Inmate being removed after pain session

They were sold by their Pakistani brethren to U.S military contractors, for USD 5000/- per head and are being held in dreaded Gitmo speciously as hard core terrorists for 6-7 years.

U.S administration with former US vice-president Dick Cheney and former defense secretary Donald Rumsfield fought off efforts by handful of military commanders who tried to address the issue.

There hasnrsquo;t been an iota of doubt with the US administration about these innocent inmates not being even remotely connected with anything that has to do with terrorism.

These inmates have been caged to serve as guinea pigs to give information about their region, society and for a mosaic of intelligence purposes.

The fact of innocence of large number of detainees affords them no protection against routine tortures and pain sessions.

The inmates are forced to undergo intense torture and stress to ensure that information given by them is correct and also to retrieve information lost in memory.

The stunning fact was revealed by select military commanders who have served at Gitmo and Mr. Lawrence Wilkerson, a republican who has served as chief of staff to secretary of state Collin Powell under Bush administration.

Mr. Wilkerson revealed his information through an Internet posting on Saturday

The Honble Supreme Court of India judge shri Ajit Pasayat branded human rights activists as animal rights activists and charged them as supporters of terrorists, while addressing a Conference on terrorism, organized by Indian law Institute in Delhi on 27.02.2009.

Rules of law, natural justice, equity, good conscience to a wise purpose deem an accused innocent until he is pronounced guilty. Do human rights activists come against convictions on the street?

Do they question process and rule of law and authority ?They do raise their voices against abuse of law and outrage of basic human rights of hapless victims.- a duty also cast upon judges who are moreover under oath as such.

By the same logic the legal procedures of review, revision, appeal, protest and curative petitions should be declared unlawful and anti-national and even the advocates who take the cases of purported offenders.

It is in-correct to see human rights groups solely in communal and caste perspectives, while there may be pseudo-human rights groups and the ones floated by criminals and racketeers, that asides they are the only hope for the most crippled and vulnerable segments of the society against persecution, oppression and exploitation by the state agencies and powerful private individuals and groups, in a country where culture of lie and might is right and crowd power dominate every segment of the society.

The remark of the honble judge came as no surprise to me. Most of our academics, professionals and experts are nothing more than mechanics. The development of their faculties is lopsided. They are not brought up on values and they are hardly inculcated love for truth and justice by their parents and teachers. It is all about becoming big men someday.

We have lots of people at the helm, judiciary no exception, that they are born with silver spoons in their mouth. They live in ivory towers and are as much foreigners, alien to the harsh realities of Indian life among others.

In fact the country needs more safe guards against state terror and subtle and crass forms of ubiquitous forms terrorism being spearheaded by fascist forces in which common man is involved

Mr. mark Safer the Israeli Ambassador to India, in an interview to Indian Express, drawing a funny parallels asks: rdquo; If say Kolkata was bombarded for a period of 6-7 years by even crude missiles from another country or territory how would India react?

Mr. Mark may I ask you what do you thin Kolkatan would do if ter5rorist gangs like the Stern Gang of which one of your Prime minister was Do, were to occupy Kolkata and banish Kolkatans for say 61 years now, and incorporates the same in Bangladesh and in order to claim the stolen property permanently claim the stolen lam by importing their people from Europe and Russia and make settlements on the stolen land, what do you think - Kolkatans would become Biharis and Madrasis because they are also Hindus. Do you think Kolkatan would allow the aggressors to sleep in peace?

And Mr. Mark, you probably have not heard about Indian National Army and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who attacked india almost around the same time Israel was created. Netaji is revered in India.

And do you know that in 1971 India captured East Pakistan and restored the land to the rightful owners and did not keep a centimeter of the occupied land, both the Opposing groups of civilians in erstwhile East Pakistan hailed the conduct of Indian troops?

Isn’t this a fact that the disputed land was forcibly and illegally occupied in 1948 and the sons of the soil forced to abandon their hearth, homes and chattels and belongings and forced out of their homes to be refugees for the rest of the time.

Mr. Mark Doesn’t international law permits arm resistance against occupying forces? and why donrsquo;t your restore the property to their rightful owners.

Mr. Mark further says referring to Iran nuclear ambitions: rdquo; They are moving towards nuclear weapons now against who and what for?rdquo;

Canrsquo;t we ask the same question from You, the west and the U.S ldquo;against who and for what?

Your answer would be rdquo; against the world at large and probably aliens who knows what, whom and when?

The early departure by of winter and strange weather condition during this time of the year is being linked to the flattening o Arvalli Range by illegal miners and encroachers. It is not a dayrsquo;s job, not kind of activities that would escape the attention of authorities and politicians for so long. Our P.M had rightly alarmed the nation on Independence Day that one of the worst and most dangerous enemies of India is corruption. Yamuna is becoming narrower and narrower day by day because of the encroachments by political backed builders generating crores of Rupees.

They wonrsquo;t be able to win the Himalayas because China is on the other side and on the other sides Taliban and Paki terrorists.

India is the land where the head is held high and they are free - these criminals not 800 million.

.More

The lawyers from other four courts of Delhi i.e. Kakardoma, Tishazari, Rohni and Dwarka came in a motorcade of 40 cars. Mr. Kola shouted from a mini-truck on the microphone asking us to come out. We were assemble in the lawn at gate no. 2 listening to speeches of senior lawyers about the demerits of the new amendment to section 40 and section 314 of Indian Criminal Procedure Code.

We went out. I climbed onto one of the mini-truck, where the president of our Bar and other office bearers were also present.

The motorcade made a round of India gate slowly shouting slogans against the governmentrsquo;s anti-people policies and the amendments. Nearly in 45 minutes we reached back our court where we were given again dozes of lectures and of course refreshments and tea.

They said that amendment was made thoughtlessly to protect the politicians who are increasingly coming under the scanner for a plethora of crime and corruptions.

The police have been given the powers which hitherto were exercised by the judges –Now the pit is not mandatory for police to make arrest in offences attracting punishment unto seven years. It is upto the police officer whether he arrests or not. There was wisdom behind giving the powers to judges of judicial scrutiny of the action of the police. It was a part of perfect check and balance system.

They said that aping west would be counterproductive because the caliber and character of Indian Police is known to everybody. It is a license to extortion and also to save the politicians from going behind the bars as they are increasingly coming under the scanner for range of heinous offences and corruption

They held the public meeting at Ramleela Ground New Delhi, which is not more than 15 minutes walk from New Delhi Railway Station.

I got down at Khuni darwaza (Bloody Gate) Delhi Gate and walked 20 minutes to reach Turkaman Gate where they are holding the historical landmark Muslim conference under the banner of Milli Council - Delhi is dotted with Gates i.e huge structures of Sultanate and Mughal eras which serve as land marks - where Ramleela Ground is situated, a ten minute walk from New Delhi Railway Station and half an hour walk away from the historical Jama Mosques built by Mughal emperor Shahjahan, through cluttered, meandering criss-crossing streets and lanes competing each other in filth and congestion , consisting of pedestrians, cycle rickshaws, carts, bikes and encroachment on streets flanked by dirty restaurants, provision shops, beetle shops and workshops with noises of indescribable varieties hitting the eardrums. It may probably take days to cover the gigantic ghetto of Muslim localities of the walled city. The sprawling expanse of Ramleela Ground stands in sharp contrast.

The weather here is extremely pleasant -bright sunny, cool and windy - for the last few days.

The stage covered almost half of the width of the enclosed field with hundreds of special invitees

squeezing and squatting chock a jowl, most of them in shining white clothes worn for the occasion.

When I reached the ground Mr. Ahmedi the retired chief justice of Supreme Court of India was was on the mike ; lsquo; The man who has one yard of land would not think of snatching from a man with 99 yards but the later would always like to make his 99, a hundredrdquo; He sermonised intermittently thanking the chairman Dr. Manzoor for honouring him. ldquo;Assert your rightrdquo; he said. an not to encroach upon the right of other citizens because that is the real problem here in India Muslims all the more.

When I left one Mr.. Raje a professor of management at Jodhpur University in the state of Rajashthan in India was reading out the charter of demands that sounded like a nursery rhyme-reservations and commissions- a 10% in every thing.

Manzoor the chairman of Milli Council and a nearly a half dozen of them on the stage, are seen as rabid semitic and men of small thinking.

Perhaps they had expected a big attendance and had spread cheap green and red venyl carpets- half of the width of the ground and on the spare area posse of policemen lazied, basked in the sweet sunlight and chatted among themselves in groups.

This one was also was touted as a big historically landmark socio-political event for the Indian Muslims. The crowd almost cent percent consisted of Muslims brought inn chatterer buses from the different Muslim loclities of Delhi and state of Uttarpradesh. There were few people who came on their own.If Muslim from the adjoining walled city had turned up the ground would have spilled over for that matter there was no parking problem.

The un-applauding crowd listened with moronic detachment to the speeches of stalwarts many of whom have climbed the ladder of Muslim leadership by sheer force of Saudi Black Dollar and many among them are seen by independent Muslims as charlatans and Shylockrsquo;s.

One of the star stalwart speakers Mr Owasisi a cleric asked Muslims to become like bees around the queen and follow unquestionably to the dictates of Milli Council office bearers.

I left the meeting bored and un-lightened rather full of questions and doubts.

Today also I visited the public meeting organised By Milli Council held at Ramleela Ground New Delhi.

Jamiatul Ulema Council held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, India.

The protest demonstration was atleast 15000 Muslims from Azamgarh, State of Uttar Pradesh and claimed that the occasion of martyrdom of the two youths is a beginning of a historical political struggle.

I felt like getting a hang of this historical meeting. They protested against what they said fake encounters of two Muslim students hailing from the state, at Batla House New Delhi.

There were a score of Islamic scholars, intellectuals and academics on the stage.

The Council is perhaps planning to contest the coming Parliamentary elections.

They condemned framing of innocent Muslims specially educated ones on terrorism related charges.

I was on my way to court when I changed my plans and decided to attend the meeting.

Today I am spent.Remained there from 11AM in the morning to 4 PM in the evening. Tommorrow Irsquo;ll write in detail. .

Jamiat leaders with Congress President

The story goes like this: One Aftab Ansari employed with the Indian Air force and of course not the first ever employed with it, decides to grow a Muslim beard which the authorities say violating section 425 of Air force Regulation 1964, because they were not sure whether the religion of the guy really prohibited shaving off beard or made it obligatory to grow one, not that the religion should allow or not. The guy files a Writ to assert his religious right in Supreme Court of India.

Jamaiatul Ulma-e-Hind, a top Muslim cleric body takes up his case. In reply to SCIrsquo;s Notice the Central Government said that on the basis of findings of Army authorities it appeared from the Islamic literatures, treatises and holy books that growing beards is preferable as a tradition of Prophet but not obligatory. Now it was the turn of the plaintiff to file a rejoinder in reply and they would.Soon after the reply filed by the Central Government, the JUH started raising a hue and cry, holding audiences with media specially the communal Urdu vernacular press, Muslim constituents and organizations blaming the government of interference in religious matters stating that ldquo;it is not for the government to decide whether it is obligatory for a Muslim to grow beards or not ,it is not for government to classify and categorize Islamic issuesrdquo; said Neyaz Ahmed Farooqui among others, addressing a large gathering at its Headquarters at I.T.O, New Delhi, on 24 January 2009.

This being a series of such meetings held this month. Raising the bogey of threat to Muslim Identity, the scholars called upon Muslims to guard their identity and for that matter their right to have beard.The acts of JUH in stretching a technical legal issue involving, a single person in one of the government departments and converting it into a specious identity crisis of 20 million Indian Muslims, for that matter Islam is in danger syndrome- the occasion, timing, manner and extent, twisting of facts and circumstances and stirring of communal passions- points to their intellectual bankruptcy and unholy objectives.

Palestine election

They say Hamas offered Israel 20 years of peaceful existence.

They say that during the six month of cease fire, Israel abducted 27 Hamas members of Palestine Authority Legislative Council and killed a dozen of their leaders.

They say Israel did not lift the 18 months siege of Gaza during the cease fire, which was one the condition of cease fire, leading to serious Humanitarian crisis- food, water, power medicine shortages.

They say even though Hamas offered to renew the cease fire.

They say Mr. Ehhud Barack , Israeli P.M. admitted that the pause of six months was a ploy to prepare for effective attack on Gaza.

They say Israel is engaged in a relentless struggle to take every thing from Jordan to Mediterranean sea.

They say Israel is obsessed to implement the Biblical prophecies about the Jews.

They say that Israel PM. had vowed to punish Palestinians for electing Hamas members of Palestinian Council.

They say that the U.S, Israel and west has never agreed to accept Hamas anything less than a terrorists.

that Hamas rockets have killed only 10 Israelis in ten years.

They say 1500 Palestinians have been killed and 10,000 wounded in Israeli bombings.

Amnesty International has asked Security Council to try Israeli Leaders for the crime.

Israeli used phosphorous bombs on civilian which will continue to take tolls for years to come.

Israel rejected the appeal of the whole world including the U.N.

The Bar Associations of North Indian states compromising of states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi have announced complete strike on January.19. 2009.

This is first co-coordinated effort by Bar Associations of India to oppose the Bill which seeks to amend section 41 and section 309 of Criminal Procedure Code of India.

Different bar Associations in India has been resorting to strikes, quite now and then for the last couple of months.

Circulars and Bills issued on respective Letter heads of Bar Associations, warns of strict action if any lawyer were to be found violating the call of strike.

The lawyers of whole of India would again go on strike on Feb, 3.2009.They have announced nation-wide demonstration and protest marches and street corner meeting against the Bill on 18 Feb, 2009.

Mr. Alit Make, the Urban Development Minister, who once belonged to legal fraternity, in an interface with lawyers held at Partial House courts Delhi on 15Jan 2009 vowed to take up the issue with his colleagues in the Cabinet, the prime minister, and the president of India against the proposed Bill.

The Bill takes away certain categories of offences under sections 41 and 309 Criminal Procedure Code of India, which gives mandatory arrest power to the police.

Among the grouses of the lawyers is that the law if enacted will eat into their work substantially reducing their income. A sizeable income of the lawyers is generated by Bail related works.

According to the proposed amendment it would not be mandatory for the police to arrest the offenders involved in theft, assault, dowry related cases, chain snatching, and child abduction, pick-pocketing, stabbing, infringement of copyright and trade marks.

Human rights groups say that sweeping power of arrest in a poor country like India where 800million people some how manage to earn Rs. 20/- per day, the power punishes the delinquents and their dependents too harshly.

Thousands languish behind bars or tears an ends even after courts have ordered their release, because they are not able to arrange the security which usually Rs. ten thousand equivalent to 200 U.S dollar.

Lawyers say this will increase the incidence of crime and aggravate security related problems

Hamas volunteers

The present mid-east crisis stems not from the Hamas firing rockets at illegal para-military settlements in southern Israel but Israelrsquo;s selective killing of Hamas leaders and blockade of 15 lakh Palestinians living in worldrsquo;s worst densely populated concentration camps , during the period truce was in force, leading to serious humanitarian crisis, on the face of criminal silence and in action of the world community. The crisis could have been averted if they had somehow stopped Israersquo;ls even handedness.

Hamas is a legitimately elected government with rag a tag of security force . Suppose if the humanitarian crisis, at the same scale, was created in Israel, with Hamas systematically eliminating extremist Jewish leaders wouldnrsquo;t Israel have sent missiles and bombs into Gaza.

Simply because Hamas is Islamic, and leading a dynamic struggle against Israelrsquo;s subjugation including use of force does not make it terrorist group.

Man man not God!

I had said: ldquo;unless you take out the bones from each othersrsquo; throat, theyrsquo;d continue to scratch each othersrsquo; face.rdquo; I thought it was Hamas. I was naïve. I thought that I had scored a point. I posted a question ldquo;Has Hamas asked for the Israeli bombings?rdquo;. My question set off fiery debates in various communities in the face book and elsewhere. I found myself ending up on the side of Israel invariably.

I learnt that bones in the throats of Arab, Palestinians on one side and Israel on the other side was located by the Arab League a decade back. And they had offered to take out the bone painlessly. They had offered Israel to return to itrsquo;s pre1965 position in exchange of it’s recognition by the entire Arab world.

In this age you cannot conquer land, keep it , subjugate people and assume the right to dictate and define the terms and forms of resistance the subjugated can wage.To top Israel has been resettling its Para military personnel in the occupied land with impunity to claim it permanently. Another term of the said offer was the sharing of control and management of Jerusalem, among the Arabs, Christians and Jews.

Israel may decimate one Hamas yet another more powerful and clever would be born.

Israel seems to be the only nation that plays God after U.S.

U.S presidents are the Pharoahs of the moden time, strong irony that paroahs are being procreated in Moses house.

And  then I saw a dream and after that dream I found new feelings and new insights coming to me.

A palestinian woman ducking bombardment.

We are all Hamas,” screamed a scrawny Mauritanian, repeatedly, as he determinedly drew his face closer to a TV camera.

Behind him, thousands more tunefully chanted similar words, chants that were heard in different Arabic dialects, in fact in many different languages all across the globe. Yet, Israel, somehow is claiming victory in the media war, which it calculatedly unleashed weeks before its most violent attack on Gaza yet. Thousands have been reportedly killed and wounded in little more than a week, starting December 27, in the tiny stretch of land (roughly 140 square miles), yet densely populated Gaza Strip of 1.5 million people.

“Whenever Israel is bombing, it is hard to explain our position to the world,” said Avi Pazner, former Israeli ambassador to Italy and France, and “one of the officials drafted in to present Israel’s case to the world media,” according to the Jewish Chronicle. “But at least this time everything was ready and in place.”

“Fewer military officers; more women; tightly controlled messages; and ministers kept on a short leash. This was Israel’s new media game-plan in Operation Cast Lead,” the newspaper reported. It’s always difficult to fathom Israel’s giddiness and sense of triumph as defenceless civilians are pulverised by mostly US-supplied warplanes and bombs.

Even if one chooses to empathise with Israel’s dodgy claim, parroted endlessly by the Bush administration, that the Israeli army is in a state of self-defence, one can never fully grasp the wisdom of its military tactics.

“Fatalities in Gaza are already over 400 and injuries close to 2000 so far as is known. Total Palestinian civilian casualties are 400 times greater than the casualties incurred by Israelis,” wrote three-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader in an open letter to President Bush, five days into the Israeli onslaught. Nearly one week after the devastating air strikes, Israel unleashed a ground offensive, which is pushing the casualty figures to unprecedented heights, made mostly of civilian victims.

Much of Israel’s war machine is financed, manufactured and supplied by the United States. US financial and military generosity has served as the backbone of all of Israel’s wars against its neighbours, including the Palestinians. In Israel’s war against Lebanon in the summer of 2006, lest it runs out, the US rushed ‘emergency’ military supplies, including cluster bombs to the Israeli army, allowing the latter to ensure the demise of its arch enemy: thousands of dead and wounded Lebanese civilians.

In the ongoing war against Gaza, neither the US’ “dedication to the security of Israel”, nor Israel’s dedication to inflicting maximum harm on civilians have been in any way altered. While Bush brazenly chastised Hamas and the Palestinians for the death wrought on them by Israel, President-elect Barack Obama had absolutely nothing to say.

“The scale of bloodshed in Gaza over five days is the same as if almost 2,000 Israelis had been killed and 9,000 wounded in the same period. Imagine the consequences for Israel in such an event,” wrote author and former BBC correspondent Deepak Tripathi. Would Obama find the staggering number worthy of cutting short his Hawaii vacation, even for a brief comment, if the tables were turned? Candidate of change, he said.

But Israel is winning the media war, reports Israel; a peculiar claim by any standards. If the reference is made to a “victory’ that helped win over mainstream US media, one has to wonder if the corporate media has ever expressed any sympathy for Hamas, or any resisting Palestinian faction, be it secular, socialist or Islamist?

The opposite has always been true. Any violent Palestinian response to the Israeli occupation and its inherent violence has been dubbed “terrorist” for decades, even if Palestinians were targeting Israeli soldiers or paramilitary settlers. Aside from allowing a ‘moderate’ Palestinian commentator an occasional limited space to write a watered down op-ed, now and then – which serves as a feel good moment that demonstrates the ‘objectivity’ of US media - the pro-Israel mantra has defined every major American newspaper in every city in every state. That requires a separate discussion, but the persistent question remains: what is Israel winning exactly?

More Israeli women are taking Israel’s case to the media, according to reports. The strategy is both sexist and underhanded. Following the Lebanon war, Israeli bikini models flooded US men’s magazines exhibiting their barely covered bodies. Former Miss Israel, model Gal Gadot defended her nude photos, promoted partly by the Israeli consulate in New York as her attempt to help “improve Israel’s war-torn image,” reported the New York Post in June, 2007. Now as Israeli bombs are lightening the sky of Gaza, similar tactics are underway, in Maxim and other magazines.

Kadima leader and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni took its message to YouTube, conveying the same redundant but “tightly controlled” misinformation, that attempts to explain why imprisoning, starving then senselessly bombing 1.5 million Palestinian Muslims and Christians is good for world peace, for democracy, for security, 
for the future of the region and the world.

But the fact is, Israel never won the media war in the US for, frankly, there was never one to begin with. Yet somehow, millions of people around the world managed to read through the filters, the propaganda, the perplexing logic, the Maxim cover pages, and took to the streets in a collective act of passion and dismay, without billion-dollar media crafters “tightly controlling” their every move, scripting their chants or directing their hoarse voices: We are all Palestinians and “with our souls, with our blood, we will die for you Gaza.”

What has Israel won exactly, aside from the haunting images of young Palestinians, mutilated, some silent and others screaming? This is no victory, but a brief illusion of one. As for the long-term repercussions, that is a completely different story. Israeli bombs over Lebanon in 1982 gave rise to Hezbollah, and its war of 2006 turned a small, resisting militant movement into a major power broker that will certainly help shape the future of Lebanon. Israel is now doing the same in Gaza. A victory, indeed.

With thanks from

Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an eminent Arab American author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com

When piracy is only self-defence

somali pirates

Europeans have been dumping nuclear waste in Somalia’s seas and looting seafood. This is the context in which the ‘pirates’ have emerged, argues JOHANN HARI

Who imagined that in 2009, the world’s governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy, backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China, is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth.

But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people governments are labelling as “one of the great menaces of our times” have an extraordinary story to tell, and some justice on their side.

Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the “golden age of piracy”, from 1650 to 1730, the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage Bluebeard that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: pirates were often saved from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can’t? In his book Villains Of All Nations, historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence.

If you became a merchant or navy sailor then, plucked from the docks of London’s East End, young and hungry, you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the Cat O’ Nine Tails. If you slacked often, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages.

Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied, and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively, without torture. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls “one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century”.

They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed “quite clearly, and subversively, that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal Navy.” This is why they were romantic heroes, despite being unproductive thieves.

The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: “What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirating to live.”

In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since, and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: “Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury, you name it.” Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to “dispose” of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: “Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention.”

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia’s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. Europeans have destroyed their own fish stocks by over-exploitation, and have now moved on to Somalia’s. More than $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving.

Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka, 100 km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: “If nothing is done, there soon won’t be much fish left in our coastal waters.”

This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a “tax” on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia, and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence”.

No, this doesn’t make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters, especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said: “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits (to be) those who illegally fish and dump in our seas.” William Scott would understand.

Did Europeans expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in Europe’s toxic waste, and watch Europeans snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? Europeans won’t act on those crimes, the only sane solution to this problem, but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply, they swiftly send in the gunboats.

The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know “what he meant by keeping possession of the sea.” The pirate smiled, and responded: “What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor.”

Once again, the great imperial fleets sail, but who is the robber?

The Independent, London

Courtesy: statesman.net

10 Myths against 10 Myths on Pakistan. Pakistani Author of rdquo; Case of Exploding Mangoesrdquo; Hanif weaves 10 myths on 10 myths he thinks are held by Indians against Pakistan.

The Times of India Sunday edition 4.01.2009 gave a prominent place to the author’s write-up.

Mr. Hanif tries to defend the indefensible .He puts words into our mouth, using those words as premises builds his arguments supported by baseless information of bricks of superficial and facts devoid of figures.

Hanif says “the alliance between ISI and Jehadis was a marriage of convenience which has broken down irrevocably.

No where in his write up he has used the word ldquo;terrorism or ldquo;terroristrdquo;- a naked gloss over indeed. Contrast it with our position. We are categorical and specific.

We say more people have been killed by terrorist in our country than the two wars with Pakistan, the latest attack taking place in Mumbai in which around 600 civilians were killed on 26.11.208. The Pakistani terrorist belonging to Lashkar e Tayiba shot dead 600 civilians at Railway station 3 five star hotels and Jewish Kabad.

We gave Pakistan names of specific terror groups and individuals and locations of training camps in Pakistan.

In the first place how can a state have a marriage of convenience with terrorist organizations which is its own subjects, under its nose and territory? How can they exist in the first place nay to be allowed unless it is created, controlled and used?

Hanif says how much training you need to shoot civilians at random and blow yourself up.

The defense experts around the world opined that the terrorist operation in Mumbai, India that took place on 26.11.08 beats 9/11 in sophistication and complexities.

This apart you need a big infra-structre to sustain the terrorism industry and lot of training enabling the terrorists to carry out their missions across the borders with precision.

Hanif says that more soldiers have been killed by jehadis in Pakistan than the two wars with India and that Indian P.M can have the same degree of control that once Musharraf had in Pakistan if he became one like him and that the Nukes in Pakistan are no more in danger as nukes in India and Israel are from their extremists.

For a celebrated author like Hanif it was no difficult for him to get a figure as to how many soldiers have been killed jehadis in Pakistan.

Institutions in India are well entrenched with deep roots and well fortified. The Indian authorities are in much more control of things that any dictator in the third world can dream of.

Admittedly even after breaking down of alliance between terrorists and Pakistani establishment the ever mushrooming jihad groups could not be smashed and contained and their ability to strike qt will in the sub-continent and their growing mass support shows that there is a danger of nukes falling in the hands if not in immediate future.

The scenario in India and Israel vis-à-vis Pakistan is diametrically opposite.

Pakistan is admitting it inability although speciously to stop terrorist from carry out strikes across its borders and it neither will.

No option is left with India but to act decisively or abandon its responsibility to protect its citizens.

One day one Beg a regular client of Mr. Medi involved in scores of cheque bounce cases under Section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act and cheating cases asked Sheel to sign a bunch of papers consisting of reply and vakalatnama etc in deliberate absence of Mr. Medi. He informed Sheel that Mr. Medi had asked Sheel to sign the papers and identify the client before the oath commissioner and submit the papers to the court. Sheel was totally ignorant of the contents and was not given any time to go through it. Such situation of specious urgency is deliberately created.

lsquo;Ah the client should not suffer for the fault of the lawyer- then the complaint to bar council against the erring lawyer for cancellation of license ndash;and then show the judge that you have complained the matter to the Council and or police as the case may and the seek retrial and delay the case to tire the opponent into compromise.rdquo; Sheel said to himself.

Sheel refused

Mr Medi kept a clerk -Mr Gupta just two days after I got associated with him. Mr. Gupta was around 50 years old. The thumb and index finger of his right hand was amputated by a cutting machine. He used to be a book binder earlier. Mr Medi retained him for one month and at the end of the month one day he created such a scene, He started throwing tantrums saying that somebody had tried to break the lock of his drawyer -hinting at Gupta. Now we are going to break his hands and feetrdquo;. Lawyers around started paying attention to the racket. Mr Gupta escaped from the scene.There was no qestion for him to ask for the wages.Poor Mr. Gupta had waited the whole month to attend to his wife who had recently been stricken by parlaysis