NATO, Pakistan and the Taliban

Since the US elections, there seems to have been an increase in the amount of criticism of the War on Terror coming out of Asia. Reporting that NATO's ISAF Commander, General David Richards, is currently in Islamabad, the Asian Tribune joins the growing chorus with an article on NATO facing defeat in Afghanistan. The Tribune identifies the main problem facing the US and NATO in Afghanistan as Pakistani support for the Taliban. Indeed, the article sees the Pakistani surrender in the Waziri Accord as a possible precursor to a series of similar deals with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Certainly there must be a strong possibility that the forthcoming jirgas will move in that direction.

...how have the Taliban, considered five years ago to be on route to extinction, regrouped and emerged much stronger than anyone could have thought? The answer is clear: with the help of Pakistan, especially its army’s intelligence network called the Inter Services Intelligence, which had initially raised the Taliban with generous gift of arms from the US and sacks of Saudi money. Every military commander who has served in Afghanistan affirms that insurgency in that country would not have been possible without help from Pakistan. Western intelligence reports say so; the entire strategic community in the West thinks so and, not the least, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has any doubt about it.

The evidence of Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan’s troubles must be so overwhelming that at times even die-hard Musharraf fans in Washington are obliged to tell the latter on his face that he need to do ‘more’ in the fight against terrorism. Musharraf’s stock retort that ‘nobody has done more than Pakistan’ in this fight has not helped him much because the more he repeats this line the more it will become evident that he had to do whatever he did because the terrorists are concentrated in his country. The world is also now alive to the reality that nearly all the major terrorist acts carry a distinct Pakistani stamp. For terrorist around the world a visit to a Pakistani training camp is like a pilgrim’s journey to a holy place.

Yet, western leaders like Bush would not act tough with Musharraf publicly because they have presumed that they would not be able to find another Pakistani poodle. They do not appear to bother about the baleful effect of their double standards in treating Musharraf as the solution while knowing full well that he is the problem.

Musharraf recently struck a deal with the Taliban in the North Waziristan region after he realised that his military does not have the will to fight them. He presented his agreement with the North Waziristan Taliban as a great political feat that would ensure ‘peace’ in the region. Nearly everyone in the world, including Western intelligence agencies and politicians, disagreed with what Musharraf said. Bush lost no time in ratifying this fiction when Musharraf was on a book promotion tour of the White House.

An emboldened Musharraf is now urging his American patrons to urge Karzai to strike a similar deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He has been telling captive audiences that his strategy in Waziristan has proved to be a ‘success’ as it has helped him win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Taliban. He is certainly right for a change: his new ‘strategy’ in North Waziristan has resulted in a three-fold attack by the Taliban inside Afghanistan not on Pakistani targets.

Karzai is opposed to Musharraf’s recipe for solving the Taliban problem, at least for now. But Musharraf would not give up and go on pressurising Washington to make Karzai change his mind. After all Pakistan had taken on the role of raising and nurturing the Taliban back in the 1980s not only to install a puppet government in Afghanistan but to achieve a ‘strategic depth’ in its West to carry out its aggressive designs on its eastern borders with India. A moot question is will President Bush, whose Iraqi policy became an albatross for the Republican party in the latest Congressional elections, go along with Musharraf.

Tags: Afghanistan, ISAF, NATO, Pakistan, Talbian

India and the Taliban.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is in India, attending an economic conference with the aim of attracting investment to his country. Writing in Rediff News M K Bhadrakumar is not impressed by the "hype" surrounding the conference and compares it to "Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark", with the major players staying away. It is, Bhadrakumar argues, a missed opportunity for India to reassert its traditional policy in Afghanistan and withdraw from the War on Terror. Political accommodation with the Taliban is an essential part of any settlement and, in getting dragged into the conflict with the Taliban, India is getting drawn into Afghanistan's fratricidal conflict, thereby giving Pakistan opportunities which it has exploited. To begin to rectify this,

At the conference, therefore, India must revert to its exclusive focus on people-to-people relations and our economic, cultural and historical bonds with the Afghan people. Second, Delhi must resist the temptation to be drawn back into a zero-sum game with Islamabad vis-a-vis the Afghan problem.

As it is, Indo-Pak differences are not lacking in variety. Our triumphalism over the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001 was untimely; our certainty over the inexorable loss of Pakistani influence in post-Taliban Kabul was plain unrealistic (by the dictates of geography, ethnicity and geopolitics); our exhibitionism in maintaining four consulates and a full-fledged embassy in a tiny country such as Afghanistan was simply incomprehensible.

We must visualise that ultimately, Islamabad is involved in a wasteful extravaganza, conjuring up grand visions of 'controlling' Afghanistan. After all, it took only three months for the Afghan interim government in Kabul that followed the Mujahideen takeover in 1992, to reach out to Delhi as a counter to Pakistan's hegemony.

There are signs galore already that Islamabad cannot be prescriptive or selective toward Kabul on what constitutes good-neighbourliness. Clearly, Afghans resent Pakistani interference and there is growing international awareness of Pakistan's diabolical role.

We would also do well to take note that in all these years of mutual acrimony, despite India's overt and covert indulgence in activities aimed at bleeding the Taliban, the latter never ever carried the fight to Indian soil.

In a nutshell, the Taliban's message to Delhi has consistently been: 'Leave us alone, stay out of our domestic problems'.

Lastly, it is abundantly clear by now that no tangential gains will accrue to the US-Indian strategic partnership by virtue of Delhi soldiering in the war in Afghanistan. Indeed, Washington itself is caught up in a time warp and a conceptual impasse over what constitutes the 'war on terror'.

Tags: Afghanistan, India, War on Terror

Tackling domestic terrorism: a Jewish perspective.

In the wake of Eliza Manningham-Buller's (head of MI5) speech this week, the Jewish Press makes some interesting observations on the west's reactions to the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Dame Manningham-Buller’s comments came as some startling statistics about ongoing Muslim terrorism in France seeped into the mainstream media. Reuters reported that in the first six months of 2006, some 21,000 cars were burnt and 2,882 attacks against police, fire and ambulance services were logged. France is under constant attack from segments of its five-million-strong Muslim population. And it continues unabated and largely unchecked.

What is happening in Britain and France cannot be viewed within the prism of traditional law enforcement. Plainly, something new is in play. We need to recognize that conventional notions of civil liberties no longer work. Perhaps Mr. Bush has to reconsider some of what he has urged in the past. But it seems more urgent that his critics take a long, hard look at the situation as it exists in what’s becoming a scarier world by the day.

Tags: Manningham-Buller, MI5, Terrorism, War on Terror

New weapons for the Royal Marines.

From December, British troops in Afghanistan are to be armed with Automatic Lightweight Grenade Launchers. The Ministry of Defence is waxing lyrical about the effectiveness of the weapon. A Colonel Alec Bain, said,

"The Royal Marines who will be receiving them have already been trained on the weapons, and are looking forward to getting their hands on them.

"They will be force protection systems which can be used day and night. They will be used predominantly on the back of Wimik Land Rovers, but they can also be tripod mounted for ground use."

Let us hope that they are as effective in protecting the troops and saving lives as the MoD's rhetoric seems to claim.

Tags: Afghanistan, Defence

Professor Southall 3:

Nothing new showing on Google News about Professor David Southall's disciplinary earning before the General Medical Council. However, I can add some further context to add to yesterday's post.

John Hemming, MP, is, quite rightly, being critical of the GMC for preventing five families involved in the case from speaking to the press. Hemming provides a link to the website of Lawrence Alexander. Alexander writes of,

...my parents being falsely accused of harming me and faking illness and my being subjected to, in my view, harmful and dangerous research by "world cot death expert" Professor David Southall when I was a baby, using his "state of the art" equipment.

Alexander is keeping a comprehensive database of press reports. I am sure that most people will wish him luck in his battle with the GMC.

The research referred to by both Hemming and Alexander appears to be Southall's so-called pioneering work, in an eight year study, with video surveillance in hospitals. From the BBC in 2004:

Professor Southall pioneered the use of covert video surveillance to detect cases of Munchausen's.

The eight-year study, which started in 1986, found that youngsters aged between two months and 44 months were being deliberately injured in cruel and sadistic attacks by their parents or step parents while in hospital.

The most common method of abuse was suffocation, but deliberate fractures and poisoning were also uncovered by CVS.

Following detection of the abuse, 23 parents or step-parents of the 39 children identified as at risk by doctors, social workers and psychiatrists, were found to be suffering from the attention-seeking disorder Munchausen's.

But despite Professor Southall, himself a father of four, being praised by a judge following a successful court action against one abusive mother, his efforts raised difficult ethical issues and sparked an angry response from parents.

Some parents complained that the hospitals involved - the Royal Brompton, in London, and the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, Stoke-on-Trent - were operating a policy of entrapment.

Covert filming led to a total of 33 parents or step-parents being prosecuted.

Seven complaints, believed to relate to cases where children were removed from families after Professor Southall diagnosed Munchausen's, are due to be heard by the GMC in January.

His research into CNEP ventilators at North Staffordshire has also provoked intense scrutiny because parents claimed they did not give consent to their children taking part in the trial and they claim their signatures were forged.

That is a lot of grief and suffering for a lot of probably innocent people, all caused by an epistemologically arrogant medical profession.

Tags: Child murder, false accusations, medical, Professor Southall

The world according to R. Fisk.

Not many people know that, in the Lebanon, Hezbollah is defending UN forces (which are really NATO forces), from attacks by al-Qaeda and at the same time, UN (NATO) forces are defending Israel from attacks by Hezbollah. The Israelis, defended by the Americans, attack everyone.

You will only know these things if you read Robert Fisk in the Independent.

Tags: Fisk, Lebanon, Middle East

British Shatt Al-Arab casualites named. (updated)

The names of the four most recent British armed forces' fatalities in Iraq have been released by the Ministry of Defence. The MoD site has short obituaries, and tributes from their commanding offiers. The deceased are:

Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott from Ipswich: Daily Mail; Evening Star

Warrant Officer Class 2 Lee Hopkins from Wellingborough: Evening Telegraph;

Marine Jason Hylton from Burton-on Trent: BBC;

Corporal Ben Nowak from Liverpool: BBC; The Age: icLiverpool.

Also: BBC;
Daily Telegraph;
Times.

They are out of the battle now and can rest in peace.

Cash for honours: the empire strikes back.

The government has clearly launched its counter-offensive in the cash for honours scandal. On Sunday, by way of an opening barrage, it was a political attack on the police investigation. Today, reports the Daily Telegraph the legal forces are preparing to to over the top and challenge the legality of the police investigation. Downing Street has denied the claim to the Evening Standard.

Meanwhile, some of the businessmen involved have been blowing holes in Tony Blair's defensive line, spun to Labour's National Executive: that the loans were kept secret because the donors asked for secrecy.

Both the Telegraph and the Daily Mail have stories that a Labour member of the Scotch parliament is danger of being dragged into the police inquiry into the affair.

I have no doubt that Tony Blair will never appear in the dock. If it was in the US, he might, but in the UK the legal system is an integrated part of government and the upper echelons of the country's political and social life. Although, under the influence of the European Union, the British judiciary is slowly developing a genuine independence from the politicians, in highly charged political cases such as this Governments can always find a friendly judge when they need one, an old school chum perhaps.

Tags: Cash for honours, Politics

Al Jazz

The Guardian is getting excited about today's launch of al Jazeera's (link updated: 15.11.06 @ 17:10) English digital TV station.Very excited. Al-Jazeera has signed up David Frost, and

a string of other big names, including the former BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar and ex-BBC One O'Clock News anchor Darren Jordan.

As an interviewer Frost was such a soft touch that politicians queued up to get on his lightweight "Breakfast with Frost" programme. Omaar is best known for his blatantly anti-American reports from Baghdad during the US invasion, which were remarkable even by the BBC's standards of anti-US bias. At the time, I thought he had something going with Comical Ali. Of Jordon I know not. The Guardian interviews Frost.

Though rather less excited, the BBC is still fairly enthusiastic but not as much as the Independent, although the Indy does raise the some of the problems al-Jazeera has been struggling with.

Given this is the same al-Jazeera that has nothing but contempt for the bodies of dead British soldiers, why are the Guardian, Indy and BBC so enthusiastic?

Little Green Footballs has a more less enthusiastic, but more rational, perspective from America.

Tags: Al-Jazeera, Media, Islam, Politics

The EU and Afghan reconstruction

At a meeting of the European Foreign ministers, the British and Dutch asked the EU to contribute more to building up Afghanistan's police and judiciary. This seems to be a follow up from an earlier request by NATO for the EU to make a greater contribution to the civilian reconstruction of Afghanistan. The response has been sadly predictable.

According to the International Herald Tribune, the French were lukewarm and would agree only to a (yet another) fact finding mission.

"It seems to me that before launching into such an operation, it would be a good idea to be a bit more clear and to not do something is not coherent or logical," said French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. "That is why I gave my agreement to a fact-finding mission and that's all for the moment."

Translation: France will evaluate the possibility of trade deals and will join in only if it is both safe and potentially profitable.

Online - Pakistan summarises the EU's contribution to Afghanistan reconstruction to date, and provides a candidate for amazing comment of the week:

...a European Commission spokeswoman brushed aside the criticism, from NATO, saying the commission had a record it could be ’very proud of’ in Afghanistan.

'We made a pledge back in 2002 to spend one billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) over five years. We have overshot that target in the work that we have done in Afghanistan,’ said Emma Udwin, spokeswoman for external affairs.

’We have spent very substantial amounts of money given our overall budget and we have been very effective in making that money work in the interests of the population,’ she said.

That record would seem to be a number of fact finding missions, some ineffective Afghan police training by Germany and, from Italy, even less effective reform of the Afghan judiciary. Neither is the financial contribution all that impressive. The total EU budget is somewhere in the region of just over 100bn euros a year.

Tags: Afghanistan. European Union

Jirga News.

Noblesse Oblige notes that cross-border tribal jirgas between Afghanistan and Pakistan have begun and this probably marks the beginning of a process which will culminate in the forthcoming jirga which the Afghan and Pakistan presidents are expected to attend. The Pakistani Daily Times also carries the story.

Afgha.com has an article locating both the jirgas and the fluid Afghan-Pakistan border in an historical context, from the days of the Great Game.

A Border That Does Not Exist. Dr. G. Rauf Roashan

The Afghan government’s proposed meetings with tribal chieftains on the Pashtun belt in an area around an arbitrary border line, if successful would be of significant importance in dealing with a variety of issues. It would restore, to some degree, the popularity of the Afghan President that has recently and gradually eroded due to a variety of reasons among them deteriorating security situation, lack of luster in reconstruction efforts, slow pace of nation building exercise and a slower pace of building up of military and police force. Afghanistan as well as many international sources have claimed that part of the reason for increased violence in Afghanistan is the fact that terrorists are allowed to infiltrate Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan. This article tries to shed light on the history of the region, its political significance and some expectations from the meetings emphasizing the need for a thorough preparation prior to the actual meetings.

There is a long stretch of land extending from the peaks of Western Himalayan Branches near Pamir to the southwest all the way to the Solomon Mountains and the dry deserts of the Siestan Basin in southwestern Afghanistan. The area is located on the western bank of the famous River Indus that originates from the northeastern peaks of the mountain range that extends its many arms into what are Pakistan, Kashmir, China and eventually Nepal farther east at the foot of Mount Everest.

Pashtun tribes, who have flourished in the confines of the mountains and their harsh geography for thousands of years, populate for the most part, the area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Historically the area was part and parcel of Afghanistan specifically after Ahmad Shah Abdali, founded one of the most unified governments in Afghanistan in 1747 which makes even the new Afghanistan, 29 years older than the United States of America. Then Afghanistan was much larger in size consisting parts of eastern Iran, the whole area of Pakistan today including Kashmir and even extended to Delhi, which is the capital of India today.

The British occupation of India prompted Great Britain to attempt conquering Afghanistan and using it as a strong gate against invasions from the north by Russia. Three Anglo-Afghan wars convinced the British that Afghanistan was a land that could and was used by many but was conquered by none. Therefore it played all its cards and used all its expertise in the management of its colonies upon which the sun never sat to limit the Afghan independence by manipulating its administration, its power thirsty princes and kings and kingpins. In addition it tried successfully to cut limbs from the body of the land of the Afghans and finally when Britain had to leave the sub-continent in 1947, it provided for giving of the cut parts of Afghanistan to the artificially created country of Pakistan. To do this it relied on one of her previous efforts when during the reign of Amir Abdul Rahman Khan she had deputed Sir Motamer [ie. Mortimer- HB] Durand from the British Indian Foreign Service to draw a line separating the land of the Afghans, mostly in an arbitrary manner, in 1893 from what was then the British colony of India. The line originally drawn was to be in effect for 100 years. Historically the line did not receive the blessing of any Afghan legislature and was never recognized officially by successive Afghan governments. The newly created Pakistan counted on this imaginary line as its official border with neighboring Afghanistan while in practice even today many parts in the area are called as semi-autonomous districts and are accorded administrative freedom by the government of Pakistan.

Yet, on paper the line existed and arbitrarily defined jurisdiction of the Afghan government in relation to those of the semiautonomous regions called by many names among them Pashtunistan, Pashtunkhwa , Northwest Frontier and Free Border. It never functioned as a true border between two countries. For example at a so-called crossing point from Nangrahar Province in Eastern Afghanistan into Northwest Frontier there was, as it still is, a bridge over a dry creek on each end of which sentries in different uniforms keep a semblance of a gate. While travelers wait for the gates to open for the passage of vehicles, you can always witness a stream of pedestrian passengers sometimes together with their beasts of burden walking under it to either side, unhindered by any soldier or civilian employee of either government.

In actuality there is no border between Afghanistan and what is called Pakistan today. People on either side of the arbitrary line belong to the same families. Parents and children, and siblings living on both sides continuously traverse the area unaware of borderlines and or artificial barriers. However, the area in general has gained more importance recently because in some of the regions Pakistan considers its land, she has allowed, by a treaty, freedom to chieftains who allow extremist elements freedom to received training and organize for a so-called jihad against the government and people of Afghanistan. Although Pakistan claims that the treaty signed in return for the tribal chieftains not attack government military establishments, and that according to Pakistani government it will prevent excursions by extremists into Afghanistan, yet conditions on the ground show considerable liberties taken by Pakistani Taleban and their Madrassa students including some from Afghanistan to propagate extremist tendencies and even to adopt extremist justice free of the Pakistani legal system.

Now Afghanistan and its president whose popularity is gradually eroding due to a lack luster claim on reconstruction, deteriorating security situation and lack of significant political achievements, have a chance to meet in traditional jirgas or tribal meetings with tribal chieftains of this traditionally independent area and to make a case so that the Pashtun motherland and generally all Afghans are safeguarded against imported terrorism.

The meeting scheduled for December 2006 or January 2007, may bring some semblance of a direction in efforts to deal with this age old regional problem and would tackle also the issue of the otherwise expired one sided document called the Durand Line.

President Karzai would need a coherent and orchestrated planning for the meetings to expect desirable results. He needs a more active, resourceful and experienced diplomatic input for the preparations. He needs to meet beforehand with representatives of the people of Afghanistan, Afghanistan’s intelligentsia, Afghan international affairs experts, and even some relevant United Nations system authorities. President Karzai should make sure that undesirable personalities that do not enjoy the confidence of the nation should not find their way as members of his delegation to these talks. On the other hand, he would need on his team enlightened reputable religious leaders who would be able to interpret religious tenets, denounce extremism, suicidal violence and the killing of innocent Moslems including women and children and the need for unity for the followers of the Islamic faith so that it would further prosper.

Such a team would also have the task to regain the international prestige and honor due the sacred Islamic faith and which prestige has been damaged by futile extremist activities that make little sense to the world public.

The meetings called “Jirgas” in their traditional connotation, should also make an effort not only to bring peace to the region but also to provide for expanding of social and economic services to the Pashtun belt living around an arbitrary border line in a border region that in reality does not exist.

Tags: Afghanistan, Jirga, Pakistan

Professor Southall before the GMC: 2

Day two of the General Medical Council's hearing into the dodgy doctor, Professor David Southall. A mother, falsely accused of murdering her son after he committed suicide, has been giving evidence. The GMC heard that Southall, who alleged the mother was suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, made her use a pencil and shoe-lace to demonstrate how her son had hung himself. The Daily Mail and the BBC have reports. The case continues.

Meanwhile, John Hemming, MP, has referred the GMC's conduct of the Southall case to the CHRE, a government advisory body, on the grounds that it is paying insufficient attention to the research issues surrounding Southall. I am not altogether clear what his point is. I think he is referring to the GMC's lack of interest in the research on which Southall based his accusations.

Tags: Child murder, false accusations, medical, Professor Southall