Prof. G.C.Asnani News and Views 30.12.08

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Date: December 30th 2008 12:51:12 a.m.

30^th December 2008

Prof. G. C. ASNANI, MSc., Ph.D. (United Nations Service, Retd.)

822, Sindh Colony, Aundh,

Pune – 411 007 (HINDUSTAN, INDIA)

Tel: 91-20-2588-0347

E-mail: i)asnanigc@yahoo.com, ii) gcasnani@vsnl.com

News and Views 30.12.08

1. Israel pounds Gaza for fourth day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/)

2. 'Huge year for natural disasters' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/)

3. Feds throw General Motors Asset Company $6 billion lifeline (cnn.com)

4. Four dead in Afghan bomb attacks. In remarks about this latest string of violence, U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, called the latest bombings "further unnecessary killing and suffering of innocent civilians. The Taliban offer nothing but terror, fear and suffering for the Afghan people."(cnn.com)

5. Pakistani Taliban enforces sharia on tribal region inside Pakistan. (http://www.jihadwatch.org/)

6. Indo-Pak animosity: A way-out. The world, he said, “worked to exploit religion against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by empowering the most fanatic extremists as an instrument of destruction of a Super Power”. The strategy, he added, worked but its legacy has been the creation of an “extremist militia with its own dynamic”. President Zardari was being polite. When he said “the world” was to be blamed, he surely meant “the United States” which used the Taliban and other religious extremists to fight Soviet forces. The chicken have now come home to roost.(By M.V. Kamath)

7. UPA hypocrisy exposed by Antulay duplicity. Mr Antulay’s reaction in the Parliament is a classic case of how the war on terror is compromised in this country. (organiser.org)

8. Rajnath advocates joint US-India sanctions against Pak (http://dailypioneer.com/)

9. Don’t forget, don’t forgive Pakistan’s terrorist activities against India, says Foreign Minister - Mr Pranab Mukherjee. (http://dailypioneer.com/) (G.C.A.: Is Hon. Foreign Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee feeling lonely in the present Ministry? Or, is he the only Minister who is bold enough to speak out the suppressed TRUTH? )

10. How Unprofessional We Can Be! International Terrorism Monitor---Paper No. 485 (By B. Raman) (southasiaanalysis.org)

11. China's Anti-Piracy Patrol --- Strategic Dimensions (By B. Raman) (southasiaanalysis.org)

12. Tirukural - Chapter 2: The Importance of Rain- It is the unfailing fall of rain that sustains the world. Therefore, look upon rain as the nectar of life-

Kauai_Hindu_Monastery@jnanadana.com

13. Vedic Verses for 12/29/08. I have heard from persons like your good self that only knowledge which is learnt from a teacher (acharya) leads to the highest good. Then he (Gautama) taught him the same knowledge. Nothing whatsoever was left out, yea, nothing whatsoever was left out. (Kauai_Hindu_Monastery@jnanadana.com

14. Gospel of Jesus: Did Jesus advise to Divide, to Kill, and to Rule? Was he a Terrorist? Who can believe this?

i) Holy Bible - New Testament, Luke 12; 51-53: Jesus said:

"Do you suppose that I came to bring peace to the World? No, not peace, but division. From now on a family of five will be divided, three against two and two against three. Fathers will be against their sons, and sons against their fathers; mothers will be against their daughters and daughters against their mothers; mothers-in-law will be against their daughters-in-law, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law."

ii) Holy Bible, New Testament, Luke 20; 27: Jesus said: “for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence.”

iii) New Testament, MATHEW 16; 18-19: Jesus said, "Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock I will build my Church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; what you prohibit on Earth will be prohibited in Heaven, and what you permit on Earth will be permitted in Heaven."

15. Role of alleged CIA asset in Mumbai attacks being downplayed– The role in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month of an underworld kingpin that heads an organization known as D-Company, has known ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and who is alleged to have ties with the CIA is apparently being whitewashed, suggesting that his capture and handover to India might prove inconvenient for either the ISI or the CIA, or both. (By Jeremy R. Hammond) (Source: http://onlinejournal.com )

16. Excerpt from Nathuram Godse’s statement in court. But above all I studied very closely what Veer (brave) Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other factor has done (http://www.vigilonline.com)

17. The Master Course - Lesson 261- What Is the Inner Importance of Puja? The traditional rite of worship, called puja, is a sanctified act of the highest importance for the Hindu. It is the invoking of God Siva and the Gods and the heartfelt expression of our love, devotion and surrender. Aum. (Kauai_Hindu_Monastery@jnanadana.com)

18. Pak troop movement a ploy to blackmail the US: India (NDTV Correspondent)

19. Somali president quits amid international pressure. Somalia's president resigned Monday after a four-year term in which his Western-backed government failed to extend its power throughout a country crippled by infighting and a strengthening Islamic insurgency. The insurgents used the Ethiopian presence as a rallying cry to gain recruits even as the Islamists' strict form of Islam terrified many Somalis into submission. (hindustantimes.com)

20. Thousands more migrants reach Italy's shores• Number of African arrivals soars by 50% this year. Libya embroiled in row over coastal patrols (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/)

1. Israel pounds Gaza for fourth day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/)

Date: -30.12.08

The UN says Israel has killed 320 Palestinians since Saturday

Israeli jets have attacked the Gaza Strip for a fourth day, with raids on a number of Hamas government buildings and security installations.

Air strikes early on Tuesday killed at least 10 people, medical officials in the coastal enclave said.

About 320 Palestinians have died since Saturday, the UN says. Four Israelis have been killed by rockets from Gaza.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire and condemned both Israel and Hamas.

While recognising Israel's right to defend itself from militant rocket attacks, he condemned its "excessive use of force".

"The suffering caused to civilian populations as a result of the large-scale violence and destruction that have taken place over the past few days has saddened me profoundly," he said.

The UN says at least 62 of the Palestinians killed were women and children.

'Bitter end'

Forty people were said to have been wounded in Tuesday's raids, which targeted Hamas-run offices and security installations, Palestinian officials said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire

Israel's defence chief earlier said his country was fighting a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas.

Israel has massed forces along the boundary with Gaza and has declared the area around it a "closed military zone".

Correspondents say the move - in addition to the call-up of thousands of reservists - could be a prelude to ground operations, but could also be intended to build pressure on Hamas.

The Red Cross earlier described the situation in Gaza's hospitals as chaotic, with medical teams "stretched to the limit".

Trucks laden with medical aid have been permitted to cross into Gaza from Egypt at the Rafah crossing.

European Union foreign ministers are scheduled to to meet in Paris later (1730 GMT) to discuss the escalating crisis.

The meeting, hosted by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, is expected to consider the idea of an humanitarian aid corridor, and how to bring additional aid to Gaza.

Angry protests

Dozens of centres of Hamas strength, including security compounds, government offices and tunnels into Egypt, have been hit since Israel started its massive bombing campaign on Saturday morning.

US tacitly backs Israeli offensive

Rocket attacks plague Israeli towns

Israel says its aim is to end the rocket attacks by Hamas-linked militants - of which there were reportedly more than 40 on Monday.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel wanted to deal Hamas a "severe blow" and its operation would be "widened and deepened as needed".

The US - Israel's strongest ally - said the onus was on Hamas to end the violence and commit itself to a truce, but there have been angry protests against the offensive in many cities across the Arab world and in several European capitals.

The strikes began less than a week after the expiry of a six-month-long ceasefire deal with Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.

Israel withdrew in 2005 but has kept tight control over access in and out of Gaza and its airspace.

GAZA VIOLENCE 27-29 DECEMBER

1. Ashdod: First attack so far north, Sunday

2. Ashkelon: One man killed, several injured in rocket attack, Monday

3. Sderot: rocket attacks

4. Nevitot: One man killed, several injured in rocket attack, Saturday

5. Civilian family reported killed in attack on Yabna refugee camp, Sunday

6. Israeli warplanes strike tunnels under Gaza/Egypt border, Sunday

7. Three young brothers reported killed in attack on Rafah, Sunday

8. Khan Younis: Four members of Islamic Jihad and a child reported killed, Sunday

9. Deir al-Balah: Palestinians injured, houses and buildings destroyed, Sunday

10. Interior ministry and Islamic University badly damaged, Monday

11. Gaza City port: naval vessels targeted, Sunday

12. Shati refugee camp: Home of Hamas leader Ismail Hanniyeh targeted, Monday

13. Intelligence building attacked, Sunday

14. Jebaliya refugee camp: several people killed in attack on mosque, Sunday

2. 'Huge year for natural disasters' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/)

Date: -30.12.08

The Sichuan quake was one of several disasters to strike Asia in 2008

The past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters, one of the world's biggest re-insurance companies has said.

Munich Re said the impact of the disasters was greater than in 2007 in both human and economic terms.

The company suggested climate change was boosting the destructive power of disasters like hurricanes and flooding.

It has called for stricter curbs on emissions to prevent further uncontrollable weather scenarios.

Although there were fewer "loss-producing events" in 2008 than in the previous year, the impact of natural disasters was higher, said Munich Re in its annual assessment.

More than 220,000 people died in events like cyclones, earthquakes and flooding, the most since 2004, the year of the Asian tsunami.

Meanwhile, overall global losses totalled about $200bn (£137bn), with uninsured losses totalling $45bn, about 50% more than in 2007.

Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes

Torsten Jeworrek

Munich Re

This makes 2008 the third most expensive year on record, after 1995, when the Kobe earthquake struck Japan, and 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

Torsten Jeworrek of Munich Re said the pattern continued a long-term trend already observed.

"Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes," he said.

Uninsured

Asia was the continent worst hit by natural disasters in 2008, Munich Re reported.

The year saw five major hurricanes in the North Atlantic

Cyclone Nargis in Burma killed an estimated 130,000 people and devastated much of the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta region, while the earthquake which struck China's Sichuan province in May left an estimated 70,000 dead and millions homeless.

Munich Re said the losses of $85bn made Sichuan the second most expensive earthquake after Kobe.

Although Nargis and the Sichuan quake brought the biggest cost in terms of human lives, the economic losses were mostly uninsured.

The most expensive single event in 2008 was Hurricane Ike, which brought $30bn in losses. It was one of five major hurricanes in the North Atlantic over the year, which saw a total of 16 tropical storms.

In addition, roughly 1,700 tornadoes across the US caused several billion dollars of damage, as did periods of low pressure weather activity in Europe.

If we delay too long, it will be very costly for future generations

Mr Jeworrek

Munich Re quoted World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) figures showing that 2008 was the 10th warmest year since reliable records began, meaning that the 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the past 12 years.

"It is now very probable that the progressive warming of the atmosphere is due to the greenhouse gases emitted by human activity," said Prof Peter Hoppe, head of Munich Re's Geo Risks Research.

"The logic is clear: when temperatures increase there is more evaporation and the atmosphere has a greater capacity to absorb water vapour, with the result that its energy content is higher.

"The weather machine runs into top gear, bringing more intense severe weather events with corresponding effects in terms of losses."

The company said world leaders must put in place "effective and binding rules on CO2 emissions" to curb climate change and ensure that "future generations do not have to live with weather scenarios that are difficult to control".

"If we delay too long, it will be very costly for future generations," said Mr Jeworrek.

3. Feds throw General Motors Asset Company $6 billion lifeline (cnn.com)

Date: -30.12.08

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In yet another move to prop up the crumbling U.S. auto industry, the government announced Monday that it will pump $6 billion into GMAC Financial Services, a financing company critical to the survival of General Motors.

The rescue package has two parts. The Treasury Department is injecting $5 billion directly into GMAC in exchange for preferred equity shares that pay an 8% dividend. GMAC also is issuing warrants to Treasury in the form of preferred stock. If exercised, the warrants will pay a 9% dividend.

Also, the government will lend $1 billion to GM that the automaker will invest in its financing arm. GMAC needs the funding to convert to a bank holding company, a necessary step to receiving the bailout money.

The Federal Reserve said last week that it would approve GMAC's conversion to a bank holding company.

The move deepens the federal government's bailout of the troubled auto industry. Less than two weeks ago, President Bush announced a $17.4 billion rescue package to prevent the collapses of General Motors and Chrysler LLC.

Treasury officials called Monday's action "part of a broader program to assist the domestic automotive industry in becoming financially viable."

The federal injection will allow GMAC to jumpstart its lending.

"The company intends to act quickly to resume automotive lending to a broader spectrum of customers to support the availability of credit to consumers and businesses for the purchase of automobiles," GMAC said in a statement.

As part of Monday's bailout, GMAC will have to limit executives' compensation. Top officials will not be allowed to receive severance packages and the bonus pool for the top 25 executives must be 40% lower than 2007 levels, a Treasury official said. Some of the conditions are stricter than those banks receiving bailout funds must comply with.

Treasury needs more bailout funds

The GMAC investment commits Treasury to total bailout spending above the $350 billion limit so far by Congress.

Treasury has some wiggle room because $79.5 billion that it has allocated for purchasing stakes in banks has not yet been distributed. Regulators are still reviewing applications from many institutions.

However, to fulfill its commitment to the banks, officials will have to ask Congress to release at least part of the $350 billion remaining in the $700 billion financial sector rescue package it approved in October.

A Treasury official Monday night repeated Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's earlier comments that he will work with Congress and President-elect Barack Obama's transition team on releasing the additional funds.

GMAC vital to GM

GMAC, which is currently 51% owned by Chrysler's parent company Cerberus Capital Management and 49% by GM, is critical to the automaker's recovery.

Once a major source of profits for GM, GMAC has lost $7.9 billion over the past five quarters, mostly from risky subprime mortgage bets made by its Residential Capital division. The holdings plummeted in value when the housing market began to decline in 2007.

GMAC is the biggest lender to GM's 6,500 dealers nationwide, providing financing they need to operate and buy vehicle inventory from the automaker. The failure of GMAC could spark widespread failures among GM's dealership network and cut even more deeply into auto sales.

A majority of GM's U.S. sales typically were financed by GMAC before the economy slowed down. But in November, less than 2% of its sales were financed through the unit.

Becoming a bank

Before becoming a bank holding company, GMAC must meet other conditions. Cerberus must reduce its stake in GMAC to 33% and GM's share must drop to less than 10%. Cerberus will distribute the remainder of its stake to its investors and GM's stake will go into an independent trust to be sold off within three years.

In granting its approval, the Fed cited "emergency conditions," saying the company was important to the future success of GM.

Separately, GMAC said Monday that it has accepted the tendered bonds it aimed to exchange as part of a debt-for-stock exchange program. The company wanted to convert 75% of its $38 billion debt into equity shares so it could raise $30 billion in capital. GMAC put the program up for a vote for its investors, but despite a Dec. 26 deadline, the company did not yet announce the results.

The finance company has said its ability to stay afloat lays in the balance of the vote. Though the Fed already accepted the company's bid to convert to a bank holding company, the exchange was a critical part of GMAC's attempt to meet the Fed's typical capital requirements for a bank.

Automaker loans

Separate from the GMAC bailout, General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and Chrysler were expected to receive $4 billion each in emergency aid from Treasury on Monday. However, that delivery of the loan was stalled.

The federal government is "moving expeditiously on all fronts" to finalize the loans, a Treasury official said Monday night. The carmakers will receive the funds "on timelines necessary for each company."

CNNMoney.com Staff Writer David Goldman contributed to this report.

Date: -30.12.08

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Bombings at a governor's compound and a bazaar in Afghanistan on Monday killed four civilians and wounded a few dozen others, the NATO command in the country said.

The U.S. military released this photo of Sunday's car bomb blast near a voter registration site.

A car bomb targeting the compound of the Parvan provincial governor in eastern Afghanistan killed two civilians and wounded 16 others.

Two improvised explosive devices detonated at a bazaar in the southern province of Kandahar, killing two civilians, including a child. Twenty civilians and an Afghan border police officer were wounded in the incident, which occurred in the town of Spin Boldak.

The violence is the latest said to be spawned by the resurgent Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan.

The Taliban regime harbored the al Qaeda terror network before it was ousted from power by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Monday's violence follows a suicide car bomb blast on Sunday near a voter registration site killed 16 people, 14 of them children, and wounded 58 in southeastern Afghanistan.

In remarks about this latest string of violence, U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, called the latest bombings "further unnecessary killing and suffering of innocent civilians. The Taliban offer nothing but terror, fear and suffering for the Afghan people."

5. Pakistani Taliban enforces sharia on tribal region inside Pakistan. (http://www.jihadwatch.org/)

Date: -30.12.08

An update on the Taliban's encroachment in Pakistan, while Islamabad diverts troops from the area. "Taliban ‘enforce sharia’ in lower Orakzai Agency," by Abdul Saboor Khan for the Daily Times, December 28:

HANGU: The Taliban have announced the enforcement of sharia in the lower parts of Orakzai Agency, Taliban sources said. The Taliban announcement follows the ‘enforcement of sharia’ in the upper parts of the agency seven days ago. Sources said the Taliban were using loudspeakers in mosques to announce the decree and were asking the people to bring their issues to ‘Taliban Islamic courts’, which have been set up in Mashti Meela and Feroze Khel, for their resolution according to Islamic law. The Taliban have banned women from visiting bazaars and have imposed a complete ban on TV and CDs and video centres in the agency. They have, however, allowed women to visit bazaars for medical treatment, but that too if they are accompanied by a male elder of the family. There are 21 tribes in Orakzai and the Taliban have imposed Islamic law on 16 tribes. The other five tribes reside in areas where t he Taliban have not announced sharia enforcement as yet. The tribal traditions earlier did not require women to veil their faces, but the Taliban decree has asked them to cover their bodies at all times. The Taliban have also established complaint cells in Ghiljo and Kandi Mishti (Upper Orakzai), and Mamoozai and Feroze Khel (Lower Orakzai).

6. Indo-Pak animosity: A way-out. The world, he said, “worked to exploit religion against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by empowering the most fanatic extremists as an instrument of destruction of a Super Power”. The strategy, he added, worked but its legacy has been the creation of an “extremist militia with its own dynamic”. President Zardari was being polite. When he said “the world” was to be blamed, he surely meant “the United States” which used the Taliban and other religious extremists to fight Soviet forces. The chicken have now come home to roost.(By M.V. Kamath)

(organiser.org)

Date: -30.12.08

President Zardari was being polite. When he said “the world” was to be blamed, he surely meant “the United States” which used the Taliban and other religious extremists to fight Soviet forces. The chicken have now come home to roost. Now the very same religious fanatics are out to destroy whatever little liberalism there was in Pakistan.

Jehadi forces recently destroyed some 200 trucks belonging to the US-NATO forces, which only shows how tenuous the situation in Pakistan is. Washington just cannot afford to alienate the Pak Army and certainly the disaster would be greater if India draws Pakistan into a nasty war. India’s options, under the circumstances, are limited.

In his emotionally charged article in a recent issue of the New York Times, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari made a valid point. The world, he said, “worked to exploit religion against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by empowering the most fanatic extremists as an instrument of destruction of a Super Power”. The strategy, he added, worked but its legacy has been the creation of an “extremist militia with its own dynamic”. President Zardari was being polite. When he said “the world” was to be blamed, he surely meant “the United States” which used the Taliban and other religious extremists to fight Soviet forces. The chicken have now come home to roost. Now the very same religious fanatics are out to destroy whatever little liberalism there was in Pakistan which, in Zardari’s words is suffering from “the legacy of dictatorship, the fatigue o f fanaticism, the dismemberments of civil society and the destruction of democratic infrastructure”.

Even as the year was closing in, nearly 2,000 Pakistanis had lost their lives to terrorism, including 1,400 civilians and 600 security personnel. Zardari says that there have been more than 600 terrorism-related incidents in Pakistan in 2008. Pakistan seems to be on the verge of collapse. More than anyone else, one must name the United States as the sole party guilty of laying down the groundwork of terrorism for its own vicarious purposes. The Pakistani government of the day led by Generals—including Yahya Khan—thought they were very clever in supporting the US because they were expecting economic and military goodies which Washington happily gave them.

The Pakistani Army with one eye on Kashmir was only too glad to extend its cooperation to Washington. It has now practically become an independent body running a parallel government in the country, accountable to no one but itself. In such a situation for all its apparent goodwill towards India, the government of the day is hamstrung. If it oversteps its limits and seeks peace with India, the likelihood is that the Army will sieze power again, as it did when Gen. Musharraf overthrew Nawaz Sharief. Musharraf undercut Sharief’s efforts to make peace with India by starting the Kargil War. Is Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani undercutting Zardari’s efforts to adopt a similar line? Do we have to believe that the Lashkar-e-Taiba is working independently of the Army?

The trouble with the Pakistan Army seems to be that it has reconciled itself with the fact that in war India is unbeatable. Having been thrice defeated and having to suffer, at the end of the 1962 war the humiliation of its forces being taken as prisoners-of-war, the Pakistan Army is straining at the leash. It is seething with revenge. Its original plan was to bleed India with a thousand cuts. India has survived. It is indestructible. It is Pakistan which is paying for its folly. The United States does not want to cut the Pakistan Army down to size because it has its uses along the Pak-Afghan border. Right now some 32,000 US troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan and 20,000 more troops are expected to be despatched in the weeks ahead. And over three quarters of the supplies to these forces have to transit through Pakistani territory and need to be adequately safeguarded.

For all the security provided, jehadi forces recently destroyed some 200 trucks belonging to the US-NATO forces, which only shows how tenuous the situation in Pakistan is. Washington just cannot afford to alienate the Pak Army and certainly the disaster would be greater if India draws Pakistan into a nasty war. India’s options, under the circumstances, are limited. If two nations, Germany and France, sworn enemies for decades, can get together with other smaller states to form the European Union, surely Pakistan and India can similarly form a Union of their own to match their genius and long tradition? There will be no end to the benefits both will reap, through enhanced trade and commerce, mutual cooperation in many fields including health, education, agriculture, industry and all forms of enterprise. Both countries can drastically cut down on defence expenditure which presently constitute a large drai n on their—especially Pakistan’s—limited resources. But importantly, both will gain in power and prestige.

Pakistan will not need constantly to play a subsidiary role vis-à-vis the United States or go begging to China. And Afghanistan will not then have to be a bone of contention between India and Pakistan. But this calls for a change in the mind-set of Pakistan’s leaders, especially those in the Armed Forces. Getting into a Confederation is a win-win situation. It can even enable settlement of the dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the Durand Line.

The fact is, for all the disputes between Pakistan and India, the only solution is the formation of a Confederation, with each country free to pass its own laws and regulations but remains united in the spheres of defence and foreign policy. Boundary compromises would then become easier to make. And if the European Union can have a common currency, why shouldn’t Pakistan and India have a common currency, the ubiquitous rupiah? And who knows at what point in time other nations like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will also not eye membership of the Confederation with envious eyes? Sixty years is a long time to keep up mindless animosity. It is time for wisdom to take over from hatred for the good of all. May the watchwords then be: sarve janaha sukhino bhavanta. Miracles have happened in the past. One can happen it the immediate future just as well.

7. UPA hypocrisy exposed by Antulay duplicity. Mr Antulay’s reaction in the Parliament is a classic case of how the war on terror is compromised in this country. (organiser.org)

Date: -30.12.08

By Aditya Pradhan in Mumbai

Mr Antulay’s reaction in the Parliament is a classic case of how the war on terror is compromised in this country. Every earnest effort made by the security agencies has been questioned and investigated by the secular governments. Former police chief of Punjab KPS Gill who brought terrorism in Punjab to a glorious end often states this at public meetings about how his officers are still doing the rounds fighting court cases.

Nor was this strict adherence to protocol not seen when the NDA government was in power and the POTA Bill was passed. Congress party survives on the belief that public memory is short.

Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay’s statement that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare’s death has been caused by Hindu radical groups is not surprising. The alliance at the Center which prided in scrapping POTA, so much so that its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) stated that as a matter of policy change to woo the minority community, should be expected to have cabinet ministers who would toe a Pakistan line of argument. Also, not surprisingly, there has been a deafening silence from the prime minister’s office on the issue. Mr Antulay when asked to clarify added for good measure: “I don’t need to explain anything to anyone”. After all, Mr Antulay has only taken a leaf out of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s book on how to pander to minority communities. Till the time of going to press the Congress Party spokesmen were on a part-denial m ode. Abhishek Singhvi’s statements to the media were laced with “our party completely disassociates from the minister’s statement in the Parliament”. The party spokesman who otherwise would not stay his hand when suggesting what Narendra Modi or Yeddyurappa should do, maintained a sanitised version of “we cannot suggest if the PM or the government should sack Antulay”. One wonders why this politeness does not extend to opposition party-led state governments. Nor was this strict adherence to protocol not seen when the NDA government was in power and the POTA Bill was passed. Congress party survives on the belief that public memory is short. Look at the ardent plea made by the new Home Minister P. Chidambaram that the new anti-terror law has to be passed with everyone’s consent in the House. “We could make all the necessary amends as we go on”, he said on the floor of the House while introducing the new anti-terror Bill. It must have been deja vu for Opposition leader Shri L.K. Advani.

Also, in this whole episode post-26/11, the BJP should be credited for showing its true nationalist colour. Shri Advani’s unconditional support to the government in its war on terrorism was a true reflection of the national mood. Earlier BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad made it clear in media briefings that BJP would support the government in any of the tough decisions to be taken in the war against terror. Juxtapose this to the post-Parliament attack in 2002. By evening of that fateful day Congressmen were busy cornering NDA ministers asking: “you passed POTA Bill with all the fanfare. Did that prevent the attack on Parliament?” The other major concern was that police will misuse POTA. It took one viewer’s opinion shown on the ticker on NDTV 24x7 to put things in perspective: “traffic regulations are flouted everywhere, every time. Does that mean that we do away with traffic ru les?!”

Antulay’s conspiracy theories may come in handy to pander to the minority community. Antulay can be forgiven for his comment in view of what the prime minister said a year ago in the midst of passing the Indo-nuclear deal that minority communities have priority in access to national resources.

But in Mumbai it is not just the politicians which have become discredited. Former Home Minister of Maharashtra R.R. Patil who has become so arrogant to say such small terror attacks in big cities are quite normal recently told a reporter: “will bullet proof jackets and better fire power prevent terrorist attacks?!”

The government’s hypocrisy and lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation have been underscored by pseudo-secularism. The other grave concern of the citizens of Mumbai is related to the lack of proper training given to any the state departments in dealing with a crisis seen on 26/11. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, went on record to say that most of the security agencies and state utilities were at a loss in dealing with the crisis. Fire tenders came in late, policemen were found removing their safety gear at ground zero, some policemen even quietly left for home when they were informed of the terrorist attacks, police were found more engaged in crowd control than saving lives, television media was hysteric so much so that news anchors were howling at everyone on air and the most defining moment was the large crowd outside Taj hotel brandishing cell phone cameras trying to take pictur es of terrorists who were still engaged in a pitched battle with the commandoes. If the terrorists had dropped a grenade from the top floor of Taj hotel on the crowd below the area would have looked like a scene out of ‘Saving Private Ryan”. Intelligence has failed, but the way various agencies were bickering over who is to be blamed for the crisis was most unnerving.

It’s tragic that Ratan Tata says his hotels will have their own anti-terror systems and personnel in place. Does this mean that the state has become so inept in providing security to its people. It is sad to see Bollywood actors scampering for enhanced personal security systems. It only means that the state has completely failed in providing security to people. As one Mumbai local train debate on the issue concluded that the world has entered the 21st century of sophistication but India is still caught in R.K. Narayanan’s Malgudy Days of simplicity and immaturity.

8. Rajnath advocates joint US-India sanctions against Pak (http://dailypioneer.com/)

Date: -30.12.08

PTI | Mumbai

Saying that war with Pakistan is the "last option", BJP president Rajnath Singh on Monday called for joint economic sanctions by United States and India against the Islamic nation, which he said has become a sanctuary to Jihadi mercenaries and a cradle of global terrorism.

"The UPA Government considers the US as India's strategic partner after signing the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. It is high time that the Centre uses its diplomatic channels with the United States to stop all financial assistance to Pakistan and work jointly to impose economic sanctions against it," Rajnath told a press conference here.

The BJP president said that the US aid to Pakistan is nearly $2 billion a year. Recently, US was instrumental in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) providing $7.6 billion package to save Pakistan from Bankruptcy.

"According to credible media reports published in US dailies, Pakistan has been diverting the monetary assistance from Western countries to fund terrorist modules against India," he said.

Rajnath said that Pakistan leadership has also admitted that "non-state players" were involved in the Mumbai attacks last month. "Pakistan is a nuclear-weapon state. The international community must take cognizance of the fact that it cannot control the non-state actors operating in the country. It is also important to note whether Pakistan's nuclear weapons are a threat to world peace," he added.

Date: -30.12.08

A Surya Prakash

Of late, Mr Pranab Mukherjee has been adopting a tone and tenor worthy of the Foreign Minister of a great nation like India while dealing with a rogue state like Pakistan, which has made sponsorship of terrorism a key instrument of state policy. But if Mr Mukherjee is to take these threats to their logical conclusion and make our country terrorism-proof, he and the Union Government need to get an unambiguous signal from across the country that India will neither forget nor forgive Mumbai 26/11.

This can happen only if we shake off the tentativeness and confusion that has permeated national discourse in regard to Pakistan, and come face to face with reality. Though Pakistan was created on the premise that Muslims constitute a separate nation, it broke up into two within a quarter century of its birth and most South Asian experts predict a further disintegration of that country. Second, unlike India, which has become a vibrant democracy, Pakistan chose to become an Islamic state and this had a major social and political impact. For example, on the social side, Pakistan has virtually extinguished its Hindu population. The Hindus, who constituted 25 per cent of Pakistan’s population at the time of its birth, are now reduced to just 1.64 per cent. On the political front, the absence of democracy has encouraged the Army to often take control and to display belligerence towards India to retain its ho ld on the Government.

Often, even when there is a civilian Government, the Pakistani Army has resorted to unilateral military action. It made the first attempt to grab Indian territory when it sent in infiltrators into Jammu & Kashmir in October 1947. Instead of following the advice of top class military men like Field Marshal Cariappa and Gen Thimmiah, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru foolishly rushed to the United Nations complaining about Pakistan’s aggression. The UN promptly ordered a cease fire and India lost 30,000 square miles of territory to Pakistan.

Indians soon forgot what Pakistan had done. Worse, they even forgave Pakistan for this act of aggression. This suicidal Indian trait tempted Pakistan to do an encore in August 1965. The Indian Army pushed back the infiltrators and captured strategic positions in Haji Pir and Tithwal areas to effectively prevent further incursions. This clash resulted in a war, which concluded after the UN called for a cease fire. As the hostilities ended, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto swore in the Security Council that Pakistan would launch a ‘thousand-year war’ against India. When the Indian delegation walked out in protest, Bhutto said, “The Indian dogs are going home.”

This may seem incredible, but soon after Mr Bhutto showered these abuses on us, we bartered away the key territorial acquisitions at the negotiating table at Tashkent. This encouraged Pakistan to attack India yet again in 1971 when the latter objected to the brutality unleashed by the Pakistani Army in what is now Bangladesh, leading to the influx of 20 million refugees into our country. This led to a full-scale war in which the Pakistani Army was disgraced. India captured 93,000 Prisoners of War and 5,000 square miles of territory.

But all this was returned to Pakistan by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Simla Summit without reclaiming even a part of the 30,000 square miles of territory that we lost in 1947. Everything was given back on a platter to Mr Bhutto, who by now had become Pakistan’s Prime Minister. Why? Because we did not want to ‘humiliate’ this uncouth politician who had classified us as ‘dogs’! We would never have suffered the embarrassment of 26/11 if only we were in the habit of reminding ourselves and every successive generation of Indians of Mr Bhutto’s abuses and bravado.

Strangely, even those who appeared wise when they sat in the Opposition benches have made terrible compromises on national security. The prize for the best somersault by an Indian politician vis-à-vis Pakistan goes to Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He had opposed the policy of appeasement followed by the Governments of the day after the 1965 and 1971 wars and scoffed at then Foreign Minister Swaran Singh for saying that the Simla Accord was the ‘first step’ towards durable peace.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on July 31, 1972, Mr Vajpayee had said: “In the last 25 years, we have always been taking the first step. We took the first step when Nehru met Liaquat Ali Khan, then yet again when Nehru met Ayub Khan. We again took the first step when Shastri met Ayub Khan at Tashkent. And now, again at Simla we are taking the first step. How many times do we keep taking the ‘first step’ towards durable peace with Pakistan?”

Twenty-seven years later, Mr Vajpayee became the Prime Minister. It was now his turn to forget and forgive. Succumbing to pressure, Mr Vajpayee started speaking the language of Swaran Singh. So he ventured on an ill-advised bus ride to Lahore that culminated in that spurious bear hug with Mr Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan returned the compliment by invading Kargil. We lost hundreds of brave soldiers while reclaiming our territory. Soon thereafter, Mr Vajpayee was again under pressure and he invited Gen Musharraf to Agra for an ill-fated summit. Pakistan gave us a return gift by way of the assault on our Parliament House on December 13, 2001. In a short span of three years, Pakistan betrayed Mr Vajpayee thrice.

Now that the Congress is back in power and is, as usual, under the influence of many resident non-Indians, those of us who wish to secure India for posterity need to remind the Government of the following: If we had not forgotten the loss of 30,000 square miles of territory in October 1947, August 1965 would not have happened; if we had been firm and unyielding in 1965, Pakistan would not have had the courage to wage war on us in 1971; if we had driven in the knife in 1971, when we had 93,000 Pakistani Prisoners of War and territory, Pakistan would never have had the nerve to intrude into Kargil in 1999; if we had not forgotten Kargil, December 13, 2001 would not have happened; if we had not forgiven Pakistan for the audacious attack on our Parliament House, India would not have suffered the humiliation it did on 26/11.

The terror attacks in Mumbai offers us yet another opportunity to get our act together to protect our unity and territorial integrity. But we cannot achieve this unless we shun the policy of forget and forgive when it comes to Pakistan.

10. How Unprofessional We Can Be! International Terrorism Monitor---Paper No. 485 (By B. Raman) (southasiaanalysis.org)

Date: -30.12.08

On May 1, 1960, the Soviet security forces shot down a U-2 spy plane of the US intelligence, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, as it was flying stealthily across the Soviet Union from Peshawar to Helsinki. The pilot parachuted into Soviet territory, was captured alive by the Soviet intelligence and interrogated. The KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency, did not announce for seven days that he had been captured alive. They gave the impression that he was dead.

2. Presuming that he must have died, the administration of Dwight Eisenhower, the then US President, made a number of contradictory statements about its responsibility for violating the Soviet air space. Powers, during his interrogation, made a total confession of his role and of the previous US spy flights over Soviet territory. After the interrogation had been completed, the Soviet authorities announced that he had been captured alive and released details of his confession. The US Government was put in an embarrassing position and admitted that it had been sending spy flights over the Soviet Union.

3. On May 7, 1960, Nikita Khrushchev, the then Soviet Prime Minister, told the world: “I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well… and now just look how many silly things [the Americans] have said.” Not only was Powers still alive, but his plane was also more or less intact, including much of its spy equipment.

4. After the Mumbai blasts of March, 1993, Narasimha Rao, the then Prime Minister, issued strict instructions that no one should disclose details of the investigation to the media. Two groups were set up at New Delhi and Mumbai. They met every day to review the progress of the investigation and decide how much should be disclosed to the media and what should not be disclosed. Instructions were issued that except the Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, no other officer should talk to the media. Even he held a daily collective briefing of the media as a whole and avoided one-to-one briefings to any individual journalist. In August 1994---- 17 months after the blasts---- after the arrest of one of the key perpetrators, Shri K.Padmanabiah, the then Home Secretary, held a press conference at New Delhi to collectively brief the media on the role of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the explosions.

5. Since the US started its Operation Enduring Freedom against Al Qaeda and the Taliban on October 7, 2001, it has captured a number of senior operatives of Al Qaeda in Pakistani territory---Abu Zubaidah in Faislabad in Pakistani Punjab, Ramzi Binalshib in Karachi, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM) in Rawalpindi, Abu-Faraj al-Libi in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), to cite some of them. It also captured Hambali of the Jemmah Islamiyah, with the help of the Thai authorities at Ayuthya in Thailand. All of them were taken to either Diego Garcia or Bagram in Afghanistan or the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba for interrogation.

6. Till now, the details of their interrogation have not been released to the media by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Only sanitized summaries were released to the media after they were indicted before a military tribunal. Mariam, the widow of Daniel Pearl, the US journalist, was reportedly briefed in confidence by the FBI about what KSM had stated about his role in the kidnapping and murder of her husband.

7. This is professionalism. When I joined the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1967, I was taught in the training institute about the importance of keeping secret the details of the statements made by suspects during their interrogation till the case reached the stage of prosecution. If the details came out in the media, that would benefit the terrorist organization to which the suspect belonged. If the terrorist act was sponsored by a State, it would be able to cover up its tracks.

8. In recent years, we have been seeing the disturbing and highly unprofessional practice of intelligence and police officers giving to the media even before the investigation is complete, the details of the statements being made by suspects during the interrogation. In fact, they even give to their journalistic contacts a virtual running commentary of the interrogation. They do not seem to realize the damage which they are causing to the fight against terrorism by doing so.

9. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other foreign intelligence agencies do not even have to develop sources in our intelligence agencies and the police for getting details of interrogation reports and the line of investigation being followed by the police and the intelligence agencies. They just have to identify such privileged journalists, closely follow their reports and, if need be, cultivate them.

10. This often creates ridiculous situations such as in the case of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Imam, the Pakistani member of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), who is presently under interrogation by the Mumbai Police on his role in the terrorist attack by the LET in Mumbai on November 26-29, 2008. We have been rightly refusing to share the details of his interrogation with the Pakistani authorities on the ground that it will be premature to do so and that sharing the details at this stage with the Pakistani authorities might enable the LET and the ISI to cover up their tracks.

11. And here are the officers of the Mumbai Police and the intelligence community sharing all the details with some privileged journalists without realizing the damage to the investigation and our fight against terrorism that could be caused by almost daily disclosures. This could also damage our credibility and cast doubts about our professionalism.

12. What was the need for the investigating officers to tell the journalists about the place where the surviving LET terrorist was being detained and where he is going to be transferred next? Don’t they realise that such information would be useful to the LET and the ISI if they want to mount an operation to rescue or eliminate him? What was the need for the journalists to find out such sensitive details and disseminate them in the media? After the serial explosions in Ahmedabad in July, we saw some private TV channels giving details of the hospitals where the injured victims were being admitted. There was a vehicular bomb explosion in one of these hospitals.

13. As I have repeated many times before, it is important for the investigating officers to keep an open mind in the initial stages of the investigation and avoid coming out with categorical conclusions, which may be proved wrong by evidence collected subsequently. This is a rule of prudence to safeguard the credibility of the investigation process. Here we find everybody in Mumbai and Delhi coming out with categorical statements without the least doubts in their minds about the validity of their statements

14. The sequel to the Mumbai attack has been handled in an unprofessional manner not only by the Mumbai Police and the intelligence agencies, but also by the policy makers---political and professional--- of the Government of India. In our understandable anxiety to nail the State of Pakistan, we have been following a strategy, which lacks lucidity and coherence.

15. Our immediate objective should have been to prepare a well-written and well-collated dossier with evidence already collected, which do not require further independent corroboration and share it with other countries, particularly those whose nationals were killed by the terrorists. Among such pieces of evidence one could mention the intercepts of the IB and the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the reports of the US intelligence in September about the plans of the LET to mount a sea-borne act of terrorism in Mumbai targeting some hotels, including the Taj Mahal hotel, the visuals from the closed circuit TV cameras installed in the railway station and the hotels, the reports carried by the “Observer” of the UK, the GeoTV and the “Dawn” of Pakistan identifying the surviving terrorist as a Pakistani national and usable extracts from the interrogation of the surviving terroris t which could be used in our diplomatic campaign without compromising the chances of a successful prosecution.

16. We should have also disseminated such a dossier to the Pakistani public and political leaders, who are well-disposed towards India. At the height of the Kargil conflict, the R&AW intercepted the telephone conversations of Gen.Pervez Musharraf, then on a visit to Beijing, with Lt.Gen.Mohammad Aziz, his Chief of the General Staff. The intercepted conversations showed that it was the Pakistan Army which had intruded into Indian territory and not the jihadis as claimed by the Army and that Musharraf had not kept Nawaz Sharif, his Prime Minister, and many other senior officers in the Army, the Air Force and the Navy in the picture about his operation to capture the Kargil heights. The Government of India not only released the transcripts of the conversations to the public and the international community in order to show the perfidy of Musharraf, but also shared them with selected Pakistani political leader s, including Nawaz Sharif himself, in order to make them realise what kind of an officer they had as the Chief of the Army Staff.

17. The Western countries and Israel have taken a serious note of the Mumbai attack and are doing their own independent investigation not because Indians were killed, but because their own nationals were killed----with the Jewish victims being subjected to inhuman brutality by the terrorists. They suspect that the targeting of nationals from countries----the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada--- which are participating in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan indicates that it was possibly an Al Qaeda inspired operation, if not a joint operation by the LET and Al Qaeda. If these suspicions prove to be correct, this will show that the ISI has been using the LET as well as Al Qaeda against India. It would also show that while pretending to co-operate with the US against Al Qaeda in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the ISI has been using Al Qaeda elements against India. This is an as pect which has to be kept in view during the investigation instead of viewing the attack as a totally LET-mounted operation with the help of the ISI.

18. By now, we should have put on a specially created web site the personal particulars of suspects involved in the Mumbai attack and announced a cash reward of Rs. 50 million each, if not more, to anyone giving information which could lead to their arrest or elimination. A safe line of communication should have been indicated in the web site which could be used by the potential informers to get in touch with the right person in the investigation agencies.

19. The investigation into the Ahmedabad blasts of July and the Mumbai terrorist attack have brought out that the interrogation reports of some suspects arrested in February, 2008, contained possible clues to future terrorist strikes. These interrogation reports were not systematically followed up. It is likely that dozens of other interrogation reports lie unread, unanalyzed and unacted upon in the archives of the Police in different States. The Government should ask a group of serving officers to go through all interrogation reports of the last three years in order to see whether they too contained similar clues about the future.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Tropical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

11. China's Anti-Piracy Patrol --- Strategic Dimensions (By B. Raman) (southasiaanalysis.org)

Date: -30.12.08

Three ships of the Chinese Navy------ the missile-armed destroyers "DDG-171 Haikou" and "DDG-169 Wuhan" and the suply ship "Weishanhu"--- are reported to have sailed from the Yalong Bay naval base on the Hainan Island on December 26, 2008, on a three-month mission to undertake anti-piracy patrol for the protection of Chinese ships and crew from attacks by Somali pirates. This will be the first time ships of the Chinese Navy will be operating in far-away waters outside the Pacific on defensive missions----though only against non-State actors. The three-ship task force will have a Chinese special forces unit (strength not known) and two helicopters.

2. The Chinese announcement came shortly after nine pirates attacked "Zhenhua 4", a Chinese cargo ship with 30 crewmen, in Somali waters on December 17, 2008. The Chinese ship, owned by the China Communications Construction Co, was rescued by two warships and a helicopter of Malaysia. Twenty per cent of the 1,265 Chinese ships that have passed through the Somali waters in the first 11 months of this year, have faced pirate attacks, according to a spokesman of the company. Seven of these ships were hijacked, and the pirates were still holding a Chinese fishing ship and 18 sailors. China's decision came after the UN Security Council, in an unanimous vote on December 16, 2008, gave nations fighting against pirates in the Gulf of Aden a one-year mandate to act inside and off Somalia.

3. The State-owned Xinhua news agency quoted Wu Shengli, the Commander of the Chinese Navy, as telling the 1000 sailors of the three ships at a function before the Task Force set sail as follows: "It's the first time we go abroad to protect our strategic interests armed with military force. It's the first time for us to organise a naval force on an international humanitarian mission and the first time for our navy to protect important shipping lanes far from our shores."

4. The Chinese task force will be joining more than a dozen warships from Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, France, Russia, Britain, Malaysia and the US, who have already undertaken an anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden. With China sending its ships, the Navies of all the five permanent members of the UN Security Council will now be co-operating in the fight against piracy. Japan has already announced its intention of sending one of its ships too.

5. Even though Admiral Timothy Keating, the Commander of the US Pacific Command in Hawaii, has welcomed the Chinese decision and expressed the hope that the operations of the US and Chinese naval ships side by side in the Somali waters might lead to a resumption of the military-military contacts between the two countries, which are in a state of suspension since October, 2008, due to Chinese unhappiness over the supply of US military equipment to Taiwan, the US cannot but be concerned over the long-term implications of the Chinese naval presence in an area of strategic importance to the US.

6. Admiral Keating was quoted by the media as saying immedaitely after the Chinese announcement of its decision to send the ships on anti-piracy patrol: "China's plans to join the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia could lead to a renewal of military exchanges between Beijing and Washington. I think this could be a springboard for a resumption of dialogue between PLA forces and US Pacific Command forces."

7. Commenting on the US Admiral's statement, Peng Guangqian, a Chinese strategic expert working in the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, was quoted as saying on December 22, 2008, that the armed forces of China and the US would be cooperating for the first time in a real security environment off Somalia's coast. He added: "The military cooperation between the two sides should be based on international laws and codes, mutual respect and equal consultation. Only this way can bilateral military cooperation proceed steadily."

8. The Chinese decision has been widely welcomed by Chinese Internet chatters and bloggers as a moment of great pride for China. It has also been welcomed by the community of Chinese strategic experts. Typical among the comments are:

Li Wei, Director of the Anti-terrorism Research Centre of the China Institute of Contemporary Relations: "It is a huge breakthrough in China's concepts about security. It sends a strong political message to the international community that China with its improved economic and military strength is willing to play a larger role in maintaining world peace and security."

Prof. Li Jie, a naval researcher: "Joining other countries to fight Somali pirates would be a very good opportunity for the Chinese Navy to get into the thick of the action. Apart from fighting pirates, another key goal is to register the presence of the Chinese Navy. If the navy's special forces join in, that will be in order to counter the pirates' attempt to board other ships. In general, the mission is to deter pirates, because that is the basic objective."

Prof Pang Zhongying at Renmin University of China: "Joining other fleets in the Somali waters will contribute to international security.

Earlier, Chinese army personnel joining UN peacekeeping missions were engineering and medical staff, police, or peacekeepers. But now, dispatching naval ships would not be a problem as the menace of Somali piracy has become a common threat to the whole international community. China's image as a responsible sovereign nation will improve by participating in such missions. The number of troops in any such mission would not be high. It would be on a limited scale initially."

9. It is not yet clear which port the Chinese ships will be using for refuelling and re-stocking purposes during the three months they will be away from China, but reports from Pakistani sources say that the Pakistan Navy has already offered the use of the Karachi port for this purpose. The Gwadar port is not presently under consideration for this purpose since part of the construction has not yet been completed. Even though Part I has been completed and a small number of foreign commercial ships has started using it, the refuelling and re-stocking facilities in Gwadar are not yet satisfactory.

10. The Pakistani offer of the use of Karachi was reported to have been discussed with Chinese officials during the recent visit to China by the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Tariq Majid for the sixth round of the Pakistan-China Defence and Security Talks. On December 15, 2008, Gen.Majid and General Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff, People's Liberation Army, signed an agreement on military co-operation. Though details of this agreement were not disclosed, it is believed that Pakistan has offered the use of the Karachi port to the Chinese ships under this agreement. This visit was fixed long before the Chinese decision to undertake anti-piracy patrols.

11. India, which has sent a ship of its own navy to the Gulf of Aden on anti-piracy patrol, cannot object to the Chinese ships joining the patrol, but it would be justified in keeping a wary eye on the Chinese ships. What is now projected by the Chinese as a temporary measure of self-defence and peace-keeping against pirates, could develop into a permanent presence of strategic value to the Chinese Navy in terms of power projection in the waters to the West of India. It could develop as a Chinese counter to India's power projection in the seas to the East of India.

12. Pakistan's immediate interest in the Chinese using Karachi as a possible base for their operations in the Somali waters arises from the hope that it could act as a deterrent to any Indian threat to Karachi in the event of the current tensions between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, leading to a military confrontation between the two countries.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

12. Tirukural - Chapter 2: The Importance of Rain- It is the unfailing fall of rain that sustains the world. Therefore, look upon rain as the nectar of life.Kauai_Hindu_Monastery@jnanadana.com

Date: -30.12.08

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Tirukural

A daily chapter from South Indian saint Tiruvalluvar's Tirukural, "Holy Couplets."

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Chapter 2: The Importance of Rain

Kural 11

It is the unfailing fall of rain that sustains the world.

Therefore, look upon rain as the nectar of life.

Kural 12

Rain produces man's wholesome food;

and rain itself forms part of his food besides.

Kural 13

Though oceanic waters surround it, the world will be deluged

by hunger's hardships if the billowing clouds betray us.

Kural 14

When clouds withhold their watery wealth,

farmers cease to ply their plows.

Kural 15

It is rain that ruins, and it is rain again

that raises up those it has ruined.

Kural 16

Unless raindrops fall from the sky,

not a blade of green grass will rise from the earth.

Kural 17

The very nature of oceans, though vast, would diminish

if clouds ceased to take up water and replenish rain's gifts.

Kural 18

Should the heavens dry up, worship here of the heavenly ones

in festivals and daily rites would wither.

Kural 19

Unless the heavens grant their gifts, neither the giver's generosity

nor the ascetic's detachment will grace this wide world.

Kural 20

No life on Earth can exist without water,

and water's ceaseless flow cannot exist without rain.

Date: -30.12.08

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Vedic Verses

A daily collection of verses from the Vedas, Hinduism's revealed scripture

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Vedic Verses for 12/29/08

He who knows this and meditates on the foot of Brahman consisting of four quarters as Ayatanavat, possesses a support (i.e. home) on this earth. He conquers the worlds which offer a home-he who knows this and meditates on the foot of Brahman consistingof four quarters as Ayatanavat.

Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad IV, VIII - Instruction by the Diver-Bird, 4

Satyakama reached the teacher's house. The teacher said to him: Satyakama! Revered Sir! Satyakama replied.

Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad IV, IX - Instruction by the Teacher, 1

The teacher said: Dear friend, you shine like one who knows Brahman. Who has taught you? Others than men, he replied. But I wish, revered Sir, that you alone should teach me.

Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad IV, IX - Instruction by the Teacher, 2

For I have heard from persons like your good self that only knowledge which is learnt from a teacher (acharya) leads to the highest good. Then he (Gautama) taught him the same knowledge. Nothing whatsoever was left out, yea, nothing whatsoever was left out.

Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad IV, IX - Instruction by the Teacher, 3

Upakosala the son of Kamala dwelt as a brahmachirin (religious student) with Satyakama the son of Jabala. He tended his teacher's fires for twelve years. Satyakama allowed his other pupils to return to their homes after they had finished their Vedic studies but did not allow Upakosala to depart.

Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad IV, X - The Story of Upakosala, 1

14. Gospel of Jesus: Did Jesus advise to Divide, to Kill, and to Rule? Was he a Terrorist? Who can believe this?

i) Holy Bible - New Testament, Luke 12; 51-53: Jesus said:

ii) Holy Bible, New Testament, Luke 20; 27: Jesus said: “for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence.”

15. Role of alleged CIA asset in Mumbai attacks being downplayed– The role in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month of an underworld kingpin that heads an organization known as D-Company, has known ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and who is alleged to have ties with the CIA is apparently being whitewashed, suggesting that his capture and handover to India might prove inconvenient for either the ISI or the CIA, or both. (By Jeremy R. Hammond) (Source: http://onlinejournal.com )

Date: -30.12.08

Online Journal Contributing Writer

Dec 10, 2008, 00:24

(FPJ) -- The role in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month of an underworld kingpin that heads an organization known as D-Company, has known ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and who is alleged to have ties with the CIA is apparently being whitewashed, suggesting that his capture and handover to India might prove inconvenient for either the ISI or the CIA, or both.

It was Dawood Ibrahim who was initially characterized by press reports as being the mastermind behind the attacks. Now, that title of “mastermind” is being given to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi by numerous media accounts reporting that Pakistan security forces have raided a training camp of the group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which evidence has indicated was behind the attacks. Lakhvi was reportedly captured in the raid and is now in custody.

At the same time Ibrahim’s role is being downplayed, Lakhvi’s known role is being exaggerated. Initial reports described him as the training specialist for LeT, but the major media outlets like the New York Times and the London Times, citing government sources, have since promoted his status to that of commander of operations for the group.

The only terrorist from the Mumbai attacks to be captured alive, Azam Amir Kasab, characterized Ibrahim, not Lakhvi, as the mastermind of those attacks, according to earlier press accounts.

Kasab reportedly told his interrogators that he and his fellow terrorists were trained under Lakhvi, also known as “Chacha,” at a camp in Pakistan. Indian officials also traced calls from a satellite phone used by the terrorists to Lakhvi.

But the phone had also been used to call Yusuf Muzammil, also known as Abu Yusuf, Abu Hurrera, and “Yahah.” And it has been Muzammil, not Lakhvi, who has previously been described as the military commander of LeT. It was an intercepted call to Muzammil on November 18 that put the Indian Navy and Coast Guard on high alert to be on the lookout for any foreign vessels from Pakistan entering Indian waters.

Kasab told his interrogators that his team had set out from Karachi, Pakistan, on a ship belonging to Dawood Ibrahim, the MV Alpha. They then hijacked an Indian fishing trawler, the Kuber, to pass through Indian territorial waters to elude the Navy and Coast Guard that were boarding and searching suspect ships.

Although the MV Alpha was subsequently found and seized by the Indian Navy, there have been few, if any, developments about this aspect of the investigation in press accounts, such as whether it has been confirmed or not that the ship was owned by Ibrahim.

Upon arriving off the coast near the city, they were received by inflatable rubber dinghies that had been arranged by an associate of Ibrahim’s in Mumbai.

The planning and execution of the attacks are indicative of the mastermind role not of either Lakhvi or Muzammil, but of Ibrahim, an Indian who is intimately familiar with the city. It was in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) that Ibrahim rose through the ranks of the underworld to become a major organized crime boss.

At least two other Indians were also connected to the attacks, Mukhtar Ahmed and Tausef Rahman. They were arrested for their role in obtaining SIM cards used in the cell phones of the terrorists. Ahmed, according to Indian officials, had in fact been recruited by a special counter-insurgency police task force as an undercover operative. His exact role is still being investigated.

One of the SIM cards used was possibly purchased from New Jersey. Investigators are looking into this potential link to the US, as well.

Dawood Ibrahim went from underworld kingpin to terrorist in 1993, when he was connected to a series of bombings in Bombay that resulted in 250 deaths. He is wanted by Interpol and was designated by the US as a global terrorist in 2003.

It’s believed Ibrahim has been residing in Karachi, and Indian officials have accused Pakistan’s ISI of protecting him.

Ibrahim is known to be a major drug trafficker responsible for shipping narcotics into the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), most Afghan opium (or its derivative, heroin, which is increasingly being produced in the country before export) is smuggled through Iran and Turkey en route by land to Europe; but the percentage that goes to Pakistan seems to mostly find its way directly to the UK, either by plane or by ship.

Afghanistan is the world’s leading producer of opium, a trend that developed during the CIA-backed mujahedeen effort to oust the Soviet Union from the country, with the drug trade serving to help finance the war.

The principle recipient of CIA-ISI funding was Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, one of the major drug lords. Hekmatyar has since joined with the Taliban in the insurgency effort to expel foreign forces from the country – not the Soviet Union, this time, but the US.

A Taliban ban on the cultivation of opium poppies in 2000 resulted in the near total eradication of the crop. But since the US overthrow of the regime in 2001, Afghanistan has once again become the world’s leading producer of opium, surpassing all previous records.

While Hekmatyar chose to side with anti-government forces, a number of other warlords involved in the drug trade were members of the Northern Alliance to whom the CIA doled out cash in the US effort to overthrow the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks.

One such warlord is Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was appointed Chief of Staff of the army under the government of Hamid Karzai, and who has been described in US intelligence’s own files as a “Tier One Warlord.”

That list includes a number of other high ranking officials within the Afghanistan government, including former defense minister and parliament member Marshal Mohammad Fahim, Interior Minister for Counter-Narcotics General Mohammad Daoud, and former governor of Helmand province (now by far the largest producer of opium) Sher Mohammed Akhundzada.

Although government officials parroted by the mainstream media tend to characterize the Afghan opium trade as being controlled by the Taliban, in fact the estimated drug profits of all anti-government elements (AGEs) is a mere fraction of the trade’s total estimated export value. The UNODC estimated the export value this year at $3.4 billion. Of that, AGEs profited between $250-470 million, less than 14% of the total trade. Moreover, what fraction of that percentage has gone specifically to the Taliban as opposed to other AGEs is unknown.

Furthermore, while the Taliban profits from the production of opium through ushr, a 10% tax on all agricultural products, and possibly through a protection racket in which it receives compensation for providing security along smuggling routes, the UNODC has acknowledged that there is little indication that the Taliban itself is responsible for either the actual production or trafficking of the drug.

This is an inconvenient truth for the US, which has so far managed through its propaganda efforts to successfully obfuscate the truth about the Afghan drug trade and portray the Taliban as being almost wholly responsible.

A known drug trafficker, Dawood Ibrahim is naturally also involved in money laundering, which is perhaps where the role of gambling operations in Nepal comes into the picture.

Yoichi Shimatsu, former editor of the Japan Times, wrote last month after the Mumbai attacks that Ibrahim had worked with the US to help finance the mujahedeen during the 1980s and that because he knows too much about the US’s “darker secrets” in the region, he could never be allowed to be turned over to India.

The recent promotion of Lakhvi to “mastermind” of the attacks while Ibrahim’s name disappears from media reports would seem to lend credence to Shimatsu’s assertion.

Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen similarly reported that according to intelligence sources, Dawood Ibrahim is a CIA asset, both as a veteran of the mujahedeen war and in a continuing connection with his casino and drug trade operations in Kathmandu, Nepal. A deal had been made earlier this year to have Pakistan hand Ibrahim over to India, but the CIA was fearful that this would lead to too many of its dirty secrets coming to light, including the criminal activities of high level personnel within the agency.

One theory on the Mumbai attacks is that it was backlash for this double-cross that was among other things intended to serve as a warning that any such arrangement could have further serious consequences.

Although designated as a major international terrorist by the US, media reports in India have characterized the US’s past interest in seeing Ibrahim handed over as less than enthusiastic. Former Indian Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani wrote in his memoir, “My Country My Life,” that he made a great effort to get Pakistan to hand over Ibrahim, and met with then US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice (now Secretary of State) to pressure Pakistan to do so. But he was informed by Powell that Pakistan would hand over Ibrahim only “with some strings attached” and that then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would need more time before doing so.

The handover, needless to say, never occurred. The Pakistan government has also publicly denied that Ibrahim is even in the country; a denial that was repeated following the recent Mumbai attacks.

Others suspected of involvement in the attacks and named among the 20 individuals India wants Pakistan to turn over also have possible connections to the CIA, including Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of LeT, and Maulana Masood Azhar, both veterans of the CIA-backed mujahedeen effort.

Azhar had been captured in 1994 and imprisoned in India for his role as leader of the Pakistani-based terrorist group Karkut-ul-Mujahideen. He was released, however, in 1999 in exchange for hostages from the takeover of Indian Airlines Flight 814, which was hijacked during its flight from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India and redirected to Afghanistan. After Azhar’s release, he formed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which was responsible for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 that led Pakistan and India to the brink of war. LeT was also blamed for the attack alongside JeM.

Both LeT and JeM have links to the ISI, which has used the groups as proxies in the conflict with India over the territory of Kashmir.

Hafiz Saeed travelled to Peshawar to join the mujahedeen cause during the Soviet-Afghan war. Peshawar served as the base of operations for the CIA, which worked closely with the ISI to finance, arm, and train the mujahedeen. It was in Peshawar that Saeed became the protégé of Abdullah Azzam, who founded an organization called Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) along with a Saudi individual named Osama bin Laden.

MAK worked alongside the CIA-ISI operations to recruit Arabs to the ranks of the mujahedeen. The ISI, acting as proxy for the CIA, chose mainly to channel its support to Afghans, such as Gulbaddin Hekmatyar. The U.S. claims the CIA had no relationship with MAK, but bin Laden’s operation, which later evolved into “al-Qaeda,” must certainly have been known to, and approved by, the CIA.

But there are indications that the CIA’s relationship with MAK and al-Qaeda go well beyond having shared a common enemy and mutual interests in the Soviet-Afghan war. A number of al-Qaeda associates appear to have been protected individuals.

Branches of MAK existed elsewhere, including in the United States. The US Treasury Department lists one of MAK’s aliases as Al-Kifah. The Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, New York, served as a recruitment center during the 1980s, but its operations did not end after the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Kifah was also a recruitment center for efforts by extremist groups in the Balkans.

Just as in Afghanistan, the US also had mutual interests with Bosnian Muslims and extremist groups acting in the Balkans. MAK had since evolved into al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden, which had links to groups operating in Bosnia. Despite an arms embargo against such groups, they managed to obtain weapons and supply shipments in which the US at best looked the other way and at worst played an active role.

The operations to arm al-Qaeda linked groups in Bosnia were carried under the watch of then director of the US European Command Intelligence Directorate Gen. Michael V. Hayden. Hayden subsequently served as the director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005 and is currently the Director of Central Intelligence, or DCI, which is the head of the CIA.

A former official at the US consular office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Michael Springman went public after 9/11 to explain how his office was used by the CIA to bring recruits to the US for training during the 1980s.

The Jeddah office is where most of the 9/11 hijackers obtained their visas to enter the US.

Two other of the hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, were in fact known to the CIA and were being monitored. Despite being known al-Qaeda operatives, they were allowed to enter the US under their real names and neither the FBI nor the State Department were notified.

The US explains this as the result of the CIA losing the terrorists’ trail when they travelled to Thailand after an al-Qaeda meeting in Kuala Lumpur. But this explanation does not stand up to scrutiny since it was known that they had obtained visas to enter the US. Thus, even if the CIA did in fact lose track of the terrorists, standard procedure should have dictated that the FBI and State Department be alerted.

The 9/11 Joint Inquiry and subsequent 9/11 Commission were apparently satisfied with the CIA’s explanation that it lost al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar, and nobody was ever held accountable for the “mistake” of knowingly allowing two known al-Qaeda operatives on the terrorist watchlist to enter the United States unhindered.

Upon arriving in the US, al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar were assisted by an individual under FBI surveillance for his possible connections to terrorist groups and, furthermore, even lived in a house rented from an FBI informant. But the FBI claims that it didn’t know anything about the men, despite them using their real names and being listed in the phone book, because the CIA hadn’t informed them the two were in the country. The Joint Inquiry report described this as perhaps the single greatest missed opportunity to break up the 9/11 operation and prevent the attacks.

Additionally, it was in fact the CIA who not once, but at least on six separate occasions, approved a visa, including from the office in Jeddah, for or the entry of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a.k.a. “the Blind Sheikh,” into the US, despite his known connection to terrorist acts in Egypt, including the assassination of Anwar Sadat, and despite having been on the State Department’s terrorist watchlist. This, too, was described as a series of “mistakes” after the government was forced to admit that it had occurred – an explanation that the New York Times, which reported this information in a series of articles, seemed to find perfectly satisfactory.

Many, however, find such incompetency and coincidence theories to be simply not credible, preferring instead alternative, oftentimes much more plausible, conspiracy theories.

The Blind Sheikh had also travelled to Peshawar during the mujahedeen effort, and was good friends with Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, the CIA’s top asset during the Soviet-Afghan war. He later became the spiritual head of the terrorist group that carried out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, a plot which the FBI had known about in advance through two or more informants.

One of the informants served as a bodyguard for the Blind Sheikh and was made responsible for obtaining materials to make the bomb with. Tape recordings he secretly made of conversations with his FBI handlers reveal that the original sting operation involved a plan to replace a chemical used in making the bomb with an inert simulant that would render it inoperative. But this plan was withdrawn by a supervisor at the FBI and the terrorist cell was allowed to go ahead and make a real bomb – which was then used to blow up the World Trade Center.

Another notable character connected to Al-Kifah training and recruitment efforts for al-Qaeda is Ali Mohammed. He also happened to be an in FBI informant, a CIA asset, and a member of the special forces in the US Army. It is Ali Mohammed whom some suspect of actually being the mastermind of the 1993 WTC bombing. He was later charged in connection to the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, but has since seemingly disappeared off the map.

After the 9/11 attacks, the investigation into the financing of the attacks led to Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin. According to Indian officials, a joint investigation with the FBI revealed evidence that it was at the direction of the head of the ISI, Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, that Omar Sheikh transferred $100,000 to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in Florida.

Omar Sheikh, a known associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured and imprisoned in India for his role in the kidnapping of American and British nationals in 1994. He was released in 1999 along with Maulana Massod Azhar in exchange for the hostages from Flight 814. According to former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, Omar Sheikh was also an agent of Britain’s spy agency, MI6, for whom he served in operations in the Balkans.

Omar Sheikh’s role in the 9/11 attacks has also been downplayed. Mention of him in the media instead focus on his role as the man responsible for the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. He is currently being held in Pakistan on charges relating to Pearl’s murder.

After Mahmud Ahmed’s alleged role in the 9/11 attacks became known publicly, Musharraf quietly replaced him and the whole affair was hushed up in the US. When a reporter from a foreign news agency asked then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice whether she was aware of the reports that the ISI chief had financed the hijackers and was in Washington meeting with high level officials at the time of the attacks, she denied having seen “that report” and protested that, “he was certainly not meeting with me.”

Interestingly, the White House website transcript of the press briefing censored the words “ISI chief” from the reporter’s question, despite the words clearly being audible in the video of the briefing.

The 9/11 Commission also acted to whitewash Mahmud Ahmed’s alleged role in the attacks. Despite the question of the ISI chief’s involvement being included on a list of items for the Commission to investigate from families of the victims of the attacks, the Commission’s report made no mention of it, either to confirm or deny the information, which, despite having received zero coverage in the US major media (with the one exception of a citation of a report from the Times of India in a blog on the Wall Street Journal’s opinion website), was widely reported internationally (as well as in US alternative media).

Rather, the 9/11 Commission simply acted as though such reports didn’t exist. Despite Bob Graham, one of the chairs of the earlier Congressional Joint Inquiry, publicly stating that he was surprised by the evidence of foreign government involvement (he added that this information would not be made public for another twenty or thirty years when it would be due for release to the national archives), the 9/11 Commission report arrived at the opposite conclusion, saying there was no evidence of any such involvement and, moreover, that the question of who financed the attacks was “of little practical significance.”

Another former head of the ISI is now being privately accused by the US of involvement with the group responsible for the Mumbai attacks, according to reports citing a document listing former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul and four other former heads of Pakistan’s intelligence agency as being involved in supporting terrorist networks. The individuals named have been recommended to the UN Security Council to be named as international terrorists, according to Pakistan’s The News.

The document has been provided to the Pakistan government and also accuses Gul, who was head of the ISI from 1987-1989, of providing assistance to criminal groups in Kabul, as well as to groups responsible for recruiting and training militants to attack US-led forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban.

Hamid Gul responded to the reports by calling the allegations hilarious. The US denied that it had made any such recommendations to the UN.

But the US has similarly accused the ISI of involvement in the bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul last July. This was unusual not because of the allegation of an ISI connection to terrorism but because it was in such stark contrast with US attempts to publicly portray Pakistan as a staunch ally in its “war on terrorism” when the country was under the dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf.

The US attitude toward Pakistan shifted once an elected government came to power that has been more willing to side with the overwhelming belief among the public that it is the “war on terrorism” itself that has exacerbated the problem of extremist militant groups and led to further terrorist attacks within the country, such as the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto last year or the bombing of the Marriot Hotel in September. While the world’s attention has been focused on the attacks in Mumbai, a bomb blast in Peshawar last week killed 21 and injured 90.

While the purported US document names Gul and others as terrorist supporters, another report, from Indian intelligence, indicates that the terrorists who carried out the attacks in Mumbai were among 500 trained by instructors from the Pakistan military, according to the Sunday edition of The Times. This training of the 10 known Mumbai terrorists would have taken place prior to their recent preparation for these specific attacks by the LeT training specialist Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

But while Lakhvi, Muzammil, and Hafiz Saeed have continued to be named in connection with last month’s attacks in Mumbai, the name of Dawood Ibrahim seems to be either disappearing altogether or his originally designated role as the accused mastermind of the attacks being credited now instead to Lakhvi in media accounts.

Whether this is a deliberate effort to downplay Ibrahim’s role in the attacks so as not to have to force Pakistan to turn him over because of embarrassing revelations pertaining to the CIA’s involvement with known terrorists and drug traffickers that development could possibly produce isn’t certain. But what is certain is that the CIA has had a long history of involvement with such characters and that the US has a track record of attempting to keep information about the nature of such involvement in the dark or to cover it up once it reaches the light of public scrutiny.

This article originally appeared at Foreign Policy Journal. It may be reprinted with attribution and a link to the source.

Related: The Mumbai Attacks: More than Meets the Eye

Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal, a website dedicated to providing news, critical analysis, and opinion commentary on U.S. foreign policy from outside of the standard framework offered by government officials and the mainstream corporate media, particularly with regard to the “war on terrorism” and events in the Middle East. He has also written for numerous other online publications. You can contact him at jeremy@foreignpolicyjournal.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Date: -30.12.08

On 8 November 1948, Nathuram Godse rose to make his statement in court. Reading quietly from a typed manuscript, he sought to explain why he had killed Gandhi. His thesis covered ninety-pages, and he was on his feet for five hours. Godse's statement should be quoted extensively, for it provides an insight into his personality.

"Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus are of equal status as to rights, social and religious, and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.

I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Vaishyas, Kshatriyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely what Veer (brave) Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other factor has done.

All this thinking and reading led me to believe that it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (three hundred million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and well-being of all India, one fifth of the human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghatanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the National Independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well. Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokmanya Tilak, Gandhi's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme.

His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to these slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a dream if you imagine the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust.

I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. (In the Ramayana) Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. (In the Mahabharata) Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed the total ignorance of the springs of human action. In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essential for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, R ana Pratap and Guru Govind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhi has merely exposed as self-conceit.

He was, paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them. The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very good work in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there.

But when he finally returned to India, he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on in his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the Civil Disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin it and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fai l' was his formula for his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.

Thus the Mahatma became the judge and the jury in his own case. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his policies were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with, as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility, Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, and disaster after disaster. Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly illustrated in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language.

In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language in India called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect; It is spoken, not written. It is a tongue and a crossbreed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and the purity of the Hindi language were to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.

From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with little retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them.

Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and was succeeded by Lord Mountbaten. King Stork followed King Log. The Congress, which had boasted of its nationalism and secularism, secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian Territory became foreign land to us from 15 August 1947. Lord Mountbaten came to be described in the Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had.

The official date for the handing over of power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbaten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what the Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called it 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we considered a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger.

One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed some conditions on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any conditions on the Muslims.

He was fully aware from past experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi. Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he has failed in his paternal duty inasmuch he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power, his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled against Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless.

Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw that I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I thought that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be practical, able to retaliate and would be powerful with the armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me or dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason, which I consider necessary for sound nation-building.

After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage on both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds in Birla House. I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy, which was unfairly favorable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi.

I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preaching and deeds are at times at variance with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims. I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism leveled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history wi ll weigh my act and find the true value thereof someday in future."

17. The Master Course - Lesson 261- What Is the Inner Importance of Puja? The traditional rite of worship, called puja, is a sanctified act of the highest importance for the Hindu. It is the invoking of God Siva and the Gods and the heartfelt expression of our love, devotion and surrender. Aum.

(Kauai_Hindu_Monastery@jnanadana.com)

Date: -30.12.08

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The Master Course

The lesson of the day from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's trilogy: Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva and Merging with Siva

Lesson 261

Sloka 106 from Dancing with Siva

What Is the Inner Importance of Puja?

The traditional rite of worship, called puja, is a sanctified act of the highest importance for the Hindu. It is the invoking of God Siva and the Gods and the heartfelt expression of our love, devotion and surrender. Aum.

Bhashya

Puja is a ceremony in which the ringing of bells, passing of flames, presenting of offerings and chanting invoke the devas and Mahadevas, who then come to bless and help us. Puja is our holy communion, full of wonder and tender affections. It is that part of our day which we share most closely and consciously with our beloved Deity; and thus it is for Saivites the axis of religious life. Our worship through puja, outlined in the Saiva Agamas, may be an expression of festive celebration of important events in life, of adoration and thanksgiving, penance and confession, prayerful supplication and requests, or contemplation at the deepest levels of superconsciousness. Puja may be conducted on highly auspicious days in a most elaborate, orthodox and strict manner by the temple pujaris, or it may be offered in the simplest form each morning and evening in the home shrine by any devotee. The Vedas proclaim, "Sacrifice resembles a loom w ith threads extended this way and that, composed of innumerable rituals. Behold now the fathers weaving the fabric; seated on the outstretched loom. 'Lengthwise! Crosswise!' they cry." Aum Namah Sivaya.

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Lesson 261 from Living with Siva

The Cause of Joy and Sorrow

Somewhere the idea was born that man should live in states of happiness and joy all of the time. But, in the first place, happiness and joy depend upon unhappiness and sorrow, even to be recognized or appreciated. If man would only know that whatever emotion transpires within him foreshadows its opposite. Secondly, suffering is a greater intensity, a higher vibration, than happiness. You do not learn much from your happinesses; you learn from the states of suffering, which awaken the higher consciousness of your soul. But suffering has no value for its own sake. When the mind recognizes it is suffering over something or other, it is time to practice meditation, to see into the causes, to expand your consciousness a little bit more so that you will grasp the workings of life and its karmic laws. Then you will attain to a greater intensity than either joy or suffering has to offer. You will view the wheel of life, of cause and effect, ob jectively. And you will not so quickly identify yourself with the lower emotions or the objects of your own mind's creation.

Then there are the people who, like a fish caught by a fisherman, grasp onto the hook, who step on the spiritual path, but spend their time flip-flopping in the water, tugging at the line, swimming first one way then the other, never really approaching the surface. Why? They live in their ego, that's all. Their consciousness is limited. The ego is just a trifle dumb. Have you observed an egotistical person? He is just a little dumb, isn't he--not aware of the layers and layers of wisdom within him.

It is the wise man who recognizes the importance of controlling the forces of his mind. His life is a struggle to make his philosophy real, to gain control of the cycles of experience which have tied him to the wheel of karma. You don't escape the chain of cause and effect by just sitting with your eyes closed, trying to keep awake, trying to meditate. The genuine practice of yoga involves meeting new challenges each day, having new realizations each day, becoming the boss of your mind, not allowing it to flop around at the end of the line. This type of diligent concentration will definitely change you from the inside out. You will begin to realize, more and more, that you are the creator of your life and every aspect of it.

But your incarnation on this planet is not complete until you have exhausted the wheel of karma, and it will not exhaust itself unless you gain control of it. The wheel of karma, of cause and effect, the world of form, is apparent only when you look at it. You only attain the natural state of your radiant inner being when you step off the wheel of karma. It is not natural for man to live bound to the lower states of mind, ignorant of the fact that God dwells within. But the hearing and understanding of this truth is only the first glimmer of the dawn, a preliminary awakening. The rest, the final realization, is up to you. It is up to you and you alone to penetrate the veil of illusion and realize the Self, the Absolute, beyond desire, beyond the experiences of the mind. It is up to you to realize God.

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Sutra 261 of the Nandinatha Sutras

The Importance Of Family Missions

My congregation is organized into local missions to nurture religious life through shared worship, extended family gatherings, sacraments and community service, in accordance with the Saiva Dharma Shastras. Aum.

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Lesson 261 from Merging with Siva

The Spine's Central Energy

Once in either current for a long time, it is difficult to flow awareness out of it. There are some people who are predominantly pingala, aggressive in nature and strong in their human elements in that area. There are some people who are predominantly ida, human, physical and earthy, and full of feeling. And there are some who switch from one to the other. These are the more rounded and well-adjusted type of people, who can move awareness through the pingala current and through the ida current and adjust the energies almost at will.

We have still another basic strong current that you should know about. It is called sushumna. Within this massive current are fourteen other smaller currents which govern the instinctive, intellectual, conscious, subconscious, sub of the subconscious, subsuperconscious and superconscious areas of the mind. The ida and the pingala are two of these fourteen, so this leaves twelve more within the sushumna.

When we begin a religious pilgrimage or retreat into sadhana and we want awareness to dive deep within, we have to withdraw the energy of the vibrating ida and the vibrating pingala current into sushumna. This is quite a chore, because these currents have had energy flowing in them for a number of years. So, to rechannel that energy is to rechannel the entire circumference of awareness into the sushumna current. This takes a lot of practice.

Breathing, of course, is a major function of control here. Hatha yoga is a major function, too. Sitting in the lotus position conquers a great deal of the ida current. The practices of concentration and observation conquer a great deal of the pingala current. Some good, solid study that disciplines awareness, such as the study of math, music or a skill, moves awareness into the pingala and helps balance these two currents.

Then the next step is to bring awareness into sushumna. This is the path. However, if awareness is flowing through the pingala current already and is extremely aggressive, that means the entire nature of the individual is extremely aggressive, intellectual, and it is extremely difficult for him to withdraw those energies into the sushumna current. Why? Because he will argue within himself mentally and reason himself out of it. He will simply go to another book, or have a different intellectual look at it, or go to another teacher, or watch television instead, or go to another lecture. He will never quite get around to bringing in this aggressive pingala energy from the intellect back to its source, sushumna, so that he can go within and experience superconscious realms of the inner mind consciously.

These two forces, the ida and the pingala, are the big challenges. They are what makes a person "human" in the popular sense of the word. It is the degree of energy that flows through the areas of the ida and pingala that forms one's nature, his actions, reactions and responses. The areas of his external personality are governed by these two currents.

18. Pak troop movement a ploy to blackmail the US: India (NDTV Correspondent)

Date: 30.12.08

Indian Army sources say, India is not unduly worried about the reports of Pakistan's troop movements. They are seeing them as nominal and catered mainly towards appeasing domestic public opinion.

Indian Army's Western, South-western and Northern Command, continue to be in state of general alert but not in a state of high alert.

Whatever movement of Indian tanks and troops are noticed in Rajasthan is part of the annual firing exercises that various units conduct in Rajasthan's Lathi, Mahajan and Pokhran ranges in the winter months.

India also sees this as a Pakistani tactic designed to blackmail America, which is clearly worried about Pakistani troops pulling out from the Afghan border and the fight against Al-Qaida.

There are reports all over the media about heavy redeployment of forces along the Line of Control and International Border.

But NDTV has learnt that there is no significant movement of forces towards the Indian border.

Meanwhile, newspaper reports say that thousands of troops have been moved towards the Indian border.

Brigades of 4 to 5 thousand men have been deployed to the Lahore and Sialkot sector.

All old bunkers are being renovated while new ones are being built and leaves of personnel have been cancelled.

19. Somali president quits amid international pressure. Somalia's president resigned Monday after a four-year term in which his Western-backed government failed to extend its power throughout a country crippled by infighting and a strengthening Islamic insurgency. The insurgents used the Ethiopian presence as a rallying cry to gain recruits even as the Islamists' strict form of Islam terrified many Somalis into submission. (hindustantimes.com)

Date: 30.12.08

Somalia's president resigned Monday after a four-year term in which his Western-backed government failed to extend its power throughout a country crippled by infighting and a strengthening Islamic insurgency.

Abdullahi Yusuf's resignation, which comes amid deepening international pressure, could usher in more chaos as Islamic militants scramble for power - even though the government controls only pockets of the capital, Mogadishu, and the seat of parliament in Baidoa.

Within hours of the announcement, mortar shells slammed into the streets near the presidential palace in Mogadishu, where the government maintains a token presence.

Somalia has been beset by two decades of anarchy, violence and an insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives.

When Yusuf took office in October 2004, the country had been divided into fiefdoms ruled by rival warlords since 1991, when a socialist dictator was overthrown. There were more than a dozen previous peace efforts and two previous governments, but they never managed to take effective control over the country. Yusuf's government has never been strong.

The last time Yusuf lost his grip on the nation to Islamic insurgents, in 2006, he made the unpopular decision to call in troops from neighboring Ethiopia to prop up his administration. The call backfired _ Somalis saw the Ethiopians as "occupiers" and accused them of brutality.

The insurgents used the Ethiopian presence as a rallying cry to gain recruits even as the Islamists' strict form of Islam terrified many Somalis into submission.

In many ways, Yusuf is leaving Somalia much as he found it. But this time, insurgents are in control of most of the country, prompting fears it could become a haven for terrorists. Meanwhile, all public institutions have crumbled and the once-beautiful seaside capital is now a gun-blasted shantytown. The lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. In the address broadcast nationwide on the radio, Yusuf said he could not unite Somalia's bickering leadership and that the country was "paralyzed."

The parliament speaker will stand as acting president until parliament elects a new leader within 30 days. There have been no announcements of who might be under consideration, but many believe Yusuf's absence will allow moderate Islamist leaders into the government.

The most aggressive Islamic insurgency group, al-Shabab, has made dramatic territorial gains in recent months, and insurgents now control most of the country. The statement said it was too early to tell if Yusuf's replacement would be an improvement. The United States accuses al-Shabab of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Many of the insurgency's senior figures are Islamic radicals; some are on the State Department's list of wanted terrorists.

The U.N. envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who has been trying to salvage an ineffective peace deal in the country, welcomed Yusuf's resignation and said "a new page of Somalia history is now open."

The United Nations has brokered peace deals between the government and an opposition faction, but they have failed to quell the political and violent chaos. Al-Shabab has refused to participate in the talks.

Thousands of civilians have been killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades in fighting in this arid country. The United Nations says Somalia has 300,000 acutely malnourished children, but attacks and kidnappings of aid workers have shut down many humanitarian projects.

Rights groups have accused all sides in the conflict - Islamic insurgents, the government and Ethiopian troops - of committing war crimes and other serious abuses.

Ethiopia's planned withdrawal of troops would end their unpopular presence and leave the administration more vulnerable to insurgents. The Ethiopians entered Somalia two years ago with the tacit approval of the United States to drive out an earlier group of Islamic insurgents.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on one another. The current transitional government was formed with U.N. help in 2004.

Yusuf, a former Somali army colonel in the 1960s, was jailed by Barre when he refused to cooperate in a coup d'etat in 1969. Although Yusuf is a member of one of Somalia's four biggest clans, the Darod, he was unpopular in Mogadishu because of his ties to Ethiopia - one of Somalia's traditional enemies.

Elizabeth Kennedy reported from Nairobi, Kenya. Associated Press writers Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu and Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi also contributed to this report.

20. Thousands more migrants reach Italy's shores• Number of African arrivals soars by 50% this year. Libya embroiled in row over coastal patrols (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/)

John Hooper in Rome

The Guardian, Tuesday 30 December 2008

The number of migrants reaching Italy's southern coastline after a perilous crossing from Africa has soared by more than 50% this year, according to UN figures, highlighting the mounting moral and diplomatic dilemma that will face countries in southern Europe in 2009.

Even before another wave of landings in recent days, the number of arrivals this year soared to 33,000 - 13,000 more than in the whole of 2007, according to figures supplied yesterday by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Up to 500 more, many of them asylum seekers from countries such as Somalia, are known or feared to have died before reaching Italian shores.

Since December 24, a further 2,400 people have come ashore in the Pelagic islands between Libya and Sicily. The most recent landings took place on Sunday after a boat carrying 331 migrants crashed into rocks fringing the tiny volcanic island of Linosa.

Mediterranean crossings in the depths of winter were once a rarity. But Laura Boldrini, UNHCR's spokeswoman in Italy, said these had become "increasingly frequent. That is more dangerous because the sea conditions are apt to change more abruptly in the colder months." She said another factor adding to the perils facing migrants was that they were being consigned by traffickers to "ever-more unseaworthy vessels, like homemade semi-dirigibles and ageing fishing boats".

Italy's interior minister, Roberto Maroni, threatened yesterday to fly new arrivals to their country of origin. He said flights would begin "tomorrow or at the latest the day after tomorrow". But it remained unclear how such flights could be put into operation within the terms of international treaties on the rights of asylum seekers. According to UNHCR, the seaborne arrivals habitually include an unusually high proportion of people later granted refugee status.

Maroni also said he would meet counterparts from Cyprus, Greece and Malta on 13 January "to find a common strategy". But his attempts to address the growing problem were not enough for the Italian right, and there were signs last night of a rift in the Silvio Berlusconi government over the issue. Though Maroni claimed the majority of unauthorised immigrants were people who arrive legally in Italy and then overstay their visas, the Mediterranean landings, with their dramatic images of exhausted survivors, have cast doubt on Berlusconi's electoral promise to deal with immigration.

The arrival of so many immigrants in recent days is a considerable embarrassment to his government, especially since many of its voters had believed a much-vaunted deal with Libya would stem the flow. The shadow interior minister, Marco Minniti, meanwhile piled on the pressure. He said: "What is happening at the moment is proof that the government's hardline policy on clandestine immigration has failed miserably."

On 30 August, Berlusconi signed with the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, what was hailed as a historic deal to heal the wounds left by Italy's colonial occupation of the north African state. Rome agreed to make substantial long-term investments in Libya's infrastructure and government officials made it clear they expected Gaddafi to implement joint coastal patrols that had been agreed in an earlier accord with the previous, centre-left government.

The latest wave of arrivals had prompted complaints from backbench MPs in the governing majority, who suspect the Libyan leader of holding out for further concessions before cracking down on the trade in human beings from his country's Mediterranean ports.

One described Gaddafi as "the worst sort of blackmailer".

Maroni hit back at a cabinet colleague - the defence minister, Ignazio La Russa - who had suggested that "getting tough with the Libyans does not achieve anything". Maroni, who belongs to the anti-immigrant Northern League, said in a radio interview: "We have applied and will continue to apply pressure."

Slightly more than half of those who came ashore on Linosa on Sunday were flown to Lampedusa, the biggest of the Pelagic islands. A senator from the islands, Angela Maraventano, said those who remained had increased Linosa's population by a third. "We shall put these desperate people up in churches and schools," she told La Repubblica newspaper.

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