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Names will be withheld on request.
--------------------------------------------
It is the anniversay of Muhammad Iqbal, Poet of
the East, the visionary who
taught the concept of
Pakistan
as the homeland of
Islam. He taught about how
the West tries to destroy Muslim fighting spirit.
Some of his verses, in
which Satan addresses his political "children.":
"woh faqa kush keh maut say darta nahin zara
roohe Muhammad iskay badan say nikal do
fikr-e-Arab ko day kay farangi takhaiyyulat
Islam ko Hijaz-o-Yemen say nikal do
Afghaniyon ki ghairate deen ka hay yeh illaj
mullah ko in kay koh-o-dumun say nikal do"
[Trans: The starving (Muslim) who is not afraid
of death at all/
take the spirit of Muhammad out of his being/
Give western concepts to the thought patterns of
the Arabs/
So that Islam may be driven out of Arabia and
Yemen!/
The solution to the problem of the Afghans'
self-respect and honor is/
to drive the mullah out of their mountains and
plains.]
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[Courtesy
Afghanistan
list.]
THE
U.S.
ADMITS HOLDING AFGHAN CHILDREN in
GUANTANAMO BAY
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Children held at Camp Xray, US admits
ABC News
The US military has revealed it is holding
juveniles at its high-security
prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,
known as Camp Xray.
The commander of the joint task force at
Guantanamo, Major General Geoffrey
Miller, says more than one child under the age of
16 is at the detention
centre.
However, Maj Gen Miller has revealed little more
about their welfare.
Maj Gen Miller says the US is holding "juvenile
enemy combatants" at the
centre, confirming rumours of children being
held.
He has refused to reveal how many there are,
their exact ages or their
countries
of origin.
He says they are being well cared for and are
kept in facilities separate
to adult prisoners.
The children are still being interrogated and
will continue to be held at
Guantanamo.
About 660 prisoners are in the camp.
They have not been tried or convicted of any
offence but are being held as
part of what the US calls its
war on terror.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CNN
and Saddam's Palaces
Dear CNN: You have spent considerable
energy on photographing Saddam
Hussain's luxurious palaces. Does this mean that
you favor simplicity in the
lifestyle of America's enemies? Should we think
that if Saddam had lived
simply, there would have been no invasion?
The Taliban leader, Mullah Omar,
according to Pakistani sources,
lived in great simplicity, somewhat like the
frugal early Caliphs of Islam.
Somehow CNN never visited Mullah Omar's living
quarters even after these had
been captured by the U.S.
I don't want to disillusion you about all
the effort you spent on
photographing Saddam's palaces but I'll have to
because you are much too
naive for the good of your viewers. Note this
carefully:
IRAQ IS NOT AFGHANISTAN. Iraq is one of the
richest countries in the
world. Those palaces DO NOT REPRESENT MORE THAN
ONE MONTH of Iraq's oil
income.
Owing to the SANCTIONS (remember?) Iraq
could not carry out any
activity which involved imports. Hence the
widespread scarcity and
joblessness. The only work possible with internal
resources was CONSTRUCTION.
Hence the work on the PALACES. Saddam gave jobs
to tens of thousands of
people by getting these palaces reconstructed
which had been damaged in
"coalition bombing."
[Many of these palaces are from Iraq's past.]
Saddam also got ALL of Iraq's highways,
bridges and damaged buildings
reconstructed. Before the first Gulf War, Saddam
used the oil resources to
develop Iraq as a modern, industrial country
which could stand up to
Israel.
So don't make yourself ridiculous by focusing on
his palaces.
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Sampling the Pakistani Ruling Class: Why
Americans Can't Touch Base with Real
Pakistanis
The Case of Husain Haqqani, Carnegie Institute
for International Peace
Pakistan's coup leader General Musharref
used to say that the people
protesting in the streets against the bombing of
Afghanistan represent only
the 5% "extremists." Musaharref himself never
goes into the streets to find
out if these people are "extremists" or ordinary
Pakistanis. He is advised in
these matters by a vocal but small minority of
upper middle class people who
do not share the values and aspirations of the
Pakistani people. This
minority is well-placed, itself about 5% of the
population, in the armed
forces, the police, the bureaucracy, the
media
and in business. Some of these
are extremists who are openly hostile to Islam
and see no reason for any
differences with
India
or Israel. Some are
advocates for provincial and
linguistic separation from Pakistan (they call it
'autonomy').
We'll take an example of a westernized
intermediary between America and
Pakistan, Husain Haqqani, who is certainly not
extreme in his views. In his
mildness, the alienation of the Pakistani elites
can be seen without
possibility of it being dismissed as an
aberration.
Haqqani appeared live for a full hour on
C-Span,
April 21, 2003 and
the tape of his program was repeated the same
night. The time span allowed us
to take a fair sample of his views.
What Haqqani did NOT indicate is as
important as what he said.
1. He did NOT dress as a Pakistani nationalist or
an Islamist. He was
well-groomed, with coat and tie, in good taste.
[Seemed to have worked hard
on his hair and arched eye brows.]
2. He never gave the impression that as a Muslim,
he might have values to
share, or as Pakistani he might have some
national aspirations to emphasize.
3. He never quoted from the
Qur'an
or the
Hadith.
By strange reversal, some
callers asked him about Islam and he could not
answer. One caller actually
quoted the Qur'an to him and he was non-plussed.
HAQQANI's VIEWPOINT:
1. "I feel elated" about Iraq.
2. "Democracy" is most important and he wants a
conquering power, USA, to
establish "democracy in Iraq." This American
effort will "restore
confidence" in America.
3. RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL IS TO BE TAKEN FOR
GRANTED, but he wants "a broad
settlement with Israel" so that
Palestinian
rights are not ignored.
People whom Haqqani detests the most:
i. Osama bin Laden. 2. Taliban. 3. Saddam (in
that order)
VIEWS ON ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS:
Haqqani divides Islamic movements into three
groups, all three of whom he
despises because they do not give center place to
"democracy."
i. Political Islam. These include the Pakistani
political parties which work
peacefully but use Israel, Kashmir, etc to stir
up the people.
ii. Radical Islam. These include Muslim
Brotherhood in the Middle East and
Jamaate Islami in Pakistan. These are not to be
recommended because they do
not prefer (western style) democracy.
iii. Militant Islam. This includes movements
which are "not legitimate."
These include Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaida. They
have "no support at all."
The most terrible in this entire spectrum of
Islam is Osama bin Laden and
many more such could arise if the U.S. does not
implement "democracy" in the
Muslim world, says Haqqani. [The idea that Islam
might have its own worldview
and program is foreign to Haqqani.]
HAQQANI was often non-factual. For instance, he
claimed that the CHRISTIAN
MINORITY IS not WELL TREATED in PAKISTAN.
If Haqqani is the best Pakistan's
westernized ruling elite can offer,
it's not too difficult to imagine the thinking of
run-of-the-mill
westernized Pakistanis. Owing to this buffer
between Pakistan and the U.S.,
it's almost impossible for Americans to know what
Pakistan and Pakistanis are
really all about.
NOTE: To be a fellow of the Carnegie Institute
for International Peace, one
has to be loyal to the American power structure's
view of the world. The
Institute is a vehicle for propaganda and
disinformation, sophisticated in
its methodology and process.
When American
media
want to get an
"expert's" view of Pakistan and
other Muslim countries, they look for the
Carnegie "fellows" and others like
them.
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2003-04-25 Fri 19:57ct