The World We Live In !!

In a New York Times op-ed this week that advocates bombing Iran, the author, Alan J. Kuperman, director of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Program at the University of Texas at Austin, begins by suggesting that President Barack Obama should “sigh in relief that Iran has rejected his nuclear deal”.

In fact, Iran has said it is still open to discussion with the U.S. about its nuclear program, but that if meaningful dialogue is to continue, the threats of sanctions and military aggression must first cease.

The U.S., however, continues to threaten yet further sanctions, while also insisting that the threat of force must remain “on the table” — a threat of aggression that itself violates the U.N. Charter, which forbids member nations from threatening the use of force as a tool for leverage in international relations.

Kuperman’s reason for why Obama should be happy is that the deal, under which Iran would export uranium to Russia, which would enrich it to 20 percent (not the 90 percent required for weapons-grade uranium) and return it as fuel rods for use in Tehran’s research reactor, “was ill conceived from the start” since Iran would “thus be rewarded with much-coveted reactor fuel despite violating international law.”

His reference is to U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that Iran halt its uranium enrichment activities. The problem with these resolutions, as Iran is not hesitant to point out, is that they themselves directly violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which clearly states that parties to the treaty have an “inalienable” right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and that the international community may take no action prejudicial towards that right.

via Bomb, Bomb Iran: Lessons From Iraq Unlearned | Foreign Policy Journal.

TRUTH AND THEORY | DAWN Editorial

AS Karachi began burying its dead, worrying questions were being raised about the arson that followed Monday’s attack on an Ashura procession. It was initially thought that enraged mourners and their sympathisers had gone on the rampage, torching commercial buildings, police stations and vehicles to vent their anger. That was alarming in itself but there are now suggestions that there may be more behind the violence than spontaneous rioting. Building after building was torched within minutes, and some feel this points to a terror campaign that was planned in advance and executed with precision shortly after the blast. Then there are reports that chemical accelerants were used in setting the fires that were still burning on Wednesday. At least one fire department official believes there are “visible signs” that phosphorus was used in Monday’s acts of arson. If so, the ‘pre-planned’ theory may gain further ground. Needless to say, Ashura mourners are unlikely to be carrying phosphorous on their persons.

Theories abound but nothing can be said with certainty as ever-resilient Karachi recovers from the events of Monday. When all the evidence isn’t in, it serves no purpose to point the finger of blame at ‘non-state actors’ or foreign intelligence agencies. For the truth to be unmasked, all angles must be explored without political interference or prompting. The key here may lie in the footage ostensibly recorded by the city government’s growing CCTV network. Cameras were apparently in operation all along the procession’s route, and as such there is every chance that the outbreak of rioting may have been captured on film. Besides detailed chemical analysis of the crime scenes, investigators must focus on gleaning as much evidence as they can from this potentially crucial footage.

The efficacy of Karachi’s emergency response set-up also needs to be revisited. True, both the police and firefighters were hampered by rioters who attacked them when they arrived on the scene. That may be so but eyewitnesses claim that fire tenders were slow in reaching the trouble spots to begin with. This charge is backed by Karachi’s capital city police officer, who made a pointed negative reference to “the capability and performance of our fire department”. Lastly, it is hoped that the authorities and private organisations will come good on their collective promise to raise reparation funds for the colossal losses — estimated at nearly Rs30bn — caused by Monday’s arson. Two years down the road, many are still awaiting compensation for the violence that rocked Karachi and other parts of Sindh following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Past injustices must not be repeated.

Story Via DAWN.COM

KARACHI: The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday denied any involvement in the Karachi Ashura procession attack which killed 44 people and left dozens others injured.

Azam Tariq, the TTP spokesman, denied having any involvement in the attack and said militant commander Azmatullah Shaheen’s claim was baseless and that he ‘acted on his own will’.

The TTP, said Tariq, does not target public places in Pakistan.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Asmatullah Shaheen, a top militant commander based in South Waziristan told news agencies by telephone that the TTP was behind the attack, warning that they would carry out more such attacks and also target government installations.

—DawnNews

Thursday, 31 Dec, 2009

Philip M. Giraldi, PhD, is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer. He was also foreign policy advisor to Ron Paul during his last presidential run.

US intelligence sources have confirmed Iran’s assertions that a document published by a British daily about Tehran’s nuclear program is a fabrication.

According to a former CIA official, US intelligence agents have found that the document, which was published by the Times of London on December 14, was fabricated by Israel or Britain, the Inter Press Service (IPS) reported on Monday.

The IPS report was penned by renowned investigative journalist Gareth Porter.

Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told IPS that intelligence sources say the US had nothing to do with forging the document.

He added, however, that US intelligence sources mainly suspect Israel of carrying out the forgery, although, they do not rule out the possibility of the British having played a part in it.

The Times article said that Iran had been secretly experimenting on a key component of a nuclear bomb called the “neutron initiator.”

Right after the article was published, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast dismissed the report as completely “baseless.”

The Times article did not identify the source of the document, but rather quoted comments by “an Asian intelligence source,” who claimed that his government believes that Tehran has been working on a neutron initiator since 2007.

“An Asian intelligence source” is a term some news media use to refer to Israeli intelligence officials. Read more…

WASHINGTON: The United States further distanced itself from the beleaguered Zardari government on Wednesday when the State Department stated clearly that if there was a legal judgment that changes the status of the government, “it is really an internal matter for Pakistan.”

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was asked, at a press briefing about the US opinion or concerns if the government of President Zardari were to be deemed unconstitutional and, therefore, illegitimate.

His response was: “That ultimately is a judgment for the Pakistani people to make. You have an ongoing process between two branches of the Pakistani Government. It’s not for us to try to get in the middle of that. What is important is that the Pakistani Government and its leadership be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Pakistani people. There was an election in Pakistan. President Zardari came to office through a legitimate parliamentary process. Prime Minister Gilani was elected by the Pakistani people. If there’s a legal judgment that changes the status of the government, that is really an internal matter for Pakistan.”

In reply to another question, Crowley said: “This is really an internal matter for the Pakistani Government. We continue to work closely with the government of President Zardari. Our concern is to, and we continue to work, to try to help build up the capacity of the Government of Pakistan to meet the needs of its own people. We just last week sent up the first report on our civilian assistance programmes under Kerry-Lugar-Berman. But as to what is happening with the president and other ministers, this is an internal matter.”

Story Via : THE NEWS

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations agency UNFPA has said in its report that India lags behind Pakistan in literacy rate as the literacy rate here in Pakistan is much more higher than that of its rival neighbor.

According to report, total 32.3 percent male while 60.4 percent female aged above 15 years are literate in Pakistan,

But however, on the contrary to aforementioned calculation, there are only 23.1 percent male and 45.5 percent female aged over 15 years enjoy education in India.

via Pakistan ahead of India in literacy rate: UN.