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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46232)	5/21/2004 9:04:31 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Mush blasts Alqaeda- and Musharraf vows to eliminate al-Qaeda. No other Islamic leader speaks with great clarity and unique sense of purpose, instead of dilly dallying of Islamic world here we see a leader who has committed himself to eliminate the greatest threat to Islamic moderation. jang.com.pk Calls for Kashmir solution; stresses need for reforming UN ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday emphasised that Pakistan would not compromise on the fight against terrorism and said al-Qaeda terrorists would be eliminated from tribal areas through political and military means. "There is no compromise whatsoever, they (al-Qaeda) have to be eliminated whether through political or military means," he said, reiterating Pakistan’s firm resolve to stamp out terrorism. Addressing the inaugural session of the international roundtable conference on "A New Peace - A New War," he said Pakistan is following a two-pronged strategy involving military and political means against extremists in the tribal areas. "Our operations against al-Qaeda in our tribal areas will continue unabated," he said. The president dismissed misperceptions about Pakistan’s recent strategy against terrorists in the tribal areas and said there can be no compromise at all that al-Qaeda stay in the region and operate anywhere in the world or in Pakistan. "The government tries to articulate the political and military ends - and that is the prudent way of doing things, and that is what we are doing, that must be understood." He said it is the articulation of the political and the military that has to go hand in glove and in consonance. "This is the method forward-that is what the strategy says." He said Pakistan’s fight against terrorism is contributing substantially to improving peace in the world. "The government and the people of Pakistan have made a consistent and a very courageous contribution to waging a war against international terrorism." About Pakistan’s role in the region, President Musharraf said the country is for peace in the region despite the regional body Saarc’s not allowing discussion on bilateral disputes. "In our part of the world, Saarc may not yet have achieved the kind of progress visualised for it when it was formed 19 years ago. The conditionality of non-inclusion of bilateral issues seriously undermines its effectiveness," he said. "Despite that Pakistan is for peace in the region, we have taken bold initiatives, we have given calls for a mutual reduction of force and for a nuclear-free South Asia." In the past four years, he said, Pakistan has not increased its defence expenditure and "now we have even gone for unilateral reduction of force. "This underscores our desire for peace and economic development as a priority." Referring to the conflicts in various parts of the world, the president observed that the world seems to be in turmoil because of inequalities in economic development and urged the international community to strive for building a new peace by waging a war against illiteracy, poverty, hunger and disease. "Today, the comity of nations faces the challenges of building a new peace through waging a new war. "An unbearable war in future has to be avoided, a new peace has to come from both a stable and just world order in which all states and all peoples are able to progress with a reasonable equality of opportunity." He informed the gathering including foreign participants that Pakistan was proud of contributing substantially to peace in world and the region as well as socio-economic integration for joint development. "Pakistan is seeking peace with India through resolution of disputes including the core Kashmir dispute. "We are sincere in this effort with a firm belief that it will unhinge the vast mutually beneficial trade, commercial and economic potential of South Asia." He also informed the gathering of intellectuals, former and current top diplomats and legislators about Pakistan’s recent steps for promotion of trade between the landlocked Central Asian Republics and South Asia. "Our efforts strike at the root of avoidance of conflict and avoidance of war. Dwelling on the world situation, President Musharraf said the way forward for the Muslim world is the strategy of Enlightened Moderation. There is no war in its conventional sense but there are conflicts all around, he said. Commenting on the role of diplomacy, he said preventing the causes of conflicts is a pro-active strategy while waiting for conflicts and then moving for their resolution is a reactive strategy and underlined the importance of hitting at the roots of conflicts confronting the international community. "The world continues to be in turmoil," he said and observed that there is suppression of people, militancy and gross inequalities in the world. "The world is divided between haves and have nots and illiteracy and poverty are rampant." Musharraf said war and conflict cannot be avoided in a world of unequals. "We strongly refute any conflict of discriminatory treatment on the basis of religion or civilization. "We feel that this world is a common heritage of us all - and peace and harmony alone, as envisaged by our great religion, Islam, will lead the world to peace and development of humanity. "This should be the common desire of all." Calling for a war against illiteracy, hunger, sickness, backwardness, poverty and social injustice he said this new war will eliminate or at least reduce extremism and bring the world new a durable peace. "The era of globalisation makes the search for peace and attempt to resolve conflict in a non-violent way imperative." President Musharraf said political disputes leading to suppression of people give birth to feelings of deprivation, hopelessness and powerlessness. Such deprivation, combined with poverty and illiteracy make room for militancy and extremism. He regretted that the Islamic world is in the vortex of this emerging global crisis and said most of those under foreign occupation today are Muslims. The president also regretted that Muslim countries are perceived as sponsors of terrorism. Describing the United Nations’ record in conflict resolution as mixed, the president said there is a definite need to reform its structure and processes so as to enhance its effectiveness with particular reference to conflict management and preservation of peace. Musharraf noted that the world body had been successful where big powers were not involved. Sovereign equality, therefore, has to be form the basis of any mechanism of peace at the United Nations in order for it to be successful. The president also repeated his call for return of the looted wealth of developing countries, siphoned off in Western banks. "The rich must learn to share their wealth with those who have always been deprived. Loot and corruption by leaders of the developing world themselves must be denied and checked. "The stashing of such corrupt wealth in Western banks must be stopped through some kind of UN legislation and their recoveries should flow back to the countries of their origin. The back flow of their own national wealth will help the developing world."

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46232)	5/25/2004 10:45:28 AM
From: malibuca	Respond to of 50167

So, it looks like the regime in Iran that you railed against was able to use Chalabi, the favorite of the neocons, to do their dirty work for them. Iran was able to use one enemy – the US – to get rid of another enemy - Saddam Hussein - with Chalabi’s help. Here are a couple of excerpts from the article below: "It's pretty clear that Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," said an intelligence source in Washington yesterday. "Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the US for several years through Chalabi." "Larry Johnson, a former senior counter-terrorist official at the state department, said: 'When the story ultimately comes out we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence operations in history. They persuaded the US and Britain to dispose of its greatest enemy.'" Just wondering, given your self-professed expertise on the geopolitics of the Middle East, did you ever express caution on this thread as to the questionable credentials of Chalabi? Inquiring minds want to know! US intelligence fears Iran duped hawks into Iraq war guardian.co.uk

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46232)	5/26/2004 10:18:41 AM
From: malibuca	Respond to of 50167

More about Chalabi’s role in the Iraq fiasco It is amazing that the Bush administration was suckered by this con man after we had been warned by several sources friendly to us. Chalabi's Long, Costly Charade __________________ by Robert Scheer Published on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times Can it get any more bizarre? Only a few weeks before Washington's long-promised hand-over of the keys to Iraq, we discover that the lackey the Pentagon only recently had in mind to manage this very valuable property for the United States is suspected by us of being a world-class con artist and, worse, a spy for America's enemies in Iran. Nobody is speaking on the record yet, but U.S. intelligence officials are making it clear to a variety of preeminent news sources that Ahmad Chalabi, a longtime darling of the neoconservatives who dragged the U.S. into this war, not only fed Western intelligence sources false information about Saddam Hussein's Iraq but is accused of having passed on U.S. secrets to Iran, possibly through his security and intelligence chief, who is now a fugitive. "This is a very, very serious charge," Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said on Sunday, noting that his Senate Intelligence Committee will be investigating it. "There were a number of us who warned this administration about [Chalabi]…. But the fact is, there were some in this administration, some in Congress who were quite taken with him." We might start investigating which Bush official arranged for this hustler — already on the lam for a decade from major banking fraud convictions in Jordan — to sit behind First Lady Laura Bush during this year's State of the Union speech. Was the Secret Service watching her purse? Too harsh? Not by a long shot. The CIA had stopped using Chalabi as a source in the mid-1990s after his political organization of exiles was accused of deception and incompetence. However, over the last four years, Chalabi was shamelessly resurrected inside the Beltway by neoconservatives, including Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and other Bush officials who were leading the campaign to invade Iraq. Granted more than $33 million in taxpayer money over that four-year period — funding that was cut off only days before Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops raided his home and office last week — Chalabi was the key window into Iraq for the White House, as well as top reporters such as the New York Times' Judith Miller. She mined him for a long string of now-discredited front-page scoops on Iraq's much-touted weapons of mass destruction. Chalabi is now suspected of having "gamed" the intelligence agencies of eight nations using phony or tricked-up sources and documents, according to intelligence sources cited in the Los Angeles Times. Yet even as post-invasion searches and interrogations proved Chalabi's hoary claims completely wrong, and even as Chalabi continued his longtime practice of cozying up to the ayatollahs in Iran during frequent visits to Tehran, the Bush political appointees in charge of Iraq allowed Chalabi to run wild. Chalabi and his family and cronies have been granted control over Iraq's banking system and the crucial de-Baathification process, as well as the upcoming trial of Saddam Hussein. The result? At least seven Chalabi aides are wanted on charges of blackmail, fraud and other crimes. So now we can watch a familiar drama unfold as the United States turns on a lout whom it tried to sell as Iraq's George Washington. But being a wily survivor, Chalabi apparently decided that after embarrassing his Beltway backers so badly on the question of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and realizing that he was about as popular as the occupation itself, he had better make some new friends. Now he is playing the role of a populist Moses to President Bush's Pharaoh, chanting in Baghdad last week to "let my people go." He says his aides are innocent of spying for Iran but won't turn themselves in because "there is no justice in Iraq. There is Abu Ghraib prison." So was Uncle Sam played for a sucker by Iran, the fulcrum of what the president has called the "axis of evil"? Was the U.S. maneuvered into unseating Iran's hated enemy, Hussein, whom Washington backed in the 1980s against Iran's holy warriors? We'll see as the scandal unfolds. But even if this outrage proves true, it is unlikely that anyone high up will be held responsible for coddling Chalabi. After all, nobody of any stature has yet been held accountable for the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the prison torture scandal or the poor planning for the occupation. Certainly not President Bush, who is touring the nation bragging that the obvious disaster in Iraq is actually a great victory for the free world.