Pakistanis Fight Efforts to Relocate City

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press WriterThu Apr 6, 2:28 PM ET

For the hardy people of Balakot, their ruggedly beautiful riverside city has long been worth fighting for. Muslim warrior Sayeed Ahmad Shaheed was slain here in 1831 while failing to repel Sikh invaders. Then nature struck six months ago, killing more than 20,000 residents in a 7.6-magnitude earthquake.

Now survivors of that Oct. 8 disaster are gearing up for a new battle — stopping Pakistan's government from wiping their city off the map altogether because it lies on fault lines that make it vulnerable to another quake.

"We will never go," vegetable shop owner Mohammed Hassan, 28, said in the city's bustling, rubble-strewn bazaar. "We have spent six of the toughest and hardest months of our lives here under the open sky, chilling winter and snow. Now the crisis is over, why should we leave?"

Foreign seismological experts are warning Pakistani authorities that Balakot lies above three fault lines, making it too dangerous for people to stay. The government has frozen reconstruction in a 1,480-acre "red zone" and ordered the city relocated from its present site, about 60 miles north of the capital, Islamabad.

Local officials have come up with a list of at least eight alternative locations and believe construction will start at a new site by year's end.

The top government official in the Mansehra district that includes Balakot said shifting 300,000 people with historical and economic roots in the city and neighboring areas was difficult, but the only responsible move to make.

"Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions and the purpose (of moving Balakot) is a noble one," Shakeel Qadir Khan told The Associated Press. "Getting the people out of a dangerous area and helping them resettle is crucial."

Most residents questioned in Balakot's thriving fruit and trinkets market said the government was wrong to relocate their city, arguing it made more sense to rebuild earthquake-resistant structures here rather than build a new city from scratch.

Others complained the government only came forward last week with its relocation plans and many residents had already spent money rebuilding homes and shops in the city. They also grumbled about lack of information on the plans and how they would be compensated.

"The government should make its policies clear about what it wants to do and then we will be in a position to give an opinion," said unemployed 52-year-old Shah Jehan Garlat. "We are not denying the theories of the scientists, and we are worried and scared while living here. But we need to understand what the government wants."

Balakot, which lies in a steep-sided mountain valley, was flattened by the October earthquake. Scarcely a building escaped major destruction. Thousands still live in crudely rebuilt homes or in tent cities — most of which the government wants to close by Monday. Unemployment is high.

Like elsewhere in the quake zone where 87,000 people died across northern Pakistan, the most pressing needs are for adequate shelter and income.

The Pakistani government, with the aid of the United Nations, other foreign agencies and non-governmental organizations, is gearing up for a major reconstruction drive this month following six months of intensive relief efforts that helped people survive the winter.

Key to those plans is getting the more than 3.5 million people left homeless by the quake to return to their towns and villages and start rebuilding their homes.

More than 70 percent of the thousands of people who have been living in government- and aid agency-run camps have gone back, while a handful of camps will remain open for those too vulnerable to return to villages or hamlets ravaged by the quake.

In Balakot, which lies beside the roaring Kunhar River, overlooked by distant snowcapped mountains, ruins are everywhere. A 5.1-magnitude tremor that shook the earth when an AP reporter visited was a reminder of seismic activity that threatens its inhabitants.

But local aid worker Mohammed Aref, 35, didn't even flinch. "That was nothing, we've seen worse," he said.

"We as Muslims don't fear death. We also revere Sayeed Ahmad (Shaheed) who died defending Balakot. Now we are also ready to fight for Balakot. It will be very tough for the government if it tries to move the people from here."

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/ap_on_re_as/quake_saving_balakot...

FIFA seeks answers over Israeli missile strike

Friday 07 April 2006, 14:49 Makka Time, 11:49 GMT

Football's world governing body, FIFA, says it is considering possible action over an Israeli air attack last week on a football field in the Gaza Strip.

Jerome Champagne, FIFA deputy general secretary in charge of political issues, said on Friday the attack was a direct strike without any reason.

He said the field was not being used by Palestinians as a missile launching pad, as Israel's ambassador to Switzerland had claimed.

"We have just asked for explanations," Champagne said.

"FIFA has been fighting for more than a century to make this game universal. To hit a football field is really the wrong signal."

Champagne said he had discussed the matter with Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, and that a decision would likely be announced early next week.

He declined to elaborate on what action FIFA could take against Israel.

"Football should remain outside of politics," Champagne said.

Source: al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F4F083B3-3A51-42F0-8FC8-D6C5522CC1EC.htm

Muslim India struggles to escape the past

Prominent individuals belie the poverty of a minority left behind by the 1947 partition

Randeep Ramesh in Mumbai
Wednesday April 5, 2006

Guardian

On the sprung floor of a Mumbai dance studio standing amid a huddle of male and female dancers is a young woman, dressed in tight sequinned clothes, sucking on a cigarette. She is shouting at her troupe.

It is difficult not to notice 19-year-old Mumait Khan. Tattoos ride on her shoulders and her lower back and her sinuous dance routines have made her one of the most sought-after "item girls" to roll out of Bollywood. "Item" is Mumbai film-speak for a raunchy musical number slipped into mainstream Hindi films.

In the lottery of life Mumait Khan has hit a jackpot. An Indian Muslim, she embodies an apparent contradiction that is rapidly becoming part of a national debate.

While government statistics reveal India's Muslims achieving lower educational levels and higher unemployment rates than the Hindu majority, paradoxically there are an increasing number of high-profile sports and film stars, politicians and industrialists among India's 150 million adherents to Islam.

India's tennis star, Sania Mirza, the country's president, Abdul Kalam, and Azim Premji, its richest man, are all Muslims. Like many success stories of this modern Indian Muslim resurgence, Mumait attributes her rise to self-reliance and self-help.

Although she says she still prays and comes from a pious family, it was poverty that persuaded her parents to overcome their conservative instincts and let her pursue a film career. Only after her father lost his job and could not get steady work again was Mumait allowed to begin dancing. Her appearance fee today runs into hundreds of thousands of rupees and she has just bought a duplex for 5.5m rupees (£70,000).

Walking past the rubbish-strewn streets and open sewers of the chawl or housing colony she grew up in, the teenager says: "Look, this is where I came from. I had to get out."

There is however growing concern that such high-profile success stories mask the relative decline of the Indian Muslim community.

The issue has political repercussions - Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the ruling Congress party, has made it clear that the nation's Muslims are key to winning elections, calling them the party's natural allies. Mrs Gandhi's party has embarked on a campaign to "empower" Muslims with quotas in jobs and universities. Hindu nationalist politicians claim an obscurantist minority is being appeased and pampered.

India has more Muslims than any country except Indonesia, a large religious minority in a professedly secular nation of a billion people. Indian Muslims often feel under pressure not to antagonise the Hindu majority and this sets them apart from many of their brethren in the rest of the Islamic world.

The result is that protests on global issues concerning Muslims, whether the Danish cartoons controversy or George Bush's "war on terror", are relatively muted in India. But there are some notable exceptions - a Muslim politician in Uttar Pradesh recently called for the beheading of the cartoonist and offered a 510m-rupee reward.

What is also striking about India's version of Islam is that it remains largely unreformed and looks outdated by comparison with other Islamic countries. Fatwas are frequently issued - priests pronounce on the correct length of tennis players' skirts. In India Muslim men can divorce their wives by saying talaq ("I divorce thee") three times - a practice largely abandoned in Islam. Last week village elders in eastern India even ordered a man to leave his wife after he said talaq three times in his sleep.

The most striking example of this attempt to be "authentic" are the beards and filigreed topi caps of students among the verandas and courtyards of Darul Uloom (House of Knowledge), a madrasa located in Deoband, 90 miles north-east of Delhi. The seminary is a global centre of Muslim learning with 15,000 schools worldwide adopting its sparse and dogmatic version of Islam. Although Darul Uloom spreads a message of peace, the Taliban sprung from its teaching.

Rising unemployment among Muslims in India has seen a steady increase in students. "My father is a farmer, but there is no work. He thought the best job was to become an imam (priest). People always need spiritual learning," said Mohammed Arif, 20, who has studied in Deoband for seven years.

A committee set up by the country's prime minister tasked with looking at minority employment found that despite making up 14.7% of the population, Muslims only comprise a fraction of the workforce in many areas.

In February there was an angry debate in parliament over the Indian army's refusal to tell the committee how many Muslim soldiers the country had. In the end the army relented: out of 1.1m Indian soldiers only 29,000 are Muslims.

There are many who wonder why Muslims, who before the subcontinent was divided made up a third of the armed forces, have stayed away from India's regiments. There is a widely held suspicion that Muslims prefer Pakistan. But in the three wars India has fought with Pakistan there were no signs of Muslim disloyalty and the dispute over Kashmir has not stirred wider passions.

More worrying, Muslims are falling behind Hindu Dalits, or untouchables, seen as the lowest social class. "In terms of educational achievement, Indian Muslim men in cities are less literate than their Dalit peers," says Abusaleh Shariff, a member of the prime ministerial committee conducting a socio- economic survey of Indian Muslims.

Why Muslims fare so badly is a mix of history and politics. When the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947, most of the Muslim upper and middle class emigrated to Pakistan. Those left behind were leaderless and mostly poor and many felt guilty they had been responsible for the carving-up of the country.

Experts also point out a linguistic divide. For many north Indian Muslims their language, Urdu, written in a modified Arabic script, is conspicuous by its absence in India.

Like their Hindu counterparts, descent often determines employment for Indian Muslims. The result is that poor artisans expect their sons to take over often low-paying jobs. "It is why 50% of car mechanics are Muslims. The fathers just hand over the business to the son," says Mr Shariff.

Academics say that rather like African Americans, Indian Muslims have become victims of history and discrimination. Some suggest that mimicking US policy on African Americans might help.

But, says Zoya Hassan, professor of political science at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University: "Unlike African Americans Indian Muslims are not organised. They have not campaigned for their rights effectively. Of course racism is easier to identify than an anti-Muslim bias, but African Americans were lifted by a policy of positive discrimination which could help here."

In numbers

Muslims form 14.7% of India's 1.1 billion population but only

7% of public administrators

5% of the railways staff

3.5% of the country's banking employees

3% or less of the Indian army

Source: Guadiran Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1747079,00.html

Interview: Al-Jazeera's Chief Takes Aim at CNN

The Last Word: Wadah Khanfar
Al-Jazeera, all the time.

Newsweek International

April 10-17, 2006 issue - Al-Jazeera has its sights set on CNN and the BBC. Founded 10 years ago in Doha, the controversial Arab television network plans to launch a 24/7 English-language channel at the end of May, Al-Jazeera International. Big-name Western journalists like the BBC's David Frost and former "Nightline" reporter David Marash have already signed on, and news centers are soon to open in Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington. Heading up the ambitious expansion is 38-year-old director-general Wadah Khanfar, appointed in late March to the network's top spot. Palestinian by birth, Jordanian by education, Khanfar spoke to NEWSWEEK's Vibhuti Patel in Doha about the station's reputation and its future. Excerpts:

Why go international now?
Al-Jazeera is a Pan-Arab regional network. In 10 years, it's become an internationally recognized brand name. Now we're looking beyond our region to introduce a fresh perspective. Ours will be the only 24-hour news channel in English headquartered in the Middle East.

The new venture has attracted several high-profile Western journalists.
These people have high credentials; they've done a beautiful job in the media. Their experience will result in magnificent programming at Al-Jazeera. So far, the limitation of the Arabic language has not allowed people from all over the world to see our network. Now, with the best English-speaking journalists, global understanding of what we're saying will be enhanced.

Right now, who watches you?
Our statistics show that most Arabs look up to Al-Jazeera as their most reliable source of news. The masses watch us; the rulers and the elite find us an important source of information; they're concerned about what we cover. Al-Jazeera has changed the political landscape in the Middle East. People now receive the opposition's discourse directly. Al-Jazeera opened it up for intellectuals, thinkers, critics to speak their mind. It was the first democratic exercise in the region. The Arab world is changing. Reform, democracy and freedom of speech are issues integral to this period of transformation.

But you still offer Osama bin Laden his biggest platform.
Our motto is, opinion and counteropinion. Up to 2001, Western media and governments celebrated Al-Jazeera as the foremost force for freedom in the region, but when we implemented the same motto internationally on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, America protested. We report the news, so when there's a newsworthy item, we put it on the screen, be it Osama, or Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Al Qaeda in Iraq—they are part of a developing news story and we're a news channel. I can't censor hard news for political gain. We are not a propaganda tool for anyone. George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld complain about us, but we've broadcast more than 5,000 hours of Bush's speeches, live, translated into Arabic; we have not aired more than five hours of bin Laden's. So, no, we're not bin Laden's mouthpiece.

You got kicked out of Iraq after the government accused you of inciting violence. Do you want a bureau back in Iraq?
Without doubt. Iraq is a big story that we're covering through news-agency reports and our Doha newsroom. Our presence in Iraq would allow us coverage that's more in touch with the reality of the field. Some accusations were made against us, but now we've been banned for a year and a half. Al-Jazeera has not been behind any trouble or political situation. The banning makes no sense: Al-Jazeera was giving the best picture of the reality in Iraq. We urge the government of Iraq to open our bureau and allow our correspondents—most of whom are Iraqis—to return to be in touch with the day-to-day story in the field. We've contacted many Iraqi officials, and received many promises that the bureau will open. But so far nothing has materialized. Al-Jazeera does not sympathize with insurgents—we are not for or against anyone.

Reporting in Iraq, though, has been a struggle.
More than 20 of our journalists were detained by U.S. forces in '03, '04, some for a few hours, others more than 30 days. Some were tortured physically by U.S. armed forces; some were in Abu Ghraib jail. One colleague was killed in Najaf while he was filming; another was killed the day before Baghdad fell. Then U.S. forces bombed our offices. Now it's Atwar Bahjat [who was killed by insurgents on Feb. 22] ... I had recruited her personally when I was bureau chief in Baghdad.

How do you view Al-Jazeera's success?
Our founding mission was to free the Arab media from being manipulated by authoritarian regimes in this part of the world; to give audiences choices—the right to knowledge, to be better informed, to decide for themselves without interference from political authorities. Before 1996, no one here took journalists seriously. Everyone knew that it was propaganda, the spin that intelligence agencies and governments wanted published. We introduced free journalism. Now other networks are following our model.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12113769/site/newsweek/

Senator Wants to Tap Controversial General

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press WriterMon Apr 3, 7:23 PM ET

A Senate Republican wants an Army general who drew criticism for church speeches casting the war on terrorism in religious terms to lead the U.S. special operations command.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., recommended Lt. Gen. William G. (Jerry) Boykin, currently the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for intelligence, for the post in Tampa, Fla.

The current commander, Gen. Doug Brown, is retiring, and the Pentagon has not filled the job.

"I am told, and I believe it to be true, that no special operations officer currently on active duty is more highly respected or admired by his superiors, peers or subordinates alike, than Jerry Boykin," Allen wrote in the letter dated March 31 and obtained by The Associated Press.

Allen, a first-term Virginia senator and potential 2008 presidential candidate, does not serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is in charge of approving Pentagon nominations. A spokesman for the senator said Boykin is one of Allen's constituents and that many people approached the senator and recommended the general.

Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), the Republican chairman of that committee and Virginia's senior senator, does not agree with Allen's suggestion.

"Senator Allen is entitled to his views. He did not consult with me on this matter, but this officer would not be among those whom I would recommend for this position," Warner said in a statement to the AP.

In 2003, Boykin gave speeches at evangelical Christian churches in which he painted the war on terror as a Christian fight against Satan and suggested that Muslims worship idols. Boykin later apologized for his characterizations as conservatives rushed to defend him.

A Pentagon investigation the following year found that Boykin violated regulations by failing to make clear he was not speaking in an official capacity when he made the speeches, sometimes wearing his Army uniform. The probe also found Boykin violated Pentagon rules by failing to obtain advance clearance for his remarks.

In the letter, Allen said his confidence in Boykin's abilities overrides any concerns about what may surface during confirmation hearings should the administration nominate Boykin. Specifically, Allen mentioned the religious statements as well as U.S. interrogation policies at the Guantanamo Bay prison, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and elsewhere.

"Granted, these are issues which cause discomfort. But I firmly believe the nomination of General Boykin to be important enough to take a stand," Allen wrote.

The senator said his request to nominate Boykin is supported by "many of my colleagues here in the Senate" and those who have served with Boykin, given the general's extensive special operations resume, which includes the Army's Delta Force and service in the Somalia conflict.

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060403/ap_on_go_co/general_special_ops

Battle Brews As Porn Moves Into Mainstream

By DAVID CRARY, AP National WriterSat Apr 1, 5:02 PM ET

The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet — there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans.

It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain.

Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that they hope will fuel lawsuits against porn magnates.

"We don't think it's a lost cause," said Harmer, a Utah-based auto executive and former politician who's been fighting porn for 40 years.

"It's the most profitable industry in the world," he said. "But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable. That could be the straw that breaks their back."

The activists' adversary is a sprawling industry that, by some counts, offers more than 4 million porn sites on the Internet, that in the United States alone is estimated to be worth $12 billion a year. A tracking firm, comScore Media Metrix, says about 40 percent of Internet users in the United States visit adult sites each month.

Porn products are featured at popular sex expositions and retail chains such as Hustler Hollywood. Major hotels provide in-room porn, and adult film stars are now mainstream celebrities. Mary Carey attended a VIP Republican fundraiser in Washington in mid-March; Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" hit the best-seller lists and she hosted a racy pre-Super Bowl party in Detroit in February.

As much as there is national consensus on the evils of child pornography, there is none whatever on porn featuring adults and marketed to them. It's more pervasive than ever, yet activists and experts disagree bitterly over the extent of harm it causes.

"The form of entertainment is no problem," said Paul Cambria, general counsel for the porn industry's Adult Freedom Foundation. "There are individuals who are going to react abnormally to normal material, but it's not a problem for the average person."

For every couple driven apart by porn, there are others whose relationship is enlivened, Cambria argued. He dismissed contentions that porn is highly addictive or brain-damaging.

"Some people lie about it," Cambria said. "It's their way of excusing personally unacceptable conduct — 'It wasn't me, it was porn.'"

Such attitudes infuriate experts on the other side who say online porn is as addictive as crack cocaine.

"The Internet is the perfect delivery system for anti-social behavior — it's free, it's piped into your house," said Mary Anne Layden, a psychologist and addiction expert at the University of Pennsylvania. "Internet porn is probably the biggest miseducation system we can devise in terms of sexuality, misuse of women."

She says many of her patients, rather than improving their sex lives with porn, suffer sexual dysfunction.

Interest in porn is age-old and normal, says psychologist David Greenfield of West Hartford, Conn., an expert on Internet behaviors, but it can become a destructive obsession for a minority who indulge in it at the expense of healthy relationships. Easy availability is part of the issue.

"It's not your father's porn," he said. "With little or no effort, as long as you have a computer, you can access some of the most stimulating content on the planet. There's no delay, no person watching. It's designed to very quickly get to a point where you're not in full control."

He estimates that for up to 10 percent of porn users, relationships suffer — with many husbands spending so much time online that they cease to have sex with their wives.

Divorce lawyers report that porn use is an increasingly common factor in marriage breakups: It can cause immense pain when a wife discovers her husband's porn habit.

"I compare it to your house burning down," said Laurie Hall, who divorced her husband after writing a book called "An Affair of the Mind," about his 20-year obsession with porn.

"It destroys your sense of personhood when you bring all that you are into a relationship and someone chooses to ignore that," she said. "It eats away at the heart of the family."

Across America, compulsive porn use has spawned hundreds of support groups, treatment programs and Web sites where heartbroken spouses — mostly wives — swap stories of their mates' obsessions.

Polls suggest most Americans believe porn should be off-limits to minors and available legally for adults. But groups such as Morality in Media think the public favors tougher enforcement of obscenity laws against hard-core porn; it operates a Web site that forwards obscenity complaints to federal officials.

"We're not going to get rid of all of it, but we can push it back into the gutter as far as humanly possible," said Morality in Media president Robert Peters, a Dartmouth-educated attorney who struggled in his 20s to kick a porn habit that started in grade school.

"It was hell," said Peters, recalling a six-year stretch where he regularly visited porn outlets on New York's 42nd Street. "It's a very hard habit to break."

Mark Laaser of Eden Prairie, Minn., says he frequently sought out pornography and engaged in extramarital sex for more than 20 years, starting in college and continuing through a career as pastor and counselor. He now runs workshops, and consults with church congregations on the issue.

"I've seen the damage it does to marriages, to families," he said.

Though he stressed the need for individual willpower, Laaser also faulted the porn industry for employing aggressive online technologies that "besiege you."

"Sometimes it's not a matter of free will," he said. "It's a matter of invasion."

Another self-described former addict is Phil Burress, head of a Cincinnati-based conservative group called Citizens for Community Values.

Like many conservatives, he had hopes that the Bush administration would reverse Clinton White House policy and step up prosecutions of adult-porn obscenity cases as well as child porn cases. Thus far, Burress is disappointed.

"Five years into this administration, they get an F," he said.

Still, Burress is encouraged by the recent formation of an FBI anti-obscenity squad and the appointment of Brent Ward, a former U.S. attorney who combatted porn in Utah, to head an obscenity prosecution task force.

The Justice Department defends its record, saying it has indicted dozens of people on obscenity charges since 2001 and suggesting the pace will increase. But with a vast array of potential targets, and many other priorities, prosecutors must choose their battles carefully.

One pending case involves obscenity charges against a California couple whose company sold pornographic videos depicting simulated rape and murder. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison plus $7.5 million in fines.

The bottom line, perhaps, is that each side in the debate can make points that seem unassailable.

"Everyone agrees that tens of millions of Americans consume porn. ... ministers, PTA members, policemen, teachers, soldiers, dentists and Boy Scout leaders," argues California sex therapist Marty Klein. "The overwhelming majority of them don't rape strangers or emotionally abandon their wives."

But Layden, the Penn addiction expert, refuses to see porn as mostly harmless.

"When I ask men who are sex addicts if they would want their wife or daughter to be in porn, 100 percent say, 'No,'" she said. "They want it to be somebody else's wife or daughter. They know this material is damaging."

___

On the Net:

Porn industry group: http://www.adultfreedomfoundation.org/

Anti-porn group: http://www.obscenitycrimes.org/

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060401/ap_on_re_us/the_porn_divide

Now, Hindu Nationalists Rewriting California Textbooks

By Angana Chatterji

The attempts of diasporic Hindu nationalist organizations in the United States to intervene in revising segments on India, Indian history, and Hinduism in 6th grade textbooks in California State schools is disturbing.

On December 2, 2005, the Curriculum Commission, an advisory body to the California State Board of Education accepted 131 of the 153 revisions proposed by Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) and Vedic Foundation (VF), two groups affiliated with Hindutva, militant Hindu nationalist ideology. The edits offered by these groups were adopted amid intense lobbying and the misrepresentation that their views represent those of 'ALL HINDUS' in the diaspora. This bears testimony to the power and resources of long-distance Hindu nationalism, and its organizing capabilities in the United States.

The changes proposed by HEF, VF, and the Ad Hoc Committee, on the basis of recommendations made by Professor Shiva Bajpai, who too is affiliated with the World Association for Vedic Studies, a Hindu nationalist organization, assert a nationalistic and mythic history of India as 'social fact'. Contrary to reputable scholarship, the revisions refute the migration of Aryans, associated by historians with the emergence of Hinduism, from Central Asia into India.

The revisions posit Hinduism as indigenous to India and ascribed with its origins, rendering mute the histories of adivasis (tribal, first peoples) and their subjugation by Hindus. On page 238, the Ad Hoc Committee proposed, and the Curriculum Commission accepted, that the current text, 'The Aryans created a caste system' be replaced with: 'During Vedic times, people were divided into different social groups (varnas) based on their capacity to undertake a particular profession.'

Such storying dissociates the caste system from Hinduism, and discounts and neutralizes the oppressive structure and politics via which the caste system was constituted. It presents the caste system as a fluid arrangement, not restricted by ancestry. On page 245, the Ad Hoc Committee proposed, and the Curriculum Commission accepted, that the current text, 'Men had many more rights than women', be replaced with: 'Men had different duties (dharma) as well as rights than women. Many women were among the sages to whom the Vedas were revealed.' The inequity of women's rights is legitimated and discoursed as 'different rights', invisibilizing women's subordinated role in a patriarchal society, and the Vedas posed as 'revealed' doctrines.

The revisions highlight Hindutva's misogyny and bigotry, and assert a non-reflective gaze at power that justifies Hindu dominance and cultural nationalism. Their history makes Hinduism uniform, monotheistic, and monolithic, dismissing the disenfranchisement of women, dalits, adivasis, and religious minorities under centuries of Hindu ascendancy in what is today India, and therefore their ongoing struggles for justice and self-determination. What message are we sending children?

The positions taken by HEF and VF are deliberate, and consistent with the attempts of Hindutva groups toward rewriting history in India, where sectarian education campaigns undertaken by Hindu extremist groups demonize minorities through the teaching of fundamentalist curricula. The Hindu right-wing has instituted an educational network for rural and disenfranchised peoples in India, building on a mandate that validates the paramountcy of a 'Hindu worldview' and the assembling of a Hindu state.

Such corruption of education incites political and social fires, cultivating a culture of hatred toward non-Hindus and those that refuse to submit to Hindutva's tyranny. Hindu nationalist organizations, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have spearheaded this movement in India, successfully penetrating into educational systems and centralized regulatory commissions. The RSS has fashioned an institutional umbrella that has had damaging impact on education at the local level.

Created by the RSS in 1977, the Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan network focuses on moral, extracurricular and physical education for 'mind, body, and spirit'. The Vidya Bharati system supervises over 18,000 schools in India, with a shared curriculum across the country. The RSS has established a network of schools, such as the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishads, Vivekananda Kendras, Sewa Bharatis, Ekal Vidyalayas, to advance the ideological agenda of Hindu nationalism.

For adivasis (referred derogatorily by Hindu nationalists as 'vanavasis' or 'forest dwellers') and dalits (erstwhile 'untouchable' castes), this ongoing reality of Hinduization forces their coercive incorporation into Brahmanical Hinduism. Hindu nationalists have utilized such educational networks as mechanisms through which to recruit and mobilize women, adivasis, and dalits in campaigns against religious minorities. The participation of Hinduized women, adivasi, and dalit communities in the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 exemplifies this pattern.

Following the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) accession to power at the centre in 1998, Hindu nationalist educators were inducted into the National Council for Education and Research Training (NCERT), the national curriculum development and review body, to make changes to school curricula. With the defeat of the BJP at the centre in 2004, processes to reverse these changes have been instated. The United States Department of State, in its International Religious Freedom reports of 2002, 2003, and 2004, stated that attempts at Hinduizing education endangered religious freedom in India. Now it appears that this same strategy is insinuating itself in California.

Hindu nationalist curricula must not masquerade as 'standard education' in California. The California State Board of Education must note that the VF and HEF and their supporters are closely connected to Hindu nationalist organizations. The HEF, its coordinators and advisors, for example, include members of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS, the US counterpart of the RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHP-A), another key Hindutva organization. The Hindu American Foundation has threatened legal action against the California Board of Education in regard to the textbook changes. Its president, Dr. Mihir Meghani, has been a member of both the HSS and VHP-A.

Hindu nationalists in the US have been targeting Professors Michael Witzel (Harvard University), James Heitzman (UC, Davis), and Stanley Wolpert (UCLA). These scholars reviewed the edits proposed by Hindu nationalists and suggested responsible changes premised on credible histories. Mr. Gaurang Desai of the HSS derogatorily equated Professor Witzel to Hitler in speaking to the Curriculum Commission. This is ironic criticism given Hindutva's professed admiration for Hitler and the Nazi Party, as Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, an early RSS ideologue, expressed in 1938, in 'We or Our Nation Defined':

'Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races -- the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here'.

He continued:

'The non-Hindu people in Hindustan [homeland of Hindus] .... may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen's rights.'

After being nominated Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, Mr. Narendra Modi incorporated the teachings of Hindutva in his governance of Gujarat. According to a Times of India article, entitled, 'In Modi's Gujarat, Hitler is a textbook hero' in tenth grade school texts: 'present a frighteningly uncritical picture of Fascism and Nazism. The strong national pride that both these phenomena generated, the efficiency in the bureaucracy and the administration and other "achievements" are detailed, but the exterminations of Jews and atrocities against trade unionists, migrant laborers, and any section of people who did not fit into Mussolini or Hitler's definition of rightful citizen do not find mention.'

Hate mail directed at Professor Witzel has accused him of being a 'racist'. This is a despicable example of slander, and, in the name of a high moral principle, makes a mockery of the seriousness of racism. Respected and credentialed scholars such as Professor Witzel and others who served on the review panel must be judged by the merits of their scholarship. Instead, Hindu nationalists, such as Mr. Desai and Dr. Yvette Rosser, who ambiguously refers to Professor Witzel as 'a professor from Harvard University' (India-West), systematically fabricate libelous and defamatory allegations to discredit individuals, rather than engage with integrity the issues raised by those who oppose them.

Issues of racism and ethnocentrism that diasporic communities are confronted with in the United States are of critical concern and prompt us to seek curricular changes, hoping that a respectful curriculum will further facilitate a multicultural society. In proposing curricular changes, we must however make distinctions between national pride that wishes to put forward a uniform and glorifying version of history and the scholarship of history, which seeks to present the complexities within. Fiction as history does not benefit Indian-American and other California school-goers, for whom engagement with the past must facilitate a deep questioning of how things come to be, of what constitutes knowledge, of how knowledge is contested, so that the study of history informs the work of citizenship.

Source: Sikh Spectrum
http://www.sikhspectrum.com/022006/hindutva_textbooks.htm

US 'open' to Israel borders unilateral plan

The US secretary of state has said Washington may be open to backing Israel's Kadima party in drawing the country's borders unilaterally.

Condoleezza Rice said a negotiated deal with the Palestinians was preferable, but seemed unlikely since the militant group Hamas won Palestinian elections.

But she added that there had been no chance to discuss the Israeli proposal.

It is the first time the US appears to have dropped its insistence that the conflict must be solved bilaterally.

Ms Rice was speaking to reporters travelling with her to Berlin for talks about Iran's nuclear programme.

'No chance to talk'

Ms Rice pointedly did not rule out supporting Kadima's plan for withdrawing from parts of the occupied West Bank by 2010 but consolidating other Jewish settlements there.

"I would not on the face of it say... that we do not think there is any value in what the Israelis are talking about," she said.

"But we can't support it because we don't know. We haven't had a chance to talk to them about what they have in mind," she stressed.

She referred to Hamas' victory on a platform of resistance to the Israeli occupation and opposing negotiated settlements.

"If you are going to have a negotiation you have to have partners and the Palestinian government does not accept the concept of a negotiated solution," Ms Rice said.

Coalition talks

After winning Tuesday's general election, Kadima will become the largest party in the next Knesset, although it will need at least two coalition partners to get a parliamentary majority.

Efforts to form a coalition will begin officially on Sunday, when the largely-ceremonial president, Moshe Katsav, will chair the first formal negotiations.

But Kadima's leader, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has already insisted he will keep the powerful finance ministry in any new government, the Maariv newspaper has reported.

Such a stance could complicate negotiations with Kadima's most likely partner, the Labour party, which wants the finance portfolio to help it to reverse the extensive welfare cuts of recent years.

A senior Labour MP, Yuli Tamir, said not getting control of the ministry would be a red line for her party joining the government.

"There is no doubt that our demand for the Finance Ministry is a legitimate one and part of our world view," she told Israel Army Radio.

Kadima is expected to ask a number of other smaller parties to join its coalition, including the Pensioners' Party and the ultra-orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.

Mr Olmert was also called by the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who offered congratulations on his election victory.

The two men did not discuss the possibility of holding talks in the near future, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4860340.stm

Carter slams US-India nuclear deal

Wed Mar 29, 10:49 AM ET

Former US president Jimmy Carter criticized Washington's civilian nuclear deal with India, saying it was "just one more step in opening a Pandora's box of nuclear proliferation".

"Knowing for more than three decades of Indian leaders' nuclear ambitions, I and all other presidents included them in a consistent policy: no sales of civilian nuclear technology or uncontrolled fuel to any country that refused to sign the NPT," Carter said in an opinion piece in The Washington Post.

India has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and developed nuclear weapons on its own.

US President George W. Bush clinched the landmark nuclear deal with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a visit to New Delhi on March 2 and is pushing Congress to amend the US Atomic Energy Act, which currently prohibits nuclear sales to non NPT signatories, to make the agreement effective.

It would give energy-starved India access to long-denied civilian nuclear technology in return for placing a majority of its civilian nuclear reactors under international inspection.

Carter, a Democrat, slammed the Bush administration for abandoning many of the nuclear arms control agreements negotiated since the administration of Dwight Eisenhower.

"This change in policies has sent uncertain signals to other countries, including North Korea and Iran, and may encourage technologically capable nations to choose the nuclear option," he said.

Carter said although US companies reportedly might win two contracts arising from Indian plans to import eight nuclear reactors by 2012, "this is a minuscule benefit compared with the potential costs.

"India may be a special case, but reasonable restraints are necessary," he said.

The Bush administration had often cited what it called India's unblemished nuclear non-proliferation record to go ahead with deal.

Carter said as the five original nuclear powers had all stopped producing fissile material for weapons, "India should make the same pledge to cap its stockpile of nuclear bomb ingredients.

"Instead, the proposal for India would allow enough fissile material for as many as 50 weapons a year, far exceeding what is believed to be its current capacity," he said.

So far, Carter said, India had only rudimentary technology for uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing, and he urged Congress to "preclude the sale of such technology to India."

India should also join other nuclear powers in signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, he said.

Source: AFP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060329/wl_sthasia_afp/usindianuclearpoliticscarter

Hindu school raided after giving students swords

A Hindu priest was arrested after 30 Indian teenagers were given swords as part of a school graduation ceremony aimed at encouraging them to fight "Islamic militancy," police said.

The students, aged 14 and 15, were given the weapons to "empower the Hindu community to fight back against Islamic extremism and Muslim residents," a police source said on condition of anonymity on Wednesday.

Police raided the Hindu school in an area with a history of clashes between rival communities after school officials ignored demands to halt the graduation ceremony that began five years ago, recovering 33 swords, the source said.

The study of 'Shastra and Shaastra' (weapons and scriptures) was part of the curriculum and along with a sword, each student was given four Hindu books.

Temple priest Akshar Prasad was arrested by police who said they suspected hardline Hindu organisations may have been behind the ceremony in Bhavnagar, a town in western Gujarat province.

Gujarat remains a hotbed of tensions between Hindus and Muslims after riots in 2002 left more than 2,000 people dead, mostly Muslims.

The killings were in retaliation for the deaths of 59 Hindus in a train allegedly torched by Muslims. The Hindu nationalist Gujarat government was accused of turning a blind eye to the riots, a charge it rejected.

Police launched the raid after a tip-off from a parent. "I did not want my child to carry a sword back home as the final lesson from his school," Rakesh Patel said.

Police superintendent Hasmukh Patel said schools were banned from handing out weapons. "But they went ahead with their plans and punitive action had to be initiated," he said.

Source: AFP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060329/wl_sthasia_afp/indiaeducationreligionsword

Abramoff Gets Minimum Sentence in Prison

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 1 minute ago

Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison in a Florida fraud case, the minimum sentence allowed.

Abramoff and former partner Adam Kidan pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud stemming from the ill-fated purchase in 2000 of the SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.

The sentence won't start immediately so the pair can continue cooperating in a Washington corruption investigation and a Florida probe into the murder of former SunCruz owner Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.

Before the hearing, more than 260 people — including rabbis, military officers and even a professional hockey referee — wrote letters on the men's behalf asking the federal judge for leniency.

The letters, obtained by The Associated Press, put a new spin on the foibles and crimes of a man who became the face of Washington's latest corruption scandal.

"Jack is a good person, who in his quest to be successful, lost sight of the rules," National Hockey League referee Dave Jackson wrote, describing the time Abramoff brought 14 youngsters to his dressing room before a game.

Kidan, in his own letter to the judge, said he knew the SunCruz deal was wrong but said he "was very caught up in the fast paced world of my partner and the high profile that came along with it." He added, "I am not the horrible person that the media has written about."

In the Florida case, Abramoff and Kidan admitted concocting a fake $23 million wire transfer to make it appear they had made a large cash contribution to the $147.5 million purchase of SunCruz Casinos. Based on that fake transfer, lenders provided the pair with $60 million in financing.

The same week Abramoff pleaded guilty to the SunCruz fraud, he entered guilty pleas to three federal charges as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe that could involve up to 20 members of Congress and aides, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. No date has been set for his sentencing in that case.

Abramoff, 47, and Kidan, 41, are also expected to give statements in the investigation into the Feb. 6, 2001, slaying of Boulis, who was gunned down at the wheel of his car amid a power struggle over the gambling fleet. Three men face murder charges, including one who worked for Kidan as a consultant at SunCruz and who allegedly has ties to New York's Gambino crime family.

Both Abramoff and Kidan have repeatedly denied any role in or knowledge of the Boulis murder. But prosecutors say Kidan has not been ruled out as a suspect and defense attorneys say Abramoff could provide critical inside information about the dispute with Boulis, who also founded the Miami Subs restaurant chain.

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060329/ap_on_re_us/lobbyist_fraud...

American Marines murder 23 Iraqi civilians

The US military deny accusations of massive over-reaction when attacked. But video evidence from one incident has led the official story to unravel.
By Raymond Whitaker

Published: 26 March 2006

US military investigators are examining allegations that Marines shot unarmed Iraqis, then claimed they were "enemy fighters", The Independent on Sunday has learned. In the same incident, eyewitnesses say, one man bled to death over a period of hours as soldiers ignored his pleas for help.

American military officials in Iraq have already admitted that 15 civilians who died in the incident in the western town of Haditha last November were killed by Marines, and not by a roadside bomb, as had previously been claimed. The only victim of the remotely triggered bomb, it is now conceded, was a 20-year-old Marine, Lance-Corporal Miguel Terrazas, from El Paso, Texas.

An inquiry has been launched by the US Navy's Criminal Investigation Service after the military was presented with evidence that the 15 civilians, including seven women and three children still in their nightclothes, had been killed in their homes in the wake of the bombing. If it is proved that they died in a rampage by the Marines, and not as a result of "collateral damage", it would rank as the worst case of deliberate killing of Iraqi civilians by US armed forces since the invasion three years ago.

The military still insists that eight men who also died on 19 November were insurgents who opened fire on a Marines patrol after the bomb explosion. One military spokeswoman said the civilian deaths were their fault, because they "placed noncombatants in the line of fire as the Marines responded to defend themselves". But numerous witnesses say the only shooting was by the Marines, and that the only difference between these victims and the rest were that they were young men who could be depicted as insurgents. Despite claims of a fierce firefight after the explosion, military officials say two AK-47 rifles were the only weapons recovered.

Four of the young men who died were students on their way to college. They were in a car which was near the Marines' convoy when the bomb went off. According to the soldiers' statements to investigators, they told the youths to leave the car and lie face down in the road. Instead they ran, and were shot down. All this time, the Marines said, they were under fire from nearby houses.

The IoS understands, however, that local people have contradicted this account in almost every detail. According to their statements, the soldiers were not under fire when they approached the car. Rather than order the occupants to leave the vehicle and lie down, they simply dragged them out and shot them. While investigators seek to determine the truth of the incident, the military has admitted no weapons were found in the vehicle.

The most shocking allegation concerns what happened when the Marines approached a house nearby. Although investigators are again struggling to reconcile wildly differing accounts, the military confirms that seven people were killed inside the house, including two women and a child. The Marines also reported seeing a man and a woman run out of the house, at which they gave chase and shot and killed the man. Relatives named the woman as Hiba Abdullah, and said she escaped with her baby. The dead man, they added, was her husband, Rashid.

But according to statements seen by the investigators, the first time the Marines saw the couple was not when they were running away. Instead they confronted them in or near the house. Hiba Abdullah, who spoke some English, asked if she could flee, and the soldiers let her run away. Her husband, after a moment of hesitation, ran after her and was shot in the chest.

Rather than dying immediately, local people have told investigators, Rashid lay bleeding for hours, pleading for help, but the Marines, who had cordoned off the area, refused to allow anyone access to him.

The other four men claimed to be insurgents were all the sons of a man called Ahmed Ayed. The Marines say that when they entered a house, one of the brothers had an AK-47 and another appeared to be reaching into a wardrobe for a weapon. The soldiers opened fire, killing all four. But another member of the family said the brothers had all been forced into the wardrobe and killed there.

Last November the first report of the incident, in a communique from the Marines, said Lance-Corporal Terrazas and "15 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb". Gunmen "attacked the convoy with small-arms fire", the statement added, and the Marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding one.

Although the mayor of Haditha led a protest delegation to the local Marines camp soon afterwards, the official story did not begin to unravel until an Iraqi human rights group obtained a video, shot by a local journalism student, which showed that the civilians could not have been killed by a bomb. It also showed that although the houses where they died were bullet-riddled indoors, there were no exterior marks, casting doubt on the Marines' claims of a firefight.

After Time magazine took up the story, an infantry colonel was sent to Haditha for an inquiry which concluded that the civilians died as a result of the Marines' actions rather than the bombing. But the colonel did not accuse the Marines of wrongdoing, saying the deaths were "collateral damage". Nor was there a challenge to the claim that the others were insurgents; it is not known whether the criminal inquiry now in progress will reopen the issue.

US troops are frequently accused of massive over-reaction when attacked, even allowing for the stress of combat. According to human rights groups, the only unusual feature of the events of 19 November was that there was video evidence to contradict the military account.

Almost the only other instance was an air attack in May 2004 on what the US military described as a gathering of "foreign fighters" and local people said was a wedding party. Their version was backed up by a video showing dead children and smashed musical instruments. When asked to account for the footage, the response of the authorities was to demand the name of the cameraman who shot it. An aggressive response to accusations of misconduct is common. Last week Iraqi journalists filmed the bodies of five children, four women and two men whom local police said had been killed in their home in Ishaqi, north of Baghdad. A spokesman, Lt-Col Barry Johnson, said coalition forces knew of four people killed in crossfire but denied claims that officers had failed to attend a meeting with local people.

"There appears to be a distinct pattern of misinformation," complained Lt-Col Johnson. "This is another clear sign of that happening, making allegations for the sake of prompting media reporting and attempting to discredit coalition operations. This is a pattern we've seen the terrorist-backed insurgency use repeatedly."

Source: The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article353678.ece

All the news that's fit to slant (Robert Fisk)

ROBERT FISK
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

It is a bright winter morning and I am sipping my first coffee of the day in Los Angeles. My eye moves like a radar beam over the front page of the Los Angeles Times for the word that dominates the minds of all Middle East correspondents: Iraq. In post-invasion, post-Judith Miller mode, the U.S. press is supposed to be challenging the lies of this war. So the story beneath the headline "In a Battle of Wits, Iraq's Insurgency Mastermind Stays a Step Ahead of U.S." deserves to be read. Or does it?

Datelined Washington -- an odd city in which to learn about Iraq -- its opening paragraph reads: "Despite the recent arrest of one of his would-be suicide bombers in Jordan and some top aides in Iraq, insurgency mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi has eluded capture, U.S. authorities say, because his network has a much better intelligence-gathering operation than they do."

Now quite apart from the fact that many Iraqis -- along with myself -- have grave doubts about whether Zarqawi exists, and that al-Qaida's Zarqawi, if he does exist, does not merit the title of "insurgency mastermind," the words that caught my eye were "U.S. authorities say." And as I read through the report, I note how the Times sources this extraordinary tale. I thought U.S. reporters no longer trusted the U.S. administration, not after the mythical WMD and the equally mythical connections between Saddam and the international crimes against humanity of 9/11. Of course, I was wrong.

Here are the sources -- on pages 1 and 10 for the yarn spun by reporters Josh Meyer and Mark Mazzetti: "U.S. officials said," "said one U.S. Justice Department counter-terrorism official," "Officials ... said," "those officials said," "the officials confirmed," "American officials complained," "the U.S. officials stressed," "U.S. authorities believe," "said one senior U.S. intelligence official," "U.S. officials said," "Jordanian officials ... said" -- here, at least is some light relief -- "several U.S. officials said," "the U.S. officials said," "American officials said," "officials say," "say U.S. officials," "U.S. officials said," "one U.S. counter-terrorism official said."

I do truly treasure this story. It proves my point that the Los Angeles Times -- along with the big East Coast dailies -- should all be called U.S. OFFICIALS SAY. But it's not just this fawning on political power that makes me despair. Let's move to a more recent example of what I can only call institutionalized racism in U.S. reporting of Iraq. I have to thank reader Andrew Gorman for this gem, a January Associated Press report about the killing of an Iraqi prisoner under interrogation by U.S. Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr.

Welshofer, it was reported in court, had stuffed Iraqi Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush headfirst into a sleeping bag and sat on his chest, an action that -- not surprising -- caused the general to expire. The military jury ordered a reprimand for Welshofer, a forfeiture of $6,000 of his salary and confinement to barracks for 60 days. But what caught my eye was the sympathetic detail.

Welshofer's wife's Barbara, the AP told us, "testified that she was worried about providing for their three children if her husband was sentenced to prison. " 'I love him more for fighting this,' she said, tears welling up in her eyes. 'He's always said that you need to do the right thing, and sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do.' "

But the real scandal about these reports is we're not told anything about the general's family. Didn't he have a wife? I imagine the tears were "welling up in her eyes" when she was told her husband had been done to death. Didn't the general have children? Or parents? Or any loved ones who "fought back tears" when told of this vile deed? Not in the AP report he didn't. Mowhoush comes across as an object, a dehumanized creature that wouldn't let the Americans "break the back" of the insurgency after being stuffed headfirst into a sleeping bag.

Now let's praise the AP. On an equally bright summer's morning in Australia a few days ago, I open the Sydney Morning Herald. It tells me, on page 6, that the news agency, using the Freedom of Information Act, has forced U.S. authorities to turn over 5,000 pages of transcripts of hearings at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. One of them records the trial of since-released British prisoner Feroz Abbasi, in which Abbasi vainly pleads with his judge, a U.S. air force colonel, to reveal the evidence against him, something he says he has a right to hear under international law.

And here is what the U.S. colonel replied: "Mr. Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning. I do not care about international law. I do not want to hear the words international law. We are not concerned about international law."

Alas, those words -- which symbolize the very end of the American dream -- are buried in the story.

I am now in Wellington, New Zealand, watching on CNN Saddam Hussein's attack on the Baghdad court trying him. And suddenly, the ghastly Saddam disappears from my screen. The hearing will now proceed in secret, turning this drumhead court into even more of a farce. It is a disgrace. And what does CNN respectfully tell us? That the judge has "suspended media coverage." If only, I say to myself, CNN -- along with the U.S. press -- would do the same.

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/263664_fisk21.html

Canadian human right activists urge authorities to arrest Jewish war criminal

Mar 22, 2006, 10:55

Ottawa - Human rights activists in Canada, including Jews and Arabs, have urged the Canadian authorities to arrest Moshe Yaalon who is widely believed to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinian civilians while serving as chief of staff of the Israeli army between 2002-2005.

Ya’alon was due to arrive in Canada on Wednesday on an invitation by extremist Jewish groups.

According to human rights organizations, Ya’alon ordered Israeli forces to murder in cold blood hundreds of Palestinian children and minors and destroy thousands of homes, in some instances right on top of sleeping men, women and children.

During the Jenin massacre in 2002, the Israeli army, which was receiving instructions directly from Ya’alon, Israeli army bulldozers demolished a home where physically handicapped people were cowering inside.

Similar cases of callous murder also took place in Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Ya’alon also approved an air strike on a Gaza apartment building, resulting in the death of 17 people, including 12 children.

Source: Palestine-Info.co.uk
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_17423.shtml

Israel to pass new laws against Non-Jews

Mar 24, 2006, 16:49

London - The Israeli government is seeking to rush a new law through parliament before the forthcoming elections on 28 March, which would empower the General Security Service (GSS) to detain anyone classified as a non-resident of Israel without access to legal counsel for up to 50 days after arrest.

According to the London-based Amnesty International, the law would also deny such detainees the right to attend court hearings held to consider the extension of their detention. Amnesty International is concerned that permitting detainees to be cut off from the outside world for this length of time would increase their risk of being tortured or ill-treated.

The new law, entitled the "Criminal Procedure (Enforcement Powers - Special Provisions for Investigating Security Offences of Non-Residents) (Temporary Provision) Law, 5765 – 2005", would be fundamentally discriminatory as it would apply only to non-residents of Israel suspected of "security" offences.

The law would extend the initial period for which security forces could hold detainees incommunicado from a maximum of 48 hours to 96 hours.

It also allows for two additional periods of incommunicado detention, meaning that detainees could be held incommunicado for up to 50 days.

The law currently in force in Israel allows detainees to be held incommunicado for a total maximum period of 30 days.

The new law would also extend the time during which a detainee being interrogated by the security forces may be denied access to a lawyer from 21 days to 50 days.

The law would deny detainees the right to be present at court hearings held to consider an extension of their incommunicado detention, except for the first hearing (96 hours after arrest) and the hearing on expiry of the first period of incommunicado detention, as well as any appeal hearing against an extension.

The law would therefore allow for detained suspects to be virtually cut off from the outside world for up to 50 days, with the exception of two appearances before a judge.

It is during incommunicado detention, when detainees are deprived of contact with families and lawyers, that they are most at risk of torture and ill-treatment.

The majority of reports of torture or ill-treatment of detainees in Israel received by Amnesty International concern the period during which detainees are held incommunicado under interrogation.

The proposed extension of the already prolonged period of incommunicado detention permitted under the law currently in force in Israel is inconsistent with Israel’s obligations under international human rights law. The UN Human Rights Committee stated in 2003 that the use of prolonged detention without any access to a lawyer or other persons of the outside world violates articles the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and called on Israel to: "…ensure that no one is held for more than 48 hours without access to a lawyer."

The Israeli Knesset (parliament) is currently in pre-election recess in preparation for the elections on 28 March, but efforts have been stepped up to get this draft law passed before the elections take place.

In a most unusual move during a pre-election recess, the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee convened a special session on 16 March to discuss the government-sponsored law. A further meeting of the Committee is scheduled for 20 March and if the proponents of the law succeed to re-call the Knesset by 27 March the draft law will be put to the vote.

Source: Palestine-Info.co.uk
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_17445.shtml

Russia Spies Operated in Iraq Through 2003

By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 16 minutes ago

Russia had a military intelligence unit operating in Iraq up through the 2003 U.S. invasion and fall of Baghdad, a Russian analyst said Friday as the Pentagon reported Moscow fed Saddam Hussein's government with intelligence on the American military.

Iraqi documents released as part of the Pentagon report asserted that the Russians relayed information to Saddam through their ambassador in Baghdad during the opening days of the war in late March and early April 2003, including a crucial time before the ground assault on Baghdad.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a respected independent Moscow-based military analyst, told The Associated Press the report was "quite plausible."

He said a unit affiliated with the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Department, known by its abbreviation GRU, was actively working in Iraq at the time of the U.S. invasion. The unit apparently was shut down after the fall of Baghdad.

Felgenhauer said at that time, there was an Internet site in Russian called "The Ramzay Files" that caused a stir in Moscow's military and diplomatic community. The site, which also shut down after the invasion, posted striking insights, predictions and analysis into U.S. military activities as well Iraqi military and intelligence activities.

He said former GRU officials told him the type of information that was being posted — both on the Iraqis and on the Americans — appeared to be the kind of that only highly placed Russian intelligence officials in Iraq would have.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between the GRU unit and the Russian sources the Pentagon said were operating inside the American Central Command as it planned and executed the invasion of Iraq.

Felgenhauer said the release of the Pentagon report was coming at an inauspicious time. Given the marked cooling in Russian-US relations of recent months, it could be "the beginning of a real degradation in relations" between Washington and Moscow.

A spokeswoman for Russia's U.N. misson in New York slammed the report, saying its charges are unsupported.

"To my mind, from my understanding it's absolutely nonsense and it's ridiculous," said Maria Zakharova. She said the United States had not shown Russia the evidence cited in the report.

"Somebody wants to say something, and did — and there is no evidence to prove it," she said.

The presence of Russian diplomats in Baghdad as U.S. forces closed in on the city resulted in some testy accusations between Moscow and Washington.

On April 6, 2003, Russian diplomats came under fire as they fled Baghdad, wounding at least four people. Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, has accused American troops of shooting at his convoy. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, said the Russians had changed their route from one that American officials had deemed safer.

Three days later, the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that the convoy might have been carrying secret Iraqi files that U.S. intelligence officers wanted to seize — a report Russian intelligence agencies denied.

Vershbow later said in a newspaper interview that Washington had been aware of contacts between Russian and Iraqi spy agencies, but the United States needed to gather more facts before coming to a definite conclusion on the subject.

Russian intelligence officials repeatedly denied having any links with Iraqi spy services. But several recent British and U.S. newspaper reports cited documents found at the office of the Iraqi spy service, Mukhabarat, that showed Iraq was receiving intelligence assistance from Russia.

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060325/ap_on_re_eu/russia_us_iraq_war

India and Pakistan consider SAARC police

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: Top investigation officials of India and Pakistan began two-day’s of technical level talks here on Tuesday for the first time in 17 years.

A four-member Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team, led by its Director General Tariq Pervez, held talks with Indian counterparts in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). CBI’s Director Vijay Shankar led the Indian delegation. A statement issued by CBI headquarters said the deliberations focused on institutionalising cooperation in tackling human trafficking and counterfeit currency. Both sides also discussed the possibility of appointment of nodal officers in both countries for quick exchange of information on criminal matters.

During the meeting, both agencies also discussed the possibility of the formation of a SAARCPOL (SAARC Police) on the pattern of EUROPOL, that fights cross-border crime in Europe. Both sides also took up issues relating to immigration and Interpol matters.

Besides Shanker, the Indian side includes an additional director, joint director (policy) and deputy director (coordination) of the CBI, representatives of the Home and External Affairs Ministries, and officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Narcotics Control Bureau. The meeting is a follow up of the home secretary-level talks held in August 2005. The major investigation agencies of the two countries last held talks in 1989 in Islamabad. India has been pressing for handing over underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, declared a global terrorist, and five hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane in 1999. But, Pakistan has denied Indian allegations that Ibrahim is in Pakistan. Agencies add: India and Pakistan have also agreed to set up a joint task force to protect the wild life. The agreement was made in a Working Group meeting between the joint environment secretaries of Pakistan and India held at Islamabad on Tuesday. The Pakistani delegation was headed by Joint Environment Secretary Khizer Hayat whereas the Indian delegation was led by Sudiya Menghal.

Source: Daily Times, Pakistan
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\03\22\story_22-3-2006_pg7_3

McClatchy to Buy Knight Ridder for $4.4B

By SETH SUTEL, AP Business WriterMon Mar 13, 5:48 PM ET

The McClatchy Co. is making its biggest bet yet on the future of the newspaper industry by agreeing to pay $4.4 billion in cash and stock to acquire Knight Ridder Inc., a major newspaper publisher more than twice its size.

The addition of The Miami Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and 18 other papers in fast-growing cities may be less risky than it seems. McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt said in an interview Monday that all the papers are dominant in their markets and ripe for rapid expansions of their Internet and direct mail businesses, without requiring deep cuts in newsgathering budgets.

But Pruitt is also counting on paying down acquisition debt quickly by selling The Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Jose Mercury-News and 10 other Knight Ridder newspapers. Those properties don't meet Sacramento-based McClatchy's growth-market criteria — or in the case of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, compete directly with McClatchy's Star Tribune in neighboring Minneapolis.

The takeover would be the second largest in U.S. newspaper history, topped only by the Tribune Co.'s $6.5 billion acquisition in 2000 of Times Mirror Co. After the divestitures, McClatchy's 32 newspapers would be second nationwide in daily circulation behind Gannett, and rank fourth in revenue behind Gannett, Tribune and the New York Times Co.

Pruitt, a youthful looking 48-year-old, said he doesn't anticipate any problems selling the newspapers, which he said could possibly coincide with the anticipated closing of the Knight Ridder purchase in the summer.

Analysts generally agreed they likely will be sold quickly. Gannett and William Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group Inc., which owns The Denver Post and other newspapers, earlier considered making bids for Knight Ridder and are viewed as potential bidders. Gannett declined to comment, and MediaNews didn't return a call seeking comment.

In addition, "There are some deep-pocketed guys who want to own newspapers," said industry analyst Edward Atorino, who noted that New York's two tabloids are controlled by Rupert Murdoch and real estate developer Mort Zuckerman.

McClatchy, which normally keeps debt levels low, is taking on $3.75 billion in bank debt as well as $2 billion in debt from Knight Ridder. But Pruitt said the company expects to retain its investment grade rating on its debt by quickly moving to reduce its debt ratio below four times its cash flow.

The deal would produce about $60 million in annual savings, largely from consolidating corporate functions and some centrally operated Internet operations, he said. Pruitt added that he does not anticipate any layoffs at the newspapers as a result of the transaction, though he said the Washington news bureaus of the two companies would be combined, again without layoffs.

"These are high quality papers, they're doing well, and we expect to sustain and further their journalism," Pruitt said.

Newspaper stocks have been out of favor on Wall Street recently over concerns about declining circulation trends, the competitive threat from the Internet and other concerns including the rising cost of newsprint.

Those concerns were evident in stock market trading Monday. McClatchy shares fell $1.51, or 2.9 percent, to $51.55 in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange after earlier declining to as low as $49.21 a share. Knight Ridder's shares fell $1.08, or 1.7 percent, to $63.92.

Based on Monday's closing price, the deal values San Jose, Calif.-based Knight Ridder at $66.38 per share, including $40 per share in cash and 0.5118 of a share of McClatchy's Class A stock. Monday's decline in McClatchy shares sliced about $60 million from the total value of deal.
McClatchy said in a regulatory filing Monday that it is entitled to a fee of $171.9 million from Knight Ridder if the takeover is called off under certain circumstances.

Still, Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine said McClatchy has a "lot of credibility" among investors in handling its previous acquisitions, which included the 1997 purchase of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, even if it paid full price to get them. "They have always have done better on the numbers than they said they would," Fine said.

Knight Ridder put itself on the block last fall when the company's largest shareholders forced it to explore a sale, having become frustrated with its stock performance. Knight Ridder's chairman and CEO Tony Ridder said in a statement Monday the "uncertainty is not over" for employees at the 12 papers McClatchy intends to divest, and "I regret that very much."
Pruitt declined to say where the expressions of interest were coming from, but he said no deals were in place. Pruitt also acknowledged that the company could face significant tax bills in selling the papers, which have been held by Knight Ridder for a long time, making their relative cost basis low.

Robert Willens, a tax and accounting analyst at Lehman Bros., said there was little that could be done to avoid paying those tax bills, which he said could amount to between 25 and 28 percent of the purchase price.

In addition to the 20 newspapers being added from Knight Ridder to the 12 McClatchy already had, the deal also gives McClatchy a bigger foothold on the Internet as it takes on Knight Ridder's one-third stake in CareerBuilder, a growing online job postings business that is co-owned with Gannett and Tribune, as well as the Real Cities Network, a grouping of 110 local Internet sites, and a 49 percent interest in The Seattle Times.

Source: AP via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_bi_ge/knight_ridder_mcclatchy

Indian 'witchcraft' family beheaded

A family of five has been beheaded in Sonitpur district, north-east India, by a mob who accused them of witchcraft.

The tea plantation worker and his four children had been blamed for causing a disease which killed two other workers and made many unwell in Assam state.

About 200 villagers tried and sentenced the family in an unofficial court, then publicly beheaded them with machetes.

They then marched to a police station with the heads, chanting slogans denouncing witchcraft and black magic.

'Pregnant wife fled'

The incident occurred at the Sadharu tea plantation near the town of Biswanath Charali, about 300 km (190 miles) north of Guwahati, Assam's main city.

Sixty-year-old Amir Munda, who was killed alongside his two daughters and two sons, was reportedly a traditional healer.

After two plantation workers died and many others became ill from mysterious illness, other members of the Adivasi Santhal community accused him and his family of being the cause.

"A trial was held to prove if Munda and his family were involved in casting evil spells in the tea garden that led to a bout of epidemics in the area," police officer D Das said. "They said the killings would appease the gods.

"Munda's pregnant wife and her three young children managed to escape before the mob killed the other members of the family," A Hazarika, a local police official, told AFP.

Six people were arrested for the killings, Mr Hazarika said.

According to police records, some 200 people have been killed in Assam in the past five years for allegedly practicing witchcraft.

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4822750.stm

Are Hamas' New Guidelines Abetting Israeli Hardliners?

Playing Two Different Games
By AMIRA HASS

The Palestinians are busy forming a government. It is too early to say how the events in Jericho will affect its composition, but what in the past was an internal game of musical chairs among Fatah and its satellites--a competition over personal prestige and a power play by Yasser Arafat--now appears to be a discussion between different political movements and principles.
Hamas has already submitted its proposed guidelines for a coalition government.

The guidelines are a mixture of the declarations and slogans of a national liberation movement and the vague promises of a future government. This mix does not bode well for the Palestinian people. Even the vagueness in the guidelines, as Mahmoud Abbas has reportedly complained, is that of an "ordinary" government--things along the lines of "we will work to eradicate poverty," a standard pledge among Israeli governments.

The guidelines give considerable space to the right of return, as well as to the standard declaration that resistance in all its forms is a right--even though, at the same time, they stress that resistance is a means, not an end. The guidelines also include a promise that Palestinian Authority institutions will be established based on the principles of democracy, justice, individual rights and freedoms, and so forth. Hamas is even willing to discuss changes to its proposal in order to accommodate two tiny factions that are considering joining the government (the Popular Front and Independent Palestine). Fatah, in contrast, has made it clear that it views negotiations with Israel as a fundamental strategic choice, and it is not willing to concede on this issue. If so, it is unlikely that Fatah will join the government. The first draft of the guidelines stated that a Hamas-led Palestinian government would be willing to seriously consider the principle of negotiations if Israel would recognize the rights of the Palestinian people and provide guarantees of a full withdrawal from the territories it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem. If this is so, then according to Hamas, negotiations are merely a Palestinian gesture should its conditions be met.

At first glance, this is a refreshing "new discourse" that Hamas is introducing into the unequal balance of power between Israel and the Palestinians. It may paint Hamas as "real men" in the eyes of its public, but it does not appear that it will impress anyone in Israel. In effect, the "conditions" are reminiscent of the style of the armed Palestinian organizations throughout the last five years: They set conditions for Israel, or threatened to "avenge" or "act" or "respond," in precisely the arena where there is no doubt of Israel's superiority: force of arms, the ability to kill and destroy.

These organizations, with their suicide attacks and their Qassam rockets, painted the Palestinians as the aggressor, just as Israel's propaganda claimed. Now, Hamas is deemed the one who is refusing to negotiate. It is helping both Israelis and the international community to forget that for the past five years, it was Israel that refused to negotiate, and that even during the Oslo years, the negotiations consisted mainly of forceful Israeli dictates and Palestinian inertness and concessions.

The guidelines also address the security lull: It is not an end, but a means, and it is meant to achieve national goals. However, its continuation will depend on an end to all Israeli aggression and the release of the prisoners. Here it is possible to see Hamas' pragmatic desire for a lull to enable it to deal with the domestic issues that were the main reason for its election. But it is also possible to see the boastfulness of the weak, which has nothing behind it. Granted, the guidelines speak about resistance in all its forms--primarily, armed resistance and popular resistance. But the experience of the last five years has proven that the use of arms not only worsened the Palestinians' situation, but also came at the expense of mass mobilization for a popular uprising.
The use of weapons in the territories and the suicide bombings in Israel that the armed organizations, first and foremost Hamas, presented as a "response" gave Israel an opportunity to implement its long-standing plan of annexing essential territory and shedding responsibility for the occupied, and even to win American backing and tacit European support for this. It turned out that Israel was playing chess, while the Palestinians thought that the game was tables tennis. And even at that, they are losing.

From the way Hamas officials have behaved since their election, it is clear that Hamas understands that the table tennis cannot be only military. Now, it is trying to inject a new element, a political one, into the game. It wrote in the guidelines that the Palestinian cause has an Arab and Islamic dimension, and a Hamas-led government will work to mobilize Arab and Islamic support for the Palestinian people in every field.

Under the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian cause became the entire world's cause, an issue of both national rights and human rights. Over the last five years, however, Israel has worked energetically to link the Palestinians with international Islamic terrorism and the "clash of civilizations:" enlightened versus benighted.

Now, Hamas' guidelines are helping Israel as well: They depict a religious and cultural clash, outside the framework of the people's struggle against foreign occupiers.

Amira Hass writes for Ha'aretz. She is the author of Drinking the Sea at Gaza.

Source: CounterPunch
http://counterpunch.org/hass03162006.html

Top US evangelist targets Islam

Outspoken US Christian evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson has accused Muslims of planning world domination, and said some were "satanic". On his live television programme, The 700 Club, he said radical Islamists were inspired by "demonic power".

A US religious liberty watchdog called the comments "grossly irresponsible". Mr Robertson had to apologise recently for calling for Venezuela's president to be killed, and saying Ariel Sharon was struck down by divine retribution.

His latest comments were expunged from The 700 Club's website, but Mr Robertson's Virginia-based Christian Broadcasting Network confirmed them with a transcript.

'Crazed fanatics'

On the programme, the 75-year-old preacher responded to a news item about the reaction of Muslims in Europe to the publishing of cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.
The footage showed Muslims screaming "May Allah bomb you! May Osama Bin Laden bomb you!"

Mr Robertson said the pictures "just shows the kind of people we're dealing with. These people are crazed fanatics, and I want to say it now: I believe it's motivated by demonic power. It is satanic and it's time we recognize what we're dealing with".

He went on to say that "Islam is not a religion of peace", and "the goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen whether you like it or not, is world domination".

Mr Robertson said in a statement later he was referring specifically to terrorists as being motivated by Satan.

'Gasoline on the fire'

The Reverend Barry W Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the comments "grossly irresponsible".

"At a time when inter-religious tensions around the world are at an all-time high, Robertson seems determined to throw gasoline on the fire," he said.

Mr Robertson, who says his programme is watched by a million Americans daily, has come under intense criticism for recent comments.

He suggested that American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez , and said the stroke that left Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a coma was God's punishment for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

In both cases he issued an apology within days.

Story from BBC NEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4805952.stm