That’s a real shameful way of providing so called chance to defend in front of the court. You cannot have your own lawyers, body search cannot be relaxed for a feeble ,90 lbs lady who was shot and tortured by USA security forces.

We protest on the injustice being done with Dr. Aafia by USA courts.

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US judge rejects Aafia’s objections to her

defence attorneys

by The Nation

Source : http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/04-Nov-2009/US-judge-rejects-Aafias-objections-to-her-defence-attorneys

A federal judge, setting aide Aafia Siddiqui’s objections over her legal defence team at a pre-trial session, has ruled that she would have to be represented by the lawyers who have already been approved by the US District Court.Ms. Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist is scheduled to stand trial on January 19 for the attempted murder of U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan last year, after Judge Richard Berman declared her mentally fit to face court proceedings.The neroscientist argued before Judge Berman on Tuesday that she does not need the three lawyers retained by the Pakistan government to defend her, saying she wanted to make peace and knew how to do it. She made that plea at what is called “Status Conference” which is held to clear the decks for a trial. The session involved Judge Berman, Ms. Siddiqui, her defence team and the prosecutors. The lawyers, retained by the government of Pakistan, are: Ms. Linda Moreno, Ms. Elaine Sharp and Charles Swift. They were cleared by the court on September 2. The judge briefed the conference on his discussions with Ms. Siddiqui at a 1-1/2-hour closed-door session in which her lawyers were also present. He also said Ms. Siddiqui expressed her outrage at the humiliating strip search she has to undergo before coming to the court. Reacting to her protest, the judge said he had ordered the prison authorities to find a way so that she does not have to go through the tough procedure. While the judge said it was necessary for her to be in the court, she could participate through video-conference if the body search requirement could not be relaxed.

The world has not yet come out of the medieval suppression when people either got killed or get imprisoned for life if they are found guilty for exercising their freedom and criticize the monarchs but this time it has taken a leap and taken a new form of national security policies.

Secret agencies in the name of national security can suppress anyone’s rights and freedom.

Civil society in USA should take a serious note of these events where innocent people like
Dr. Aafia and her children or old journalists like Nayyar Zaidi become easy targets of the
parallel governments in the for security agencies. The prime reasons are similar in these cases
either speaking for justice, belonging to particular race or religion or it can be the case
of just fitting in the profile.

Recent event is of an Indian blogger who was jailed for just making anti-bush remarks over the
internet.

Vikram with a highly educated background was pursuing PhD in cancer research and holds an
excellent academic record.

Civil society and human rights organizations of the world particularly of USA should
demand justice for these victims.

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Student jailed indefinitely over alleged anti-Bush remark

Report by Russia Today

Source: http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-10-15/indian-student-jail-bush.html

Internet crime is rapidly becoming a major focus for authorities around the world, but the case of an Indian student, jailed in the US nearly three years ago, is being seen as a major test of human rights in the country.

He was locked up for allegedly threatening the American president George W. Bush via his internet blog.

Before ending up in prison in 2006, Vikram Buddhi was an award-winning student at Purdue University in the United States, pursuing a double PhD in cancer research. His parents in India have been trying to prove his innocence for over three years.

“On February 3, 2006, the Secret Service made a formal report saying Vikram Buddhi is not a threat to the US President or any Secret Service protectees,” says the student’s father Dr. Buddhi Kota Subbarao. “Suddenly, on April 14, they arrest him. There is no new development between these dates. So having said he’s not a threat, how he could become a threat in April 2006?”

Dr. Subbarao is a retired Navy captain and nuclear scientist. His son was eventually found guilty formally, in 2007, of threatening the US President. However, the length of sentence has still not been announced and, without that, the family cannot appeal. Dr. Subbarao believes the entire trial was a miscarriage of justice.

Dr. Subbarao and his son

“The jury was not informed of the law, the defense attorney was told to shut up, and the jury’s questions explaining their confusion – the judge didn’t want to clear the confusion, so the jury got fed up and said guilty,” goes on Dr. Subbarao, “So all these show the trial is unfair, a mistrial must be declared.”

Vikram, 37, is accused of starting a web discussion, calling on Iraqis to take revenge on the US by attacking President George W. Bush. Vikram’s supporters believe he is innocent, because the internet trail does not prove he posted the message.

“He’s been accused of threatening to kill President Bush. How did he threaten – did he buy a weapon, did he write a letter ‘I want to kill you’, did he buy a ticket to Washington DC? What did he do?” demands the student’s lawyer Somnath Bharti.

In fact, Vikram’s family believes that he was targeted because a few months earlier he had publicly spoken out against possible racial discrimination at Indiana’s Purdue University. Vikram defended the case of a black student who was expelled for cheating, by highlighting the fact that three white students, guilty of the same act, were not.

Lawyer Somnath Bharti is sure that “Vikram is an outstanding student who stood against injustice, somebody who speaks up, and such people are not liked.”

Meanwhile, teachers and students of the elite Indian Institute of Technology are demanding the release of Vikram, a former student. They want the Indian government to put pressure on the American administration to look at the legality of the trial.

“The government has done nothing for this boy. Even the basic minimum that should have been done for an Indian citizen who is an alien abroad,” points out student Vijaya M.J. “We’re actually dealing with the US which is supposed to be a friendly country right now. When we have [Barack] Obama and Manmohan [Singh, Indian Prime Minister] shaking hands, and one of our students, completely in an unjust way being arrested and jailed in the US is completely unacceptable.”

They argue web postings are protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution that defends the right to freedom of speech.

“Even though so much is written about the rule of law and freedom of speech, [Americans] in fact live in a great deal of fear. Not only from terrorists, but also from their own security departments. Now, anybody who says anything about the American [president] will face the same fate,” Dr. Subbarao says.

What started out as two concerned parents demanding justice for their son is fast becoming an important precedent for the very nature of free speech in contemporary America. For a nation that prides itself on basic human rights and often lectures those who do not comply, it could soon face tough questions over its own laws of liberty.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwfzKX1Uu4s&feature=player_embedded

Sunday, November 01, 2009
ISLAMABAD: A joint protest meeting will be held at the National Press Club (NPC), Islamabad on November 3 at 3 pm against the emergency and ban imposed on media two years back and against the proposed restrictions on the electronic media by the Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists, the National Press Club and the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).

“November 3 will be observed every year as Black Day, as the military dictator had banned all the TV channels and enforced black laws in the country,” the NPC said in a press release.

The meeting will also discuss and draw course of action against the proposed recommendation to impose restrictions on the media, including ban on live coverage and restrictions on programmes. There is a move to revive the “Musharraf’s black media laws,” it said.

Leaders of the PFUJ, RIUJ, NPC, bar associations, civil society and representative of cross-section of society will address the meeting to pay tribute to the people who resisted. On November 3, 2007 following the promulgation of emergency in the country, the then government enforced the Pemra amended Ordinance, 2007 under which all private TV channels and FM radios were banned.

The journalists community, under the banner of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), had launched a historic 76 days of struggle during which over 200 journalists were detained and cases were registered against the PFUJ and journalists.

In Islamabad, the RIUJ set up a protest camp, which continued for all 76 days outside the Press Club camp office at Melody. “If the government wants to test our nerves again, we are ready to face the democrats,” the NPC said.

Source :http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=206239

If you have killed hundreds of people, involved in billions of rupees corruption or involved in any major or minor crime you just need to become a part of a filthy ruling cult and you will get indemnity from all you have done and will do in future.

That’s what this so called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is.
NRO, a draconian law which was introduced by a dictator who twice abrogated the constitution and committed high treason.

The sole purpose for this law was to ensure power sharing between new imperialist pets of Pakistan Feudal Party (so called Pakistan Peoples Party,PPP) and American pet dictator Musharraf and in case if Musharraf has to leave the stage then the NRO deal will convert into NRO-Safe Exit deal.

In this turbulence time of our self grown crises with the assistance of dollar masters our country will further go into trouble as this draconian law will destroy the already weakened concepts of justice and equality within our society.

This will allow the ruling elite to do more loot and plunder of our nation and go scot-free.

The cabinet of so called democratic government and standing committee of so called law and justice has approved it and now the government has planned to put it in front of the parliament.

A new game of numbers, image building, bargaining and hypocrisy will start and Allah knows what will come out of it as a result.

Imran Khan has already shown his intention that if NRO gets approved from parliament then he is going to challenge it in Supreme Court which has already shown signs of giving a judicial review in case they find it against the spirit of our constitution and human rights (which you can easily judge it is).

Aitzaz Ahsan, former SCBA president and senior but sidelined member of PPP has also said that SC has the right to review and reject NRO if it finds against the basic human rights.

Recent attacks on civilians are not only horrible but highly condemnable but with all the condemnation and anger we need to sort out the real problems which have become the real cause of this mess.

The terrorist activities in Pakistan are a result of capitalist-imperialism, greed of
our leaders, absence of justice and lack of accountability of our institutions.

If we think that few thousand Talibans ( with all the disagreements and agreements with wrongs and rights of their system) or some other force can rule us then it means we
are admitting that our state structure is garbage and if you are talking about changing the culture or ideology by force…No chance.

The terrorist activities can mainly be categorized as:

1) Revenge of the innocent killings by our forces here and Allied forces in Afghanistan.Also
our support in the form of giving supply route to NATO supplies and Drone attacks are playing it’s part as well.
2) Revenge and anger exploited by enemies of Pakistan but its our fault we are providing them the ground to play with.
3) Attacks like on Shariah academy,Peshawar and Benazir were done by players of weapon-blood-dollar game which includes enemies of Pakistan who want us to remain engaged in the war (so called allies in the so called war against terror) and their pets in our own ranks (politicians, military and civil establishment etc).

The only solution is to bring system of justice, re-establishment of tribal institutions and accountability of institutions and leaders to fix the internal problems.

As far as the external part of the solution we need to tell USA and NATO to get out from Afghanistan and end this baseless war and if they don’t we need to come out of this war on our own, stop NATO supplies from Pakistan, stop Drone attacks by any means and convey the Pros of peace and Cons of this war to the the rest of the world.

ISLAMABAD – Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan said Friday that the incumbent rulers were beneficiaries of the NRO, adding that the nation was waiting for the Parliament’s decision on the ordinance.
While talking to media persons after a discussion forum over the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) organized by PTI’s Womens Wing, Khan said that the Ordinance was promulgated to protect those who looted national wealth and committed crimes against the nation. He also announced that he would challenge the ordinance in the Supreme Court.
Khan also said that he could not understand the politics of PML-N, saying even the media could not understand the same. He also said that it was not the PML-N but the people of the country who got the judiciary reinstated.
The PTI Chief opposed the ongoing operation in South Waziristan Agency, and said that the security situation had further deteriorated after each military operation. He stressed for differentiating between the good and bad Taliban, saying how could Pakistan not talk to the Taliban when the US government was allocating funds for them.
Khan said that the February 18, 2008 elections gave birth to a slavish government that was destroying the country to secure dollars from USA. “How can it be our own war when the US government is funding its expenditures”, he questioned. He further said that the Army should not fight against our own people but the government should opt for a political solution of the problem. “Tribal people who once fought shoulder to shoulder with the Army are now combating our own troops”, Khan regretted.

Khan also quoted former Governor NWFP as saying that the US always sabotaged Pakistan’s bid to bring peace through dialogue in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He said he never denied the presence of extremists and militants in Pakistan but he always objected the way government dealt with the issue. He also said that he was not against any nation but opposed policies of certain Western governments.
In response to a query, the PTI Chief said that the NRO protected looters and dacoits, adding that people would come out one day on the streets to hold the rulers accountable for their money.
Chairperson PTI Women Wing Fozia Qasuri also spoke on the occasion. She said that PTI would come in power through welfare work and that politics was not left only to thieves and dacoits. She said that the incumbent government had added to the problems of the people.

Source:http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/31-Oct-2009/Imran-criticises-NRO-govts-US-policy/1

It’s good to see someone on the political scene has some sense what our real needs are.

Here is a video regarding the Namal University project started by former Pakistan Cricket Captain and PTI Chief Imran Khan who also founded Pakistan’s first specialized Cancer hospital Shaukat Khanam Memorial Cancer Hospital.

Source and remaining part of the program:
http://www.siasat.pk/forum/namal-university-documentary-imran-khan-must-watch-t11843.html

Here is a real thought provoking article for people who want to know how capitalism expands by creating enemies from no where, create a monster out of it, start a hunt for it and then expand it’s hold on the desired areas in the name of fighting the evil.

We are seeing it in US lead so called war against terror and now India is using the same idea against Maoists.

I think civil society in India should learn from a real horrible experience through which Pakistanis are going due to capitalist-imperialism.
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Mr Chidambaram’s War

By Arundhati Roy

The low, flat-topped hills of south Orissa have been home to the Dongria Kondh long before there was a country called India or a state called Orissa. The hills watched over the Kondh. The Kondh watched over the hills and worshipped them as living deities. Now these hills have been sold for the bauxite they contain.

Perhaps the Kondh are supposed to be grateful that their Niyamgiri hill, home to Niyam Raja, their ‘god of universal law’, has been sold to a company with a name like Vedanta (the branch of Hindu philosophy that teaches the Ultimate Nature of Knowledge).

It’s one of the biggest mining corporations in the world and is owned by Anil Aggarwal, the Indian billionaire who lives in London in a mansion that once belonged to the Shah of Iran. Vedanta is only one of the many multinational corporations closing in on Orissa.

If the flat-topped hills are destroyed, the forests that clothe them will be destroyed too. So will the rivers and streams that flow out of them and irrigate the plains below. So will the Dongria Kondh. So will the hundreds of thousands of tribal people who live in the forested heart of India, and whose homeland is similarly under attack.

In our smoky, crowded cities, some people say, ‘So what? Someone has to pay the price of progress.’ Some even say, ‘Let’s face it, these are people whose time has come. Look at any developed country, Europe, the US, Australia — they all have a ‘past’.’

Indeed they do. So why shouldn’t ‘we’? In keeping with this line of thought, the government has announced Operation Green Hunt, a war purportedly against the ‘Maoist’ rebels headquartered in the jungles of central India.

Of course, the Maoists are by no means the only ones rebelling. There is a whole spectrum of struggles all over the country that people are engaged in — the landless, the Dalits, the homeless, workers, peasants, weavers.

They’re pitted against a juggernaut of injustices, including policies that allow a wholesale corporate takeover of people’s land and resources. However, it is the Maoists who the government has singled out as being the biggest threat.

Two years ago, when things were nowhere near as bad as they are now, the prime minister described the Maoists as the ‘single-largest internal security threat’ to the country.

This will probably go down as the most popular and often-repeated thing he ever said. For some reason, the comment he made on January 6, 2009, at a meeting of state chief ministers, when he described the Maoists as having only ‘modest capabilities’ doesn’t seem to have had the same raw appeal.

He revealed his government’s real concern on June 18, 2009, when he told parliament: ‘If left-wing extremism continues to flourish in parts which have natural resources of minerals, the climate for investment would certainly be affected.’

At current market rates, the minerals in the region have been valued not in millions but in trillions of dollars.

Right now in central India, the Maoists’ guerrilla army is made up almost entirely of desperately poor tribal people living in conditions of such chronic hunger that it verges on famine of the kind we only associate with sub-Saharan Africa.

They are people who, even after 60 years of India’s so-called independence, have not had access to education, healthcare or legal redress. They are people who have been mercilessly exploited for decades, consistently cheated by small businessmen and moneylenders, the women raped as a matter of right by police and forest department personnel.

Their journey back to a semblance of dignity is due in large part to the Maoist cadre who have lived and worked and fought by their side for decades.

If the tribals have taken up arms, they have done so because a government which has given them nothing but violence and neglect now wants to snatch away the last thing they have — their land. Clearly, they do not believe the government when it says it only wants to ‘develop’ their region.

Clearly, they do not believe that the roads as wide and flat as aircraft runways that are being built through their forests in Dantewada by the National Mineral Development Corporation are being built for them to walk their children to school on. They believe that if they do not fight for their land, they will be annihilated. That is why they have taken up arms.

MoUist corridor
The forest once known as the Dandakaranya, which stretches from West Bengal through Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, parts of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, is home to millions of India’s tribal people.

The media has taken to calling it the Red corridor or the Maoist corridor. It could just as accurately be called the MoUist corridor. It doesn’t seem to matter at all that the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution provides protection to adivasi people and disallows the alienation of their land.

It looks as though the clause is there only to make the Constitution look good — a bit of window-dressing, a slash of make-up. Scores of corporations, from relatively unknown ones to the biggest mining companies and steel manufacturers in the world, are in the fray to appropriate adivasi homelands — the Mittals, Jindals, Tata, Essar, Posco, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and, of course, Vedanta.There’s an MoU on every mountain, river and forest glade.

We’re talking about social and environmental engineering on an unimaginable scale. And most of this is secret. It’s not in the public domain. Somehow I don’t think that the plans that are afoot to destroy one of the world’s most pristine forests and ecosystems, as well as the people who live in it, will be discussed at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Our 24-hour news channels that are so busy hunting for macabre stories of Maoist violence — and making them up when they run out of the real thing — seem to have no interest at all in this side of the story. I wonder why?

Perhaps it’s because the development lobby to which they are so much in thrall says the mining industry will ratchet up the rate of GDP growth dramatically and provide employment to the people it displaces. This does not take into account the catastrophic costs of environmental damage. But even on its own narrow terms, it is simply untrue.

Most of the money goes into the bank accounts of the mining corporations. Less than 10 per cent comes to the public exchequer. A very tiny percentage of the displaced people get jobs, and those who do, earn slave-wages to do humiliating, backbreaking work.

By caving in to this paroxysm of greed, we are bolstering other countries’ economies with our ecology. The mining companies desperately need this ‘war’. It’s an old technique. They hope the impact of the violence will drive out the people who have so far managed to resist the attempts that have been made to evict them.

Whether this will indeed be the outcome, or whether it’ll simply swell the ranks of the Maoists remains to be seen.

The real problem is that the flagship of India’s miraculous ‘growth’ story has run aground. It came at a huge social and environmental cost. And now, as the rivers dry up and forests disappear, as the water table recedes and as people realise what is being done to them, the chickens are coming home to roost.

All over the country, there’s unrest, there are protests by people refusing to give up their land and their access to resources, refusing to believe false promises any more. Suddenly, it’s beginning to look as though the 10 per cent growth rate and democracy are mutually incompatible.

Militarisation
To get the bauxite out of the flat-topped hills, to get iron ore out from under the forest floor, to get 85 per cent of India’s people off their land and into the cities (which is what Home Minister Chidambaram says he’d like to see), India has to become a police state.

The government has to militarise. To justify that militarisation, it needs an enemy. The Maoists are that enemy. They are to corporate fundamentalists what the Muslims are to Hindu fundamentalists. (Is there a fraternity of fundamentalists? Is that why the RSS has expressed open admiration for Mr Chidambaram?)

It would be a grave mistake to imagine that the paramilitary troops, the Rajnandgaon air base, the Bilaspur brigade headquarters, the Unlawful Activities Act, the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and Operation Green Hunt are all being put in place just to flush out a few thousand Maoists from the forests.

In all the talk of Operation Green Hunt, whether or not Mr Chidambaram goes ahead and ‘presses the button’, I detect the kernel of a coming state of emergency. (Here’s a math question: If it takes 600,000 soldiers to hold down the tiny valley of Kashmir, how many will it take to contain the mounting rage of hundreds of millions of people?)

Instead of narco-analysing Kobad Gandhy, the recently arrested Maoist leader, it might be a better idea to talk to him.

In the meanwhile, will someone who’s going to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year please ask the only question worth asking: Can we leave the bauxite in the mountain?

Source:http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/12-mr+chidambarams+war–bi-11

Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JuSjCxVq_w

10/29/09 1321 hours
Sana Aijazi

Peshawar: Fomer CIA Intelligence Officer Steven Cash is in charge of Blackwater operations in Peshawar. The Blackwater supervisory team in Peshawar includes James Bill William, Copper, Steven Cash, Roderick Christopher and Alisha Cambel.

They have hired several Pakistani government officials and retired army personnel at remunerations as high as $2,000 per day. Various journalists have been approached and offered bribes by these officials to implement the PSYOPs in newspapers and electronic media in Pakistan. They are pushing journalists to publish news stories of Talibans, as the Psychological Operations group of US Army has planned.

They are paying as high as $1000 per published news story to journalists. Meetings are held in various houses rented in University Town, Peshawar and residents have reported activities with tinted glasses jeeps during late night hours.

Steven Cash is a former senior U.S. government official. Mr. Cash served as an Intelligence Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, first as an Assistant General Counsel, and then with the Directorate of Operations. He also served as Chief Counsel to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, and as Minority Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security. From 2001 to 2003 he was a Professional Staff Member and Counsel for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Source:http://sana.aijazi.com/former-cia-intelligence-officer-in-charge-of-blackwater-in-peshawar/