismal Spring/Summer selling season, which shows sales ending as badly as they did last year?
To me and others who demand stronger cases for investors, the housing market shows no signs of rebounding any time soon. With lenders now demanding tough underwriting standards for potential borrowers, demand must, by definition, be lower than it was during the boom years. Add to that the difficulty owners find in selling a home and how many buyers must sell before they can buy another home. So what’s the real outlook there?
One realist who has been consistently right in his bearish predictions for housing is Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University. He made his case for the housing outlook in a recent interview published in Barrons Magazine. He contends that far larger losses are coming for investment banks and brokers due to the housing depression and losses in value for mortgage backed securities.
With big brokers needing to raise capital to offset their multi-billion dollar losses, much less money is available to fund economic growth plans. With so much money needed simply to cover massive losses on bank and broker balance sheets, how much will be left to lend to businesses looking to expand?
Next, let’s look at the automobile market. How much hope exists that any of our major domestic auto makers will survive in their present forms? Job losses have wrecked entire communities where workers have lost the last remaining high-paying manufacturing jobs. Overall, U.S. wages are still falling in real terms. So what will power consumer spending going forward?
And let’s not forget the falling job market, now that we’ve seen job losses every month so far this year. Which U.S. industries are poised to generate hundreds of thousands of job openings? In short, what rationale are we hearing that can be substantiated with solid evidence? Essentially, I hear no substantiation at all! Instead we are fed nonsense such as how we’ll automatically recover faster than other nations around the world, regardless of experiencing the worst economic developments in recent memory. If Professor Roubini is correct again — and he was right all along, while Wall Street tried to convince us that the entire mortgage mess would prove to be contained and would not affect the larger economy — conditions in this country are going to get a lot worse.
Roubini offers solid analytical work to justify his predictions, while Wall Street and the financial media offer us “flavor of the month” explanations. The justification we hear for any rally always seems to wither away as each new rally fades and fails. And fail those rallies will as the worst of the mortgage mess develops in coming months.
Even if market promoters were right in their view that our economy will recover first, so what? With the S&P 500 selling at premium valuations, how much upside potential exists? With other developed markets selling at much lower valuations, recession appears to be more appropriately priced into their shares of stocks. Not nearly so much can be said about valuations in the domestic market.
Of course, if the dollar rallies, if oil falls steeply in price, or if we see the Dow run up yet another one-day, 300-point rally, Wall Street will be quick to paint any of them as a good sign of things to come. We’ll hear that we have all the more reason to follow their lead and buy whatever stock appearing on their Super Duper Focus Must Buy in Bulk list for that morning.
Didn’t we see enough of that false enthusiasm during the bear market cycle in 2000 through 2002? With the stock market, as evidenced in the S&P 500, having earned investors nothing in real terms for the past decade, Wall Street is obviously in dire need of something resembling good news to keep investors in the game.
They’re very good at selling hope, but for investors, to what end? How many failed rallies in the past 10 years have been preceded by bullish pronouncements from big brokers, fund managers and anyone getting air time on CNBC?
Of course, they’re not about to tell us the truth if it means seeing the domestic stock market with little to propel it higher in coming weeks, months or years. And with that point so obvious, why do investors continue to listen to them and gobble their “flavor of the month” justification that the good times are here again?
Have a great week.
Bob
Bob Wood ChFC, CLU Yusuf Kadiwala. Registered Investment Advisors, KMA, Inc., invest@muslimobserver.com.
The removal of religious law from spiritual truths eventually leads to an adapting of the law to social mores and then a complete severing of the law from its spiritual intent. When Paul Bremer oversaw the provisional government of Iraq a few years ago he vetoed its use of the Sharia as part of the Western effort to remove the moral basis for societal conduct. The West seeks to promote moral relativism—the concept that there is no right and wrong—which in turn leads to conduct based upon what is legal and illegal rather than what is moral and ethical. The extent to which moral relativism has infiltrated the educational system and our societal fabric is explained in a book written by Tammy Bruce entitled, The Death of Right and Wrong.
Miss Bruce informs us that the educational system under the guise of sex education really teaches sexuality. It not only teaches about sex, but how to do it. Under the heading of Alternate Lifestyles it not only teaches lesbianism and homosexuality, but how to participate in it. Since there is no right and wrong sex becomes an object of pleasure, as do all things in a society that has no moral basis. Teaching children sexuality at an early age increases their sexual activity and results in teenage pregnancies, increased incidences of venereal disease, mental confusion and depression, and an increase in suicides among girls, which partially accounts for the World Health Organization reporting that the number one health issue in America is mental illness. Miss Bruce is a lesbian, but she considers her sexual orientation something personal and not to be taught to children. She is also the former head of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and a person of renown in the leftist liberal segment of American politics from which she has since distanced herself.
The Death of and Right and Wrong does not limit itself to sex education, but explains the non-judgmental viewpoint concerning all personal behavior and how all facets of the media assist in its promotion. It explains how criminals are set free and how the innocent suffer, and that religious teachings of any sort are an anathema to the leftist objective. It describes the move to consider children as adults and thus remove them from parental supervision. Miss Bruce, without realizing it, has shown that the Western culture is 180° out of phase with what is natural and spiritual. At present she is aware of these problems with the radical left, hopefully she will become aware of these same problems with the reactionary right.
Like most Westerners, Miss Bruce is limited by the feminine, European, materialistic, myopic vision; however, she has a brilliant mind that she has opened to a consideration of the viewpoints of others and I admire her for her ability to clear away much of the garbage of her materialistic education. Every person with family values will benefit from reading her documented first-hand description of the attack on values that are fundamental to the survival of the human race. The horror of her account is that it is happening on a daily basis with little resistance.
Elder George’s website is www.mensaction.net and he can be reached at 212-874-7900 ext. 1329.
Farmington–August 18–There is an overabundance of Muslim schools in Southeast Michigan. Every one of the large mosques in the area also has a companion school.
We intend to rate them here for the facility of our readers in choosing from among them, and also just to make it known that such facilities exist.
To begin with, we will describe two local schools in the Bloomfield area. The first of these is the Muslim Unity Center (Bloomfield) Sunday School. This is a Sunday-only program which currently has enrolled approximately 170 students.
According to its principal Hossam Musa (son of BMUC’s Imam Musa and also a hafiz Qur`an who sometimes leads tarawih prayers at BMUC), “We have Qur`an, Arabic, Islamic Studies.” It is a Sunday only program, and “we are doing well and always trying to improve,” he explained.
The BMUC Sunday school was established over ten years ago.
“It’s been there quite a while,” says Mr. Musa–”I’ve been there four years.”
The major Islamic school in the Southeast Michigan area is the Huda school. The price of the Huda school is approximately $6,000 per year, with financial aid and scholarships available on a case by case basis.
Musa, the principal of the BMUC Sunday School program, has also been a teacher at the Huda School for about 4 years.
“I am trying not to be biased but it ranks number one of all the mosque schools in the area.”
Huda is Pre-K through 8th grade. Students leave Huda to attend prestigious local high schools, such as Detroit Country Day, which is probably the best private school in the entire region.
“If you compare, says Mr. Musa, “Huda to those schools (which also have Pre-K through 8th grade classes), Detroit Country Day School costs approximately $27,000 per year and Huda is about $6,000.”
Musa explains that he judges the company by “its product,” which in this case are the students who leave Huda to compete favorably and even have a slight edge on their competitors from those prestigious schools.
“Our kids are known to perform at a slightly higher level,” he said.
ATLANTA,GA—Atlanta Muslims are elated with the opening of the area’s largest mosque this week. The Al Farooq Masjid cost more than $10 million to build and took more than ten years to complete. It is located in midtown near the neighborhood known as Home Park.
The 46,000 square-foot mosque has a minaret that’s nearly 150 feet high. The golden dome is 65-foot high and the main prayer hall can accomodate 1,100 people.
There are an estimated 80,000 Muslims in Atlanta and the city boasts of having 35 other mosques.
Muslim Advocates Announces New Accreditation Initiative With the Better Business Bureau
SAN FRANCISCO–Muslim Advocates, a legal and civic education organization, together with the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance today announced the launch of a new initiative to assist American-Muslim charitable organizations and nonprofits meet the highest standards of legal compliance, financial accountability and good governance. This initiative combines the experience of the Alliance, atrusted and independent charity evaluator, with the legal expertise of Muslim Advocates.
The initiative is part of a comprehensive community education campaign, led by Muslim Advocates, to strengthen the governance and legal compliance of American-Muslim charitable and nonprofit organizations.
“Charitable giving is not only an American tradition, but a religious obligation for many people of faith,” says Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates. “Muslim charities contribute to our nation and local communities through mosque-sponsored food drives, aiding victims of natural disasters, running community-based health clinics and numerous other activities. As the holy month of Ramadan begins in two weeks, American Muslims will be opening their wallets and doing their part to aid our fellow Americans and all those in need.”
“We couldn’t think of a better time to launch this initiative, and we’re thankful for the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance’s assistance,” Khera continued.
Since 2001, Muslim charities have been under intense scrutiny as the federal government has focused extensively on the community’s charitable institutions and their donors. Charities increasingly need guidance on how to meet these new challenges but frequently have limited resources or expertise to do so.
“Keeping our charitable sector strong and vibrant is our priority,” said Art Taylor, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance. “We’re pleased that Muslim Advocates has engaged us to begin this initiative and heartened by the level of interest from organizations in the American-Muslim community. The Alliance charity accountability standards are tough but reflect the interest and concerns of the donating public.”
Muslim Advocates and the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance will provide services free of charge to organizations that choose to participate in this initiative. These services will include:
— Assistance by a Muslim Advocates full-time staff attorney and their network of attorneys, accountants and other experts who will work with Muslim charities to assess their current practices, identify information needed for meaningful review by the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, and offer expert advice on how to meet the Alliance Standards for Charity Accountability.
— Evaluation by the Alliance to determine that an organization has met the 20 Standards of Charity Accountability (considered by many to be the toughest, most comprehensive governance and fiscal management standards in the nonprofit sector).
Muslim Advocates will also host a series of educational seminars for nonprofit leaders in eight cities across the United States, beginning this fall. These seminars will advise Muslim charities on a wide range of issues, including how to improve their governance, increase transparency, and ensure legal compliance with anti-terror financing laws and regulations.
“Many American-Muslim charitable organizations are already playing an active role in complying with our nation’s standards when it comes to charitable giving,” said Khera. “This new initiative with the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance provides an avenue for American-Muslim charities and nonprofit institutions to familiarize themselves with and adhere to the highest standards of governance and accountability while reassuring donors that resources are being directed toward their intended and stated purposes.”
Seven charities in the following metropolitan areas have agreed to take part in the evaluation and accreditation program: Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco and Cincinnati.
Wetlands mosque plan approved
WETLANDS,CT–The Inland Wetland and Watercourses Commission Wednesday approved the wetlands plans for a proposed mosque, the Record Journal reported.
The commission voted 5-1 to approve the Islamic mosque, being proposed by Tariq Farid, a founder of the locally headquartered franchise, Edible Arrangements. The mosque is still being reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission, which is considering potential traffic and parking problems. Farid is proposing a 2,550-square-foot mosque that would be constructed into an existing home at the site. Additions would be constructed at the rear of the home. The plan calls for 96 parking spaces.
Mosque controversy over parking space
SALT LAKE CITY—In an unfortunate development a brawl erupted last Friday over parking space at a Salt Lake City mosque. “It’s just a simple fight that broke out. It had to do with cars being double-parked and someone wanted to get out in a hurry … it’s just a simple thing that kind of got out of hand,” said Iqbal Hossain, one of the directors of the West Valley City Mosque.
The fight reportedly started with a conflict between a 26-year-old man and a juvenile. The 26-year-old had a box cutter, while another man allegedly took out a knife to defend the juvenile.
Register Your Foreign Trip Before Leaving USA : Most Knowledgeable Seminar of PCC-USA
“With the help of my able Executives, we have worked hard to implement our motto, which is GETIT, meaning Growth, Expansion, Training, Internationalism and Trade.” These were the words of Saeed Sheikh, President of the Pakistan Chamber of Commerce – USA (PCC-USA), as he welcomed everyone to the July Monthly Seminar of PCC-USA at a local Houston Restaurant. This Seminar was on the subject Travel & Commerce.
Panelists included Charles Perez, Assistant Port Director, Custom and Border Protection (CBPO); Phillip Danley, Chief CBPO; Saba Abashawl, Executive Officer, Houston Airport System; and Duaine Priestly, Director, U.S. Department of Commerce. The program coordinator was the young businessman Faisal Amin, who is Chairman of Seminars and Workshops for PCC-USA.
PCC-USA President Saeed Sheikh described the first-ever Pakistan Jewelry Expo coming to Houston in October, 2008, and work is underway in taking the State of Texas and the City of Houston Trade Delegations to Pakistan. He requested the cooperation of community members and all the four panelists to assist in welcoming the 50+ companies coming for this Expo. All four panelists promised to help as much as they could.
Mr. Sheikh added that no community can move forward without contributing towards the serenity, harmony and welfare of the society–and that is what PCC-USA is trying to do.
Duaine Priestly, Director of the US Department of Commerce, informed us that his department is dedicated to increasing exports, since there is a huge import-export deficit in the USA. He said when traveling to other countries, his department through USA consulates and embassies can assist in doing research on and finding the legitimacy of different companies overseas. Also, he explained, before going to any country for trade, US Citizens should register with his department and inform them about their where-abouts, so that the US Government can safeguard their interests.
Saba Abashawl, Executive Officer of the Houston Airport System informed us about the challenges faced at the 4th largest USA Airport–Houston; the Bush Intercontinental. She said no profiling occurs at the airport, but there are certain changes that the events of 9/11 prompted, which may be perceived as discriminatory, but he said they are not. “In order to better our service, we have got our personnel trained in cultural diversification.” She said the airport system comes under the City of Houston and Mayor Bill White is very keen to increase trade between Houston and the world. She said one of the most common mistakes people make when coming in to the airport for checking in for travel abroad is that they do not know the physical address of their destination, and that causes much delay.
Charles Perez and Phillip Danley of Customs and Border Protection informed us about the new Global Entry Program for the Trusted Travelers, who are frequent travelers and need to get expedited screening and processing. The Global Entry is a new pilot program managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection which allows pre-approved, low-risk travelers expedited clearance upon arrival into the United States.
Participants will enter the US by utilizing automated kiosks located at (1) Terminal 4 – John F. Kennedy International Airport; (2) Washington – Dulles International Airport; and (3) George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The process will require participants to present their machine-readable U.S. passport or permanent residency card, submit their fingerprints for biometric verification, and make a customs declaration at the kiosk’s touch-screen. Upon successful completion of the Global Entry process at the kiosk, the traveler will be issued a transaction receipt and directed to baggage claim and the exit, unless chosen for a selective or random secondary referral. More information can be received at: http://www.cbp.gov/
Atif Mohammad, Trade Development Officer at the Houston Consulate of Pakistan, attended the program together with the majority of the executives of PCC-USA and community entrepreneurs.
These 2008 monthly seminars are sponsored by Tara Energy and Sam’s Club (their official Khalid Khan was also present). To get regular information about the useful entrepreneurial programs of PCC-USA, one needs to become a member by paying only $50 for two years.
For more information, call President of PCC-USA Muhammad Saeed Sheikh at 281-948-1840.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a sharp turnaround, Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
McCain leads Obama among likely U.S. voters by 46 percent to 41 percent, wiping out Obama’s solid 7-point advantage in July and taking his first lead in the monthly Reuters/Zogby poll.
The reversal follows a month of attacks by McCain, who has questioned Obama’s experience, criticized his opposition to most new offshore oil drilling and mocked his overseas trip.
The poll was taken Thursday through Saturday as Obama wrapped up a weeklong vacation in Hawaii that ceded the political spotlight to McCain, who seized on Russia’s invasion of Georgia to emphasize his foreign policy views.
“There is no doubt the campaign to discredit Obama is paying off for McCain right now,” pollster John Zogby said. “This is a significant ebb for Obama.”
McCain now has a 9-point edge, 49 percent to 40 percent, over Obama on the critical question of who would be the best manager of the economy — an issue nearly half of voters said was their top concern in the November 4 presidential election.
That margin reversed Obama’s 4-point edge last month on the economy over McCain, an Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war who has admitted a lack of economic expertise and shows far greater interest in foreign and military policy.
McCain has been on the offensive against Obama during the last month over energy concerns, with polls showing strong majorities supporting his call for an expansion of offshore oil drilling as gasoline prices hover near $4 a gallon.
Obama had opposed new offshore drilling, but said recently he would support a limited expansion as part of a comprehensive energy program.
That was one of several recent policy shifts for Obama, as he positions himself for the general election battle. But Zogby said the changes could be taking a toll on Obama’s support, particularly among Democrats and self-described liberals.
“That hairline difference between nuance and what appears to be flip-flopping is hurting him with liberal voters,” Zogby said.
Obama’s support among Democrats fell 9 percentage points this month to 74 percent, while McCain has the backing of 81 percent of Republicans. Support for Obama, an Illinois senator, fell 12 percentage points among liberals, with 10 percent of liberals still undecided compared to 9 percent of conservatives.
Obama needs to work on base
“Conservatives were supposed to be the bigger problem for McCain,” Zogby said. “Obama still has work to do on his base. At this point McCain seems to be doing a better job with his.”
The dip in support for Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, cut across demographic and ideological lines. He slipped among Catholics, born-again Christians, women, independents and younger voters. He retained the support of more than 90 percent of black voters.
“There were no wild swings, there isn’t one group that is radically different than last month or even two months ago. It was just a steady decline for Obama across the board,” Zogby said.
Obama’s support among voters between the ages of 18 and 29, which had been one of his strengths, slipped 12 percentage points to 52 percent. McCain, who will turn 72 next week, was winning 40 percent of younger voters.
“Those are not the numbers Obama needs to win,” Zogby said about Americans under 30. The 47-year-old is counting on a strong turnout among young voters, a key bloc of support during his primary battle with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
It made little difference when independent candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr, who are both trying to add their names to state ballots.
McCain still held a 5-point edge over Obama, 44 percent to 39 percent, when all four names were included. Barr earned 3 percent and Nader 2 percent.
Most national polls have given Obama a narrow lead over McCain throughout the summer. In the Reuters/Zogby poll, Obama had a 5-point lead in June, shortly after he clinched the Democratic nomination, and an 8-point lead on McCain in May.
The telephone poll of 1,089 likely voters had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The poll was taken as both candidates head into their nominating conventions and the announcements of their choices of vice presidential picks. The Democratic convention begins on Monday in Denver, with the Republican convention opening the next Monday, September 1, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
(Editing by Patricia Wilson and Patricia Zengerle)
