Thursday, November 25, 2010

2 Jews > than 257-300 and 700 Indians dead and injured in 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack - By Ghulam Muhammed

Friday, November 26, 2010

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

2 Jews > than 257-300 and 700 Indians dead and injured in 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack


In the wake of the anniversary of 26/11, India’s English ‘paid media’ gives more front page and column space to the 2 Jews rather than to the 257-300 dead and 700 injured in 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, as if the Indian and other foreigner dead have not of equal status to the 2 Jewish dead, whose relations are now moving heaven and earth back in the Jewish city of New York and creating more international media drumbeats than Indian Government could, over the entire period the tragedy has been hanging on India’s security concerns.

While the grandfather of the saved child harangues from TV screens that we will fight the terror with goodness and peace, his clenched fist that attacks the air again and again gives lies to his any announced peace moves.

The tradition of Jewish victim-hood to thrive on claimed reparations and compensation over tragedies visiting the community through ages, has come out in the open when even though the grandfather categorically states that he is not after the money, his moves are all paved with dreams of compensation and donation money that is to make mockery of the poor dead and injured Indians that have suffered the same or even worst fate as they are yet to be either compensated and/or rehabilitated.

It is a shame that media that is the pulse of the people in any nation, in India should be do sold out to Mammon, that it has completely lost touch with the feelings and sentiments of the fellow citizens and is more concerned with foreigners, whose presence on their sacred soil is still to be explained if it was not being used for improper information gathering and anti-Indian activities. Chabad House has yet to be cleared for its real antecedents. Let Indian authorities be aware of the consequences of any moves in haste to become unintended victims of international terrorism by joining the fight with those that have their own agenda, not necessarily in the best interest of the people of India.


Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

Monday, November 22, 2010

Class offers 'eye-opening' look at Islam's complexities

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101122/NEWS/11220313/-1/cyclone_insider/Class-offers-eye-opening-look-at-Islam-s-complexities


Class offers 'eye-opening' look at Islam's complexities

By REID FORGRAVE • rforgrave@dmreg.com • November 22, 2010 

On the second floor of Meredith Hall at Drake University, Mahmoud Hamad, an assistant professor of politics, dangles his feet off the edge of a table.

Behind him, the first Powerpoint slide of a student presentation, "Political Islam," is displayed. The three students have a difficult goal for their presentation: to detail the different roles of Islam in the governments of Turkey, Algeria and Egypt. But Hamad's goal for this honors-level class, "Islam in the 21st Century," is far loftier: To step back from today's heated political rhetoric and examine the nuances of the world's second-most popular religion (behind Christianity) and its place in the 21st century.

This is the first time the class has been taught at Drake University, and it could hardly come at a more opportune - or more difficult - time. Next year will mark 10 years since the 9/11 attacks changed the popular American view of Islam from one of ignorance or mere curiosity to something far more complicated.

And in recent months, Islam has found itself at the nexus of debates central to our understanding of American democracy. The planned Muslim community center near ground zero has pitted property rights and religious freedoms against respect for a national tragedy. The proposed Quran burning in Florida played freedom of speech off the sensitivities of Muslims worldwide and the safety of American troops. And the recent firing of Juan Williams from National Public Radio, after he spoke of his fear of Muslims in airports, has generated a discussion of tolerance vs. free speech, and some debate about media partisanship.

In his class, Hamad, a thoughtful 35-year-old raised in Egypt, forces discussion out of sometimes-reluctant students. He hopes to broaden their views of Muslims, views mostly shaped by polarized political rhetoric. Only one student in the class is a Muslim: senior Isaiah Ellison, president of the Drake Muslim Students Association and son of Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis, the United States' first Muslim congressman.

"They appreciate the opportunity to learn from someone from a different culture and religious background," Hamad said. "The kind of debate we have might have been a little bit alarming in the last few months. But I take it as a learning opportunity. Not as a threat. Because you cannot blame students for what they hear in the media."


As Islam gets thrust repeatedly into the national debate, American Muslims such as Hamad speak of an increasing awareness of their "other-ness." Hamad's wife, Shaimia, who wears a hijab, talks of the looks she's gotten in recent months. Their oldest son, Omar, 6, recently asked why he keeps hearing about Islam on the news programs his father always has on.

Hamad knows he can't explain it all to a 6-year-old and also knows his moderate voice doesn't always have a place in the national political rhetoric.


He knows tensions between Islam and Christianity have become more pronounced in the past decade, following centuries of unease. But his goal in this class focuses on the here and now: to influence the thinking of his 18 politically inclined students.

"Democracy can't function without engaged, committed and educated citizens," Hamad said. "(Islam's place in the West) is going to be on the policy radar for a very long time. You owe it to yourself and your nation to know more about those issues."
Instructor follows path from Cairo to Drake

For Hamad even to be here - teaching to a group of mostly white, mostly Christian students at a private university in the Midwest - is an improbability.

When Hamad was growing up in Cairo, the Egyptian capital of 17 million people, he wanted to be a fighter pilot. But poor eyesight dashed his dream at a young age. His mom was a physician, his dad a journalist, and soon, Hamad's dreams shifted: He wanted to teach.


Growing up in the Middle East, Hamad couldn't escape the impact of politics on daily life. Developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict dominated the news. His first political memory was the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat by Islamic fundamentalists enraged by Sadat's peace treaty with Israel. Hamad's next political memory came when he intently followed the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He was 7.

"In the Middle East, you are within the fire," he said.


Hamad studied at Cairo University and figured he'd teach there, too. But he got a Fulbright scholarship and in 1999 began graduate work at the University of Washington. It was a time, after the Cold War but before 2001, when there was little animosity between the Arab world and America. He was living in Seattle when the 9/11 attacks changed that.

After earning his doctorate from the University of Utah, he ended up at Drake by accident. He hadn't heard of the school until he saw the Democratic presidential debate hosted by Drake in 2007. Soon after, Hamad met longtime Drake political science professor Arthur Sanders at a conference, and he told Hamad of a job opening. Hamad interviewed for a dozen jobs across the country, but Drake felt right. He started in 2008, teaching courses in introductory politics.


The course on Islam sprang out of Hamad's decision to take students on a three-week summer tour of Egypt, Drake's first study-abroad program in the Middle East. The students studied up on the country, then went on a whirlwind tour: visiting the Pyramids, taking a night safari in the desert, visiting military museums. But Hamad felt he was merely scratching the surface.

"We need to provide students with something that is relevant, informative and thought-provoking about Islam," he said.


Average American 'has no idea' what Islam is

Hamad's course covers the gamut of 21st century Islam, from the basics of the religion, to the treatment of women, to democracy in Islamic countries, to perceptions about Islam in the United States. The class is more debate than lecture. One assignment is to interview and write about a Muslim living in Des Moines.

"It's been eye-opening for me," said Ellison, who has learned about the many faces of his faith in the class. "It's material people want to understand: 'Why do women in Afghanistan dress the way they do?' 'Why do suicide bombers say "Allahu Akbar" before they detonate themselves?' "

The students' debate comes in the shadow of a time when many American Muslims say they feel more cognizant of their "Muslim-ness."

"A lot of my classmates, that's when their world started, with 9/11," Ellison said. "If that's your building block, everything related to Islam has a negative connotation to it. Being able to talk with other Americans who aren't Muslim about Islam, it's been good for me. People understand the complexity of the issue."


For Merle Domer, a 22-year-old senior majoring in religion and philosophy, the class has been a revealing look at timely issues. Debates have frequently gotten heated, especially on current events. It was "mind-boggling," she said, when Hamad brought in several local Muslim women who work as doctors and scientists. Seeing Muslim women who mesh fluidly with the Western world upended her view of subservient women in Islam.

"The average American citizen really has no idea what Islam really is about, me included," Domer said. "I'm a religion major. I thought I knew the religion. But Americans get such a diluted version of what the average Muslim is really like. All we hear is the rhetoric of the media."

She sees Hamad as a professor who wants students to challenge conventional wisdom.

"I hope we come away from this class realizing how much we don't know about other cultures," she said. "That there's always another side to the stories."

Difficult to raise sons as Muslims, Americans

But perhaps the most insightful view students get on Islam in 21st century America comes from Hamad's own daily life.

Hamad and his wife have grappled with how to raise their two young boys as Muslims and as Americans at the same time.


"I think the media is making it more complicated for us," his wife said. "I don't think my kid would ever notice he's different unless someone else pointed it out to him."

Hamad makes an analogy about seeing his religion being used for political purposes: that people such as Terry Jones, the pastor who proposed burning the Quran, are similar to Muslim extremists who've given their religion a bad name.

"They are basically collaborating to achieve the same political objective, which is to divide this country," he said. "To many Muslims, it's offensive that their religion is being used as a scapegoat or a scarecrow to achieve limited political objectives. I know it's a winning strategy in the short term. I don't think it's a winning strategy for the nation in the long term. As an American Muslim, I care for this nation. And I want my kids to have the kind of life that we came to America for."

Sunday, November 21, 2010

How US-UK Create ‘Terrorist’ States: Yemen as a Case Study By Tim Coles -

http://www.yementimes.com/DEFAULTDET.ASPX?SUB_ID=34502


How US-UK Create ‘Terrorist’ States: Yemen as a Case Study



Tim Coles
 
Redress, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN

Published:02-08-2010

How to create your very own terrorist state
Tim Coles takes us through 11 steps necessary to create a “terrorist state”. Using Yemen as a case study, he argues that these steps precisely match US and British policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran as well as Yemen to grow “very poisonous seeds”, some which have ripened while others are ripening.

So, you want to create your own terrorist state, do you? Follow these simple instructions and you will be able to grow “very poisonous seeds. These seeds are growing now. Some have ripened and others are ripening,” as Eqbal Ahmad explained.

In 2002, the Bush administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) made it clear that America, with Britain’s help, intends to increase terrorism by chasing terrorists around the world instead of capturing them, or, better still, addressing their grievances – this is the real world, after all, which is dominated by financial interests, so there’s no time for rational solutions here.

The NSS reads: “The United States and countries cooperating with us must not allow the terrorists to develop new home bases. Together, we will seek to deny them sanctuary at every turn.”

The policy of giving terrorists no “haven”, rather than working to end terrorism, gives the US and Britain the excuse to “fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars” by chasing terrorists around the globe and, more worryingly, to actually cause terrorism.

When terrorism occurs, Britain and America then have the perfect excuse to invade, isolate, impose sanctions on and/or corrupt the given country, as we see in Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere. Under Obama, this horrendous pretext to achieve “full spectrum dominance” was expanded.
So, here is how to create your own terrorist State, using Yemen as an example. This will come in handy as a pretext to invade or impose sanctions on the country of your choosing later on as a continuation of your plans for “full spectrum dominance”.

Step 1:

Make sure you have a media and an education system sophisticated enough to omit what your country does to others, but emphasize what other countries do to you.


This will enable your domestic population to hate the people of the other country, allowing you to pursue your agenda without the risk of being overthrown by your own population. In 2002-03, unprecedented numbers of protestors demonstrated in London against the Iraq war. This could be dangerous for future wars because the public might one day try to overthrow you. Therefore, domestic subversion is also a good tactic if you can do it.

Step 2:
 Select a country that has suffered under your colonial rule in the past. Aden, now Yemen, was occupied by the British in 1839. In 1947, the Amir of Dhala’s son, Haidan, led an uprising which was crushed with overwhelming firepower from Britain’s Royal Air Force. In a study for the RAND Corporation, Bruce Hoffman explained:

“No sooner than the threat from Haidan been neutralized than trouble erupted from another tribe, in the nearby village of Al Husein... Once again punishment was applied from the air. Four Mosquitoes and three Tempests from No. 8 Squadron were ordered to destroy the village. The rocket and cannon air strike, the after-action report stated, “was most impressive and awe-inspiring, and the attack undoubtedly made an impression not easily forgotten.”

Step 3:
 Make sure that your selected country has a neighbour across the sea, or on its border, which has also suffered under your colonial rule. You will need to do this for Step 7 later on. In 1925, the colonial administrator, Douglas Jardine, not to be confused with the cricketer, explained the geostrategic importance of Aden and British Somaliland, now Somalia:

“Berbera, the capital [of Somaliland], is but 160 miles across the Gulf from Aden, and is, therefore, but 12 days distance from London and six from Bombay. It cannot be said that this proximity to our main imperial trade route has been of much benefit to the protectorate in the past; but it might prove at any time to be of incalculable value.”

Indeed, it turned out “to be of incalculable value”. Another colonialist, H.B. Kittermaster, explained: “The dry coastal climate makes the [Somaliland] Protectorate as good as Aden for the production of salt. This is already being done in a primitive way by the natives, and negotiations are now in progress with a British syndicate to develop the industry scientifically.”

Today, the countries are more generally used along the oil trading routes.

Step 4:
 Now that you have chosen a country, in close proximity to its exploited neighbour, you’ll want to ensure that the suffering inflicted upon it had continued throughout the course of, say, one hundred years. This is long enough to foster intergenerational resentment and hatred of your own country.

Britain’s “establishment of the Middle East Command (MEC) headquarters in Aden in 1960 helped fuel the fires of revolution”, Stephen Dorril explained in his history of MI6.

“The 1962 Defence White Paper, “The Next Five Years”, stated that Britain would continue to back the local sultans in South Yemen and the Gulf, and that the Aden base would be the permanent headquarters of this strategy... Aden was to be one of the three key points in Britain’s global military deployment... Fifty thousand Lee Enfield rifles were shipped from the UK to Yemeni royalists. According to the 21st SAS Volunteers Commander Richard Pirie, the mercenaries deployed in Yemen were paid GBP 250 per month from the Foreign Office and from the MoD [Ministry of Defence].”

British and Scottish mercenaries were paid GBP 100,000 a year to launch a chemical war against the population which resulted in the slaughter of 200,000 Yemenis, largely in defence of what was then an oil refinery run by the British.

Step 5:
 Now that you have fostered enough resentment and ruined a country’s chance of socio-economic recovery, you might want to try betraying even the mercenary elements of that country attempting to side with you. In 1979, America and Britain began funding, arming and training the Afghan mujahideen in order “to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap”, to quote US President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

This worked. Russia and the mujahideen ruined Afghanistan – and out of the ashes rose the Taliban, whom Britain and America supported almost up to 9/11. Britain’s leading independent terror specialist, Jason Burke, documented how many of the more fascistic elements of the mujahideen were Yemenis who “had distinguished themselves at the battle of Jalalabad in 1989”.

By 1992, however, the US had not supported those factions who were outraged by the intricacies of the unification of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Step 6:
 Capture and torture people from all over the world in a prison such as Guantanamo Bay. Deny them habeas corpus: no charge; no trial; no representation; no right to a lawyer; no right to visits from friends, relatives or the Red Cross; and do so for an indefinite period.

Select people whose religion is the same as those in the terrorist state you are looking to create (in this case Islam). This will create a sense a kinship among those you are turning into enemies. This will make the enemies seem more closely knit, yet from varying countries, giving your country the excuse to invade country after country. Also, use your media to dehumanize the captives, making them seem guilty without evidence.

Once you have traumatized those prisoners of the same religion – which your education system regards as incompatible with modernity – release them to the country you wish to turn into a terrorist state. They may all get together and plot revenge which you can then use to justify attacking the country. In 2009, Barack Obama began releasing former Guantanamo Bay hostages to Yemen.

Step 7:
 Destroy the stabilizing government of the neighbouring country. In 2006, Britain and America supported Somali warlords, such as Abdullah Yusuf, who invaded Somalia in order to overthrow the emerging government (the Union of Islamic Courts) and replace them with a fascist government nobody wanted (the Transitional Federal Government, or TFG). The TFG then launched a campaign of famine, torture and violence so extreme that hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled across the sea to seek refuge in Yemen, with tens of thousands fleeing each year.

Once you have ruined the neighbouring country, poor, displaced, oppressed, Muslim refugees will flock to the country you are trying to turn into a terrorist state (Yemen). Here, clerics in madrassas [religious schools] will have a constituency of desperate people whom they can radicalize and turn into future terrorists, as happened in Pakistan in the 1980s when millions of Afghans fled from Soviet troops and the mujahideen (as we saw in Step 5), many of whom became the Taliban in the early 1990s.

Step 8:
 Murder people without charge or trial in both countries with new, super-weaponry, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones). This will terrorize and radicalize the population of the country you are trying to turn into a terrorist state. Hopefully, your media will attempt to vindicate the drone attacks by either not reporting them or else uncritically quoting officials who claim that the drones target terrorists. Without journalists challenging these official statements, the public may assume that they are correct. (This is happening in more and more countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Somalia and possibly even Haiti).

Step 9:
 Omit as much of the previous steps as you can from public knowledge via the media and education system of your own country. This will make any action from the country you are trying to turn into a terrorist state seem unprovoked, giving you the chance to invade as an act of self-defence. It will also allow you to carry on without your public overthrowing you (as mentioned in Step 1). Also, get your media to make meaningless statements about the country you are trying to turn into a terrorist state, such as “Osama Bin Laden’s grandfather was born there”, or “the failed Christmas underpants bomber (Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab) was radicalized there by the cleric Anwar Al-Awlaqi” - even though Abdulmuttallab’s father informed the FBI of his son’s radicalization months before, which the FBI ignored – or, “Nidal Malik Hasan, the major who killed several of his colleagues at a US base, was radicalized there” – even though this was not terrorism because they were military targets.

Step 10:
 Wait for a terrorist attack to occur, in the country itself, against a British national stationed there, such as an ambassador who had previously worked in another country you helped to destroy.

When the British ambassador to Yemen, Tim Torlot (who had worked for the British government in Iraq) was attacked in April 2010, the “left” and “right” media leapt at the chance to emphasize how dangerous Yemen is to Britain (for which we planned in Step 1).

Careful reading shows that few newspapers actually revealed their sources. The Independent revealed a source, namely that the Yemeni Interior Ministry said the attack “bore all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda”, but as Britain and America are training and funding the Yemeni government and secret services, any information provided by them is biased. The Independent also revealed that the primary sources for the incident are “Yemeni newspapers [which] cite anonymous security sources” to name the bomber as Osman Ali Noman Asaloi. In other words, it could be a total fabrication.

The Guardian alleged that some Al-Qaeda members fled Yemen to Somalia via Aden. Perhaps they bumped into the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing from the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government?

The Times reported that “no group claimed responsibility for the attack”, yet the press, basing their information on the Yemeni government, blamed Al-Qaeda. The Times also admitted that “terrorism is merely a symptom of Yemen’s overwhelming problems”, but did not mention that they began in 1839, when Britain invaded, and continue up to the present. This emphasizes the importance of Step 2.

The Telegraph reported: “The Interior Ministry later stated: “This operation reflects the state of despair which has hit the terrorists after the painful pre-emptive strikes which they received in their hideouts at the hands of security services”, which are being trained and funded by the US and Britain, one might add, but this offers no evidence that the victims are “terrorists”.

Step 11:
 Now sit back and wait for the country to boil over into extreme violence, making sure you poke the bear with sticks, such as increased drone attacks and security raids by the puppet government being armed and trained by your own.

After a few years, you will have yourself a nice terrorist state. Later, academics can refer to the country as a “failed state”, perhaps even invoking your “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P), omitting, of course, exactly why it has become a “failed state” and why one needs to exercise R2P.

While your domestic population assumes that you are either incompetent or out there to combat terrorism, you can secure energy routes or raw resources. As Liam Fox, the defence secretary of the 2010 Liberal Democrat-Conservative “coalition” government, explained:

“In the years ahead energy security, economic security and national security will be inextricably linked. If we want to ensure that we can keep the lights on in Britain then we need to develop a comprehensive energy strategy. It is simply a matter of risk management. Such a strategy will need to have three components: diversity in the type of fuels we use; diversity in the geographical sources of those fuels; and the security structures that will guarantee the safe transport of these fuels.”
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Post a Comment
 
khamis Al Yamani
2010.08.18
 
Kaleef... U really show how imature u r in analising case studies like one above.., once u keep insisting that Yemen is a failed state being pulled by its own Govt.,corruption..,war of muslims on muslims in saada & yet has been very clearly indicated how that is being planted by US & Britain. I guess u need to take a tour of the country the say the water basins of yemen is runing dry cos i've been seeing waterfall in mountns of Taiz, Ibb & Hadramout which no other Arabian country of Arabian Peninsula has the kind of scene. Thats exactly what they (US & Britain) wants people like u to think & judge thru there well organised media.
Post a Comment
michael
2010.08.18
melbourne
 
CORRECTION PLEASE chemical weapons used in Yemen by EGYPT against northern royalists . Actually Mustard gas was used,a wicked act under any circumstances.
Post a Comment
 
Tom Pruett
2010.08.17
 
It would seem that when we, in the US, label somone in their own country a terrorist because they are acting against the rulers in their own country, that we are sticking our nose into someone elses business. Is there any wonder that we are despised in so much of the world? No matter how pure our goals are, we cannot help but being percieved as presumptios outsiders. About all we accomplish is to make ourselves the focus of the dissatisfaction rather than the unresponsive rulers in these various countries. Cops have long known better than to put themselves between two combatants in a domestic dispute, so why does our government not recognize the folly of the same?
Post a Comment
kaleef
2010.08.08
 
clap, clap clap, nice case study but if it was'nt for the british in aden the yemeni people would still be licking due off the rocks like mudskippers, the uk dragged them into the 20th century despite been set in old tribal ways and brainwashed by immams basicaly afraid of change in the future as they lose their grip on the then dosile uneducated yemeni's.And its all to easy to point the finger at the west when you yourselves are steeped in the home grown bile of corruption, war muslim on muslim in saada the separatist movement in the south and the growing threat of al quiada all over yemen planting the seeds unrest and mayhem against the security services to bring yemen into a failed state as your government just burys its head in the sand but still happy to take money from the usa, 19bn last year to be precise . A 3rd of the people in yemen are in poverty and the presadent builds a mosque costing 100 million dollers while the country slowly runs out of water. it semms you are quite happy in your interpratation of your events but look at the state you the yemeni and YOUR government have got yourselves into, stop pointing the finger at others when their are another three pointing straight back at you.
Post a Comment
Abdulhamid Abdulwahab Alsharai
2010.08.06
California
 
good assessment of the events, but there is nothing new to it. this has been going on in Yemen for as long as i can remember. The only difference is that the yemeni government has been using it against its own people
Post a Comment
tareq
2010.08.02
 
Mr.Tim, I'm really impressed by your precise explanation of this phenomenon. Since, for example, in Yemen, they started arresting people with no accusations under the slogan of " the war against terrorism".

Friday, November 19, 2010

Nira Radia and OUTLOOK Magazine's expose of 'the largest financial and economic crime in the history of independent India'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nira_Radia

Nira Radia

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Nira Radia is a PR consultant/lobbyist at the center of wiretapping controversy. It is alleged she tried to influence the 2G auction in 2008 by communicating with India's communication minister A Raja prior to the auction.[1]

Radia's family had moved to Britain after they fled Lagos, Nigeria, in the aftermath of the Idi Amin-led upheaval in Uganda in the 1970s, and she, the youngest sibling of four sisters and a brother, grew up in Londons suburbia.

Nira Radia's father, who converted to Islam and was rechristened Iqbal Menon, was an agent for Westland Helicopters in East Africa, and soon started an aircraft charter business in the UK.

A British citizen, Ridia moved from England to Surajkund, India with her three sons after her marriage to a Kutchi businessman, Janak Radia failed. In 2003, Dhiraj Singh, a business partner, was arrested with an accomplice for allegedly kidnapping her 18-year-old son.

The sleazy power-broking world was jolted into taking notice of her when Nira Radia's company, Crown Express, made an audacious bid in 2000 to launch an airline. The bid was foiled swiftly by an airline czar who apparently sent a damning dossier to the then NDA government on her former businesses in the UK — of shell companies, major debts and bankruptcy.

It was Nira Radias association with Singapore Airlines that brought her in touch with the Tatas, and despite the ill- fated Tata- SIA alliance in India, Nira Radia, through her criminal guile, had begun to impress the Tata bosses, notably Ratan Tata and R. K. Krishna Kumar, who was then the head of Tata Tea, and became her rakhi brother.

Nira Radia's strategy to attack corporate competitors is two-fold - It is about planting stories in the media to gullible or voluntary journalists, forging alliances, creating investor groups, setting up NGOs, threatening media bosses, and taking on the competition. It could be mythical lore but Nira Radia is now credited with fixing Tata Finance in 2001 when she paraded its disgraced boss, Dilip Pendse, to the media; getting the NDA government to allow Tatas to sell 26 per cent stake of VSNL; killing the DLF IPO; setting up NGOs to stall DLFs mall projects; filing PILs to hurt rivals; unleashing a media war in the Ambani vs Ambani gas case; and getting media owners in West Bengal to sing praises of its chief minister and industries minister during the Singur imbroglio. The stories of manipulation and corruption are legion. [edit] Nira Radia, A. Raja, and the largest economic crime

In 2010, the Indian Parliament was thrown into uproar over Nira Radia's unscrupulous and shady deals in business and politics. Were Indian ministries up for sale?, most notably Telecommunications & IT, then under the corrupt and shamed A. Raja of the southern Indian political party, the DMK? How did a Haryanvi-Punjabi sleazy power peddler get close to Dravida patriarch K. Karunanidhi and his third wife and daughter? The Karunanidhi family saga is like a modern-day Ramayana — with three wives, their children and powerful cousins, it is the story of family intrigue, coronations, wicked plots of rivalry and competition. It was in 2004-end that Karunanidhis third wife, Rajathiammal, and his favourite daughter, Kanimozhi, were introduced to Nira Radia. A close family source reports, “Rajathiammals close confidante, Tulsi Gautam, wife of Dr Gautam, who is the foster son of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai, introduced the two.”

A. Raja, a long-time Rajathiammal confidant, together with Nira Radia, soon became a quartet, with Nira Radia an eager companion to the younger Kanimozhi. As the family disputes spilled out into the open, the lines were clearly drawn — Nira Radia and Co. were on their own, though they sided with the family in exiling the powerful Maran cousins. It was no surprise that Raja was the patriarchs choice in replacing Dayanidhi Maran as telecom minister when the latter was shown the door in 2007.

Kanimozhi became an MP too. It was not just loyalty to the family that pushed Nira Radia to campaign for A. Raja — her star client, Tata Teleservices, had also run foul with the Marans. It was in the late 1990s that the Tatas aligned with Aircel owner C. Shivsankaran, a confidant of the late Murasoli Maran who later fell out with him over a financial deal. It was no surprise that Dayanidhi Maran decided to target the Tatas and Aircel after becoming telecom minister.

By 2008, Nira Radia was running one of the most sought- after corporate communications agency Vaishnavi, and through subsidiaries such as Neucom, Noesis Strategic Consulting Services and Vitcom Consulting, she bagged top- drawer accounts, including the Tatas, Reliance Industries, Unitech Realty, Vedanta, DB Realty, which own Swan Realty, NDTV Imagine and Star TV. To add to the firms starry status, Nira Radia also had retired bureaucrats as consultants — former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman and former special secretary to the Power Ministry, Pradip Baijal, former finance secretary C. M. Vasudev, former Airports Authority of India chairman S. K. Narula and former Foreign Investment Board head Ajay Dua.

“It says a lot about our esteemed colleagues,” sneers a senior bureaucrat, “but it ties up with all of Nira Radias achievements in telecom, power and aviation.” If the Tatas bagged the state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited ( VSNL) when Baijal was in charge, both Tatas and Reliance were allowed to convert wireless to full mobility when Baijal, again, was TRAI chairman. Nira Radia's clients Unitech Wireless and Swan Telecom bagged the mega-crore 2G spectrum licences under A. Raja. [edit] The largest financial and economic crime in the history of independent India
The 2G spectrum imbroglio has brought Nira Radia out of the shadowy world in which unscrupulous lobbyists operate. Nira Radia is involved with the largest financial and economic crime in the history of independent India and faces severe criminal prosecution in India with reports filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Department of Income Tax. This financial and economic crime scam is said to have caused a loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore (Rs.1.76 trillion/approx $40 billion) to the Government of India.

[edit] References

[edit] Links


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http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268071








Narendra Bisht
 
radia tapes
All Lines Are Busy
 
There was not one pie Niira Radia didn’t have her hand in nor any area—media, corporate or government—she didn’t have a contact in


Also In This Story   
radia tapes
 
A. Raja, Former telecom minister

radia tapes
Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP

radia tapes
Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons

radia tapes
Barkha Dutt, Group editor, English news, NDTV

radia tapes
Vir Sanghvi, HT advisory editorial director

radia tapes
M.K. Venu, Senior business journalist

radia tapes
Tarun Das, Former CII honcho

Ranjan Bhattacharya, Former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law

the PM
Manmohan Singh’s time, strangely, has seen more scams than any of his predecessors. What price the ‘Mr Clean’ image?
Saba Naqvi

the PM
Media grandstanding aside, it was the Pioneer that broke open the 2G scam
Debarshi Dasgupta

cag report
What punishment awaits the guilty? And can the loss be recouped?
Arindam Mukherjee

India, the republic, is now on sale. Participating in the auction is a group of powerful individuals, corporate houses, lobbyists, bureaucrats and journalists. Just before the 2G spectrum allocation scam became breaking news, the Income-Tax department was busy tapping the phones of Niira Radia, a lobbyist whose clients, the Tatas and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, have interests in several key sectors such as telecom, petroleum and natural gas.

Radia’s conversations show how even cabinet berths can be decided by this select oligarchy. Her interface with discredited (now former) telecom minister A. Raja, DMK mp Kanimozhi and Ranjan Bhattacharya, the foster son-in-law of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, shows how she successfully lobbied for several cabinet berths. The transcripts suggest that journalists Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt also lobbied for Raja with the Congress party. However, both journalists, in separate statements, decried the use of the label “lobbyist” and termed their conversation with Radia as part of their normal journalistic duties. Other journalists such as Prabhu Chawla, G. Ganapathy Subramaniam and M.K. Venu also had elaborate conversations with Radia on issues ranging from telecom to the Ambani brothers’ dispute on gas pricing. At times they proffer advice and trade information.

The more than 104 conversations involving Radia that were tapped by the I-T department expose a systemic rot. These tapes are now annexures in a Supreme Court petition by lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeking Raja’s prosecution.

The reaction of the Congress leadership is surprising since all these tapes were available to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram in their capacity as finance ministers in the two UPA governments. Regardless of the existence of the tapes, the Congress leadership agreed to reinduct Raja with the telecom portfolio into the UPA-II cabinet.

The tapes also paint a dismal picture of how everything—from cabinet berths to natural resources—is now available for the right price. The now controversial 2G allocation was just one of the many manipulations orchestrated by players in high places. There are conversations on civil aviation with 1980-batch IAS officer Sunil Arora, publicist Suhel Seth and many others which have not been included here. The worst fallout, however, is that it has besmirched the hitherto ‘fair’ name of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who agreed to take Raja back in the same ministry that now stands exposed in the biggest scam in independent India, despite knowledge of the tapes.



Niira Bhajan
“When it came to spectrum, they went to Raja and paid him a bribe and got spectrum allocated.”
“Uddhav’s already taken funding from both groups. I’d suggest, tell Krishna Kumar to talk to Uddhav.”
“Otherwise I will tell them to tell Uddhav to go after them. I don’t think Congress will do much.”
“I believe Maran has given about 600 crores to Dayalu, Stalin’s mother.”
Mere client Tatas bhi bahut beneficiary thhe (in the 2G spectrum allocation).”
“Senthil, Rahul Joshi, maine donon ki le li. You can’t run stories against my clients and get away with it.”
“I have a note, no, a whole dossier, on Praful Patel on the last five years jisme ye poora aspect hai.”
Inka pichhle paanch saal mein yahi attempt to tha, inko destroy karo, donon careers ko.”
“Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Venkaiah Naidu, ye sab coterie hain na of Advani.”
“Naresh wants to kill it (Air India), Vijay wants to kill it and Praful is not really interested.”
“Raja has promised me that he will not do anything in a hurry. I made Kani speak to him as well. ”
“The solicitor general, Gopal Subramaniam, I am gonna go and brief him. He hates them.”

Key excerpts of the conversations, finally in the public domain, are available from the links at the bottom of this story.
Also In This Story   
radia tapes
A. Raja, Former telecom minister

radia tapes
Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP

radia tapes
Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons

radia tapes
Barkha Dutt, Group editor, English news, NDTV

radia tapes
Vir Sanghvi, HT advisory editorial director

radia tapes
M.K. Venu, Senior business journalist

radia tapes
Tarun Das, Former CII honcho

Ranjan Bhattacharya, Former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law

the PM
Manmohan Singh’s time, strangely, has seen more scams than any of his predecessors. What price the ‘Mr Clean’ image?
Saba Naqvi

the PM
Media grandstanding aside, it was the Pioneer that broke open the 2G scam
Debarshi Dasgupta

cag report
What punishment awaits the guilty? And can the loss be recouped?
Arindam Mukherjee

Thursday, November 18, 2010

‘Times of India’ becomes ‘Crimes of India’ - By Ghulam Muhammed

Thursday, November 18, 2010

‘Times of India’ becomes ‘Crimes of India’

 The way current issues of The Times of India, India’s leading English language daily newspaper, have been devoting its Front Pages as well as the next 3 to 4 full pages on breaking news and in-depth investigative reporting on huge corruption cases by the political class, it appears to transform itself into a new identity – ‘The Crimes of India’.

At the beginning, the way TOI covered only corruption scandal like Adarsh High-Rise Building’s flat grabbing by politicians, bureaucrats and army officials as well as Common Wealth games scandal of Crores of rupees being siphoned off from a huge state budgetary allocation to Commonwealth Games, the focus of TOI’s scandal-mongering appeared to focus on the one single ruling party of Congress.

But now with BJP’s Karnataka Chief Minister coming under a open corruption charge of illegal allotment of land to his kith and kin, and the role of BJP’s Arun Shoerie and late Pramod Mahajan awarding mobile phone spectrum to selected and preferred firms, widely believed to be against underhand payments to corrupt officials rather than being collected by the State, TOI’s investigating zeal is dragging it into a bi-partisan and more national focus on political corruption as a high-way robbery by the ruling oligarch in a most brazen and shamefaced manner, treating 1000 million Indian to be mere zombies forced to vote the same corrupt political class again and again. TOI’s lead is rather luke-warmingly followed by other newspapers and New Channels; but with highest readership and TRP coming TOI/TIMES NOW’s way, the impact of its campaign should make a big difference as to where the snowballing effect of this domino game will lead. The amount involved are so huge and mind-boggling that common people are at a loss to even figure out if it is all true.

If a revolution is must to clear up the mess, this is the most opportune time for the people to rise and register their disgust with the system and call for a new crop of secular nationalist leaders to come forward and take over. A home-grown regime change is the need of the hour.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Najeeb Jung's dream world - By Ghulam Muhammed

Najeeb Jung's dream world

Najeeb Jung, Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, a liberal institute with word ‘Islamia’ in the name as a doubtful and convenient adjunct, has tried to write an assessment of what the scenario in the subcontinent will be if and when US and NATO forces leave Afghanistan.


The first part of his assessment published in Indian Express (16/11/10) is fairly routine as has been written by any number of analysts. The fate of Karzai will be that of Najeebullah. Najeebullah was Soviet stooge. Karzai is US stooge. For Afghans, both come out as traitors to the nation. There is certainty of another civil war and after further bloodshed; eventually Taliban will take over Afghanistan.

The second part of Najeeb Jung's prophetic rendering, is however, widely off the mark.

Since Najeeb Jung is reportedly very near to Congress and Sonia Gandhi family, he has tried not to disturb his benefactors and had economized with the logical historical progression, that could be a distinct and very disturbing possibility. He has however betrayed the people of India.

This time around, Taliban will look south, first to their Pashtun tribe in Pakistan and together may decide how to deal with the larger strategic picture. With all India's fond hope of ingratiating itself with the people of Afghanistan, Taliban will not be among those that will appreciate India's development assistance during the foreign occupation era and will treat India on the same level as they will treat US and NATO. After all India was virtually in that camp.



[Najeeb writes:” Let us never forget that the average Afghan hated the Taliban for their rigid laws, views and brutality.”  India’s Dalit and other backward castes who form democratic majority in India and who hate Brahmins for their rigid traditional social laws, views and brutality; still Brahmins are ruling India for last 63 years.]
 
Besides, the meeting of Afghan Taliban with Pakistan Taliban will further heighten reactions against India --- a sure gift from Pak Taliban.

Of course, it is more than a certainty, that US will not leave Pakistan, even if it quits Afghanistan in occupation military terms. In that case, it will be in India’s interest to befriend the ‘real’ power in Pakistan, regardless of its baggage of ideological, religious and historical handicaps.



However, once again India will feel more welcome in US camp and that will open it to side with anti-China gathering that US is trying to sew up  - Obama’s Asian tour confirms this.

India should realize that China has done no wrong to US by becoming a cheap supplier of goods and services to their consumers. The US was happy with China as long as the going was good. However, now when it is pay time, US will try to blackmail and threaten China to accept its terms and possibly forget it has run up any surplus with the US. If India plays into US hands, it will be siding with a wrong-doer. 

It will be difficult for India to keep its distance with US in any such confrontation that is building up. But if India has to survive as an independent and free nation, it should junk its Brahminical anti-Islamic obsession and open its heart and mind to not only its Muslim citizens, but to all its Muslim neighbours. And keep out of US axis that is sure to be imposed on India. India’s changed Iran policy is a welcome beginning. However, it is quite possible that the Brahmin ruling Oligarch will be ready to shed non-Brahmin blood to fight a war of America’s choosing.

If history is any guide, another scenario should at least kept in mind. As India progresses, the northern hordes --- Taliban of both varieties will descent on the plains of India. They had reached at one time and attacked an army camp much near to India’s borders, in not much distant past. The Northern hordes are derisive of any borders drawn on maps by foreign powers. And they may try to cross over. In case India, antagonizes China, China will be another super-power in the area that may decide to help the marauders.

In such a unpleasant combination of dire possibilities, India will have to bring in a dramatic change in its Idea of India. And that too very fast!

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai


http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hemmed-in-from-all-sides/711902/0

Tue, 16 Nov 2010


Hemmed in from all sides


Najeeb Jung
Tags : najeebjung, column


Posted:
Tue Nov 16 2010, 04:38 hrs


Monsters with abilities to overcome physical destruction mutate and return with greater strength and venom. This is happening in Afghanistan and on the Af-Pak border, where a robust and rejuvenated Al-Qaeda and Taliban comprehensively expose the US’s 10-year endeavour to contain them and re-establish a credible Afghan government and restore sanity along the wild Durand Line. Within three years of the Taliban’s defeat in 2001, the Pakistan establishment helped retrain and rebuild the Taliban, so that they are once again more than a handful for the American forces. With President Obama’s visit behind us, it is time to reassess the extent to which the Af-Pak region exposes the confusion in American policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan, America’s dependence on Pakistan, and the latter’s critical significance for the US’ fight against so-called “Islamic” terror. Afghanistan shares 2640 kilometres of border with Pakistan with a close kinship among tribes born of centuries of inter-marriages. This is why the Durand Line has never been accepted by people of the two countries living on either side of the border who demand an independent Pashtun homeland. Pakistan, on the other hand, remains a feeder state for terror, its military not just sustaining the Lashkar-e-Toiba, but its territories being havens for equally dreaded outfits like the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network, the Jaish-e-Muhammed, and so on. It is abundantly clear that the Americans cannot succeed in Afghanistan, nor succeed in their effort to fight terror without the active help of the Pakistan establishment. The Pakistanis obviously understand this and extract the maximum from this US predicament.




Despite the best intentions and investment in time, resources and equipment, the US has not got a hold either on the ground or at the policy level. Top echelons in the Obama administration seem unclear on the road ahead but it is evident that the US is working on an exit strategy. The lack of clarity is on the path to drawdown of troops and the timeline for the drawdown. But as and when the US does withdraw the bulk of its forces, with circumstances remaining much the same as they are today, where would this leave Afghanistan, Pakistan, and indeed India? While it is impossible to make any accurate forecast, several scenarios are possible.


The first is the status quo, with President Karzai, like Najibullah before him, muddling along for some time. On the other hand, given his lackadaisical administration, if Karzai loses the loyalty of the Afghan National Army his regime will give way. The hawks in the form of the Ismail Khans, the Dostums and the Fahim Khans will strike. Each possible successor is worse than the other. Second, there is a distinct possibility of Kabul falling to the Taliban, reverting Afghanistan to the pre-9/11 period. This poses a further ethnic problem for the country, with the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras offering resistance and throwing the country into a fierce civil war. But a truly nightmarish scenario is the emergence of a fundamentalist Islamic state comprising the Pashtun territories of southern Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan. This could be disastrous for Pakistan. The Pakistan army contains some who sympathise with fundamentalist Islam, and any ideological split within its officer class is bound to put heavy pressure on the federal government — which would indeed destabilise an already fragile Pakistan. Moreover, a premature US pullout will be viewed as a victory for the mujahideen giving a fillip to Islamic radical movements across the globe.


So to the question: where would all this leave India? The Afghans have always had a feeling of great warmth towards India and Indians. And they have no love lost for the Pakistanis, owing to Pakistan’s support and sustenance to the Taliban. Let us never forget that the average Afghan hated the Taliban for their rigid laws, views and brutality. But now, despite India having spent millions of dollars in developing roads, power generation and supply lines, technical assistance of various kinds, its geographical disconnect with Afghanistan, Pakistan’s geographical proximity and the latter’s ability to sustain terror groups in its territories, ironically puts Pakistan in pole position vis-a-vis the US and its challenge to organised terror. The truth is that Pakistanis have a deep distrust for the Americans. Despite this, the US is in a bind and continues to provide arms and monies to the Pakistan government. The US will continue with this process not just to equip and prop up Pakistan but with the understanding that if its own position in Pakistan weakens, the space is most likely to be taken by China, which has consistently supported Pakistan and eyes the Gwadar port as its exit point to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea. It is also a fact that India cannot pull out a rabbit from its hat that can make the US change its stand.


The only real choice left before India is to work with the United States to manage governance issues in Afghanistan, in the hope that with better governance, a natural resistance will develop for the re-emergence of a Taliban-type government. As of now, this is not a scenario one can bet on.


The writer is vice-chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi