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Friday, August 29, 2014

DTN News - ISRAEL NEWS: American Student Missing in Israel

DTN News - ISRAEL NEWS: American Student Missing in Israel

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 29, 2014: A forensic team member takes a picture near the place where a body was found next to Ein Karem village, near Jerusalem, August 28, 2014.

Israeli police and volunteers found a body near a forest in Jerusalem on Thursday while searching for Aaron Sofer, a 23-year-old American student who went missing last week, but said no formal identification had yet been made.

Sofer, a Jewish seminary student from New Jersey, vanished on August 22, 2014 while walking in woods not far from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News - PAKISTAN ~ OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: Could The Pakistani Government Have Hidden Bin Laden?

DTN News - PAKISTAN ~ OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: Could The Pakistani Government Have Hidden Bin Laden?
*The chaotic state of governance suggests conspiracy on a national scale to protect Bin Laden is fanciful at best.

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Al Jazeera

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 20, 2013: The revelation that a Pakistani government dossier regarding Osama bin Laden had leaked to the media immediately brought to mind salacious and popularly held suspicions about the country’s complicity in harbouring the infamous terrorist financier. Bin Laden, who after 9/11 was believed to be on the run in the remote tribal wilderness, eventually was found to be residing, shockingly, in a comfortable home within a quiet Pakistani city with significant military links.

That this city was also home to the Pakistani military’s equivalent of West Point only added to the sense that this was a blatant cover-up and that the Pakistani government was consciously hiding and protecting America’s most wanted terrorist. Any leaked internal Pakistani documents relating to this affair could then be little else but a documentation of how such a world-beating scheme was pulled off.

However, the dossier which did leak suggests the opposite as true. While the report’s authors do not explicitly rule out state collusion, the picture they paint is one which more strongly reflects bureaucratic chaos and mismanagement than of a finely-tuned, sinister plot. The revelations contained therein may dispel suspicions of any broad, coordinated Pakistani government conspiracy to aid Bin Laden, but they do indict the state in an arguably worse way.

A state without control
There are two competing theses as to how Osama bin Laden may have been able to live for years under the noses of the Pakistani establishment. One posits the necessary collusion of the Pakistani government, while the other assumes structural incompetence led to organisational obliviousness to Bin Laden’s presence on Pakistani soil. Collusion would require an efficiently organised and well-functioning Pakistani state able to keep such an incredible secret, while obliviousness would entail a high-degree of bureaucratic ineptitude and confusion within the state machinery. Even a cursory reading of contemporary Pakistani shows that the latter scenario is the situation which exists at most levels of the country today.

The government is simply too chaotic, disjointed and deeply compromised by the U.S. to have the wherewithal or capacity to engineer such a conspiracy

One may argue in response that the Pakistani government is merely feigning incompetence in order to provide cover for its nefarious activities. In this view the leak of the dossier is simply an alibi to conceal their true role in the Bin Laden saga. But the circumstantial evidence against this hypothesis is too great for it to be plausible. The country is a textbook case of bureaucratic mismanagement and inertia, and the broad organisational integrity required to engineer such a scheme is nowhere in evidence.

Indeed, so greatly has the Pakistani political elite today lost the plot that they themselves cannot protect their own closest kin - as evidenced by the recent kidnapping of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son, and the assassination of former President Asif Zardari’s own security chief. Given this reality, it is difficult to fathom how this same class of individuals could have put such an intricate conspiracy over on the entire world. The state is simply not in complete control of events in the way it would need to be for such a thing to be possible - especially not for the countless years in which Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding out in the country.

As detailed in the report, corruption has trickled down to the point where it is endemic almost everywhere within the Pakistani state. Bin Laden himself is detailed in the dossier to have essentially escaped detection by having his driver bribe a police officer who had pulled his car over for speeding. Even popular media personalities were reported to have been ‘heavily bribed with money, women and alcohol’ in order to print unfavourable news stories about certain factions within the government.

It is worth remembering that the so-called “War on Terror” of the past decade has seen tens of thousands of Pakistanis killed, the country’s name utterly tarnished, the (apparent) fiction of its sovereignty dispelled and its infrastructure reduced to a shambolic state. Even ignoring its protestations of ignorance and incompetence, an objective reading of the circumstances of the Pakistani state does away with the myth that accomplishing a feat such as hiding Bin Laden would even be possible.

A government bought and paid for
The leaked dossier also recounts testimony from former ISI chief Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha in which he says a CIA operative told him: "You are so cheap… we can buy you with a visa, with a visit to the US, even with a dinner… we can buy anyone." Indeed, the picture painted is of a state willing to acquiesce to any US directive at a whim, as well as a society deeply infiltrated by American intelligence operatives.

Page 198 of the report revealed that in discussions with their Pakistani counterparts on a list of counterterrorism demands, American negotiators were reportedly ‘mystified’ that the Pakistani side ‘caved so promptly and completely’. A follow-up list of negotiating points, created in anticipation of inevitable objections, became immediately superfluous as the Pakistani side fell over themselves to immediately acquiesce to every American demand. The depth of Pakistani collusion with the US on politically-sensitive issues such as drone strikes was also revealed, highlighting the extent to which Pakistani leadership considered the lives and legal rights of the country’s citizens to be utterly forfeit in the face of any American request.

Even NGOs were not spared. The report noted that the American NGO “Save the Children” - created ostensibly to vaccinate and inoculate children against various diseases - was in fact a front operation funded and operated by American intelligence.

The report goes on to say that in fact a huge proportion of the NGOs operating in the country were believed to be compromised by foreign intelligence services (specifically those of the United States) but that they could not be completely barred because of the degree to which large parts of the citizenry were forced to rely on them. In essence, the social services of much of the country have today been outsourced to the CIA.

Pakistan a 'failing state' says ISI chief

A more depressing commentary of negligence and corruption would be difficult to find, but it is nonetheless worth pointing out that a Pakistani state so thoroughly compromised by the United States would by its very nature be incapable of engineering a broad conspiracy.

The CIA had penetrated almost every level of the Pakistani state machinery (a reality acknowledged by the authors of the report), making any attempt at comprehensive secrecy nearly impossible. Indeed, the extent to which even Pakistan’s most guarded knowledge - the details of its nuclear weapons program - has today been compromised is a testimony to the inability of the government today to maintain state secrets, let alone grand conspiracies.

The façade of a state
If Americans feel aggrieved or baffled by the series of events which led to Osama bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, they should reflect on the history which Pakistanis have been dealt by their own government. In a few short decades the citizens of Pakistan have witnessed more ostensibly-conspiratorial episodes than most countries do in their entire histories.

From the assassination of the country’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, to the mysterious plane-crash death of General Zia ul Haq, to the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (and, in years previous, her brother) and innumerable other high-profile cases, Pakistan has been wracked by a long history of shadowy, unexplained violent events in the public sphere. For these cases Pakistanis have never received answers - let alone accountability.

Are events in Pakistan thus being clandestinely dictated by an Illuminati-type cabal, opaquely engineering events to their own benefit; and so powerful that they are able to brazenly defy the will of the world’s only military superpower?

Or is the government itself merely a collection of various disparate factions with little control over broader national events, each out for their own interests (primarily the accumulation of private wealth at the expense of the citizenry) and maintaining merely the chaotic façade of a contiguous “state”?

Occam’s razor would suggest the latter. In this view, validated in great part by the contents of this leaked report, Pakistan would have neither a coherent desire nor the ability to harbour Osama bin Laden. While it is likely that some individual or small group of individuals somewhere within the incoherent state or military apparatus had knowledge of his whereabouts, the allegation of broad or high-level official collusion is an utterly spurious one.
The government is simply too chaotic, disjointed and deeply compromised by the US to have the wherewithal or capacity to engineer such a conspiracy. The conspiracy narrative is only undermined if one operates on the assumption that this leaked dossier is simply the continuation of the same plot - but there is little evidence in the grand history of infighting and maladministration which is the Pakistani bureaucracy to suggest such Machiavellian foresight.

Ordinary Pakistanis are the ultimate victims of this at once malicious and negligent system. With the Bin Laden episode, Americans merely received a glimpse into the bizarrely opaque and chaotic world Pakistan’s government compels its citizens to live with.

Murtaza Hussain is a Toronto-based writer and analyst focused on issues related to Middle Eastern politics.
Follow him on Twitter: @MazMHussain

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Sourc:

Al Jazeera

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Al Jazeera
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News - INDEPENDENCE DAY JULY 4: DTN News Wish All Friends, Readers, Viewers And American Around The Globe, A Happy 4th of July

DTN News - INDEPENDENCE DAY JULY 4: DTN News Wish All Friends, Readers, Viewers And American Around The Globe, A Happy 4th of July

Source: This article compiled by compiled by K. V. Seth - DTN News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 3, 2013: Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

Adams's prediction was off by two days. From the outset, Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.

Historians have long disputed whether Congress actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, even though Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin all later wrote that they had signed it on that day. Most historians have concluded that the Declaration was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.

In a remarkable coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, the Fifth President of the United States, died on July 4, 1831. Calvin Coolidge, the Thirtieth President, was born on July 4, 1872, and thus was the only President to be born on Independence Day.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth - DTN News
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com
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DTN News - 4TH OF JULY NEWS: DTN News Wish All Friends, Readers, Viewers And American Around The Globe, A Happy 4th of July

DTN News - 4TH OF JULY NEWS: DTN News Wish All Friends, Readers, Viewers And American Around The Globe, A Happy 4th of July

Source: This article compiled by K. V. Seth - DTN News

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 4, 2011: Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth - DTN News

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
Contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Sunday, January 30, 2011

DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Thousands In Pakistan Rally Against American

DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Thousands In Pakistan Rally Against American

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Babar Dogar -AP Associated Press

(NSI News Source Info) LAHORE, Pakistan - January 30, 2011: Hard-line Islamic leaders on Sunday rallied at least 15,000 people against an American official arrested in the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis and warned the government not to cave in to U.S. pressure to release the man.

The protest in the eastern city of Lahore, where the shootings took place, came as the U.S. Embassy once again insisted that the American has diplomatic immunity and was being detained illegally by Pakistan. But Pakistan has refused to budge, saying the matter must be decided by the courts.

The spat has revealed the fragility of a relationship Washington believes is crucial for success in Afghanistan and against al-Qaida. Large protests by hard-line Islamic groups, which have significant influence in Pakistan, could make it even more difficult for the government to free the American.

"We warn the government and administration that ... if they help the arrested American illegally, then this crowd will surround the U.S. Embassy and presidential palace in Islamabad," Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior official in the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, said during Sunday's rally.

The U.S. has said the American, who has not been named, acted in self-defense when he shot two armed men who approached his car in Lahore on Thursday.

But many questions have been left unanswered, including exactly what the American did at the U.S. Embassy and why he was carrying a gun. The lack of clarity has fueled media speculation he may have been a CIA agent or security contractor, as well as questions over whether he qualified for diplomatic immunity.

The embassy attempted to provide a little more clarity in a press release Sunday titled "Facts About Diplomatic Immunity." It said the man is a member of the embassy's "technical and administrative staff" and thus enjoyed the same criminal immunity that all diplomats have under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

But legal arguments are unlikely to sway ordinary Pakistanis, many of whom dislike the U.S. and distrust their government in its dealings with Washington. This animosity is especially pronounced among hard-line Islamic groups, which oppose the war in Afghanistan and object to Pakistan's alliance with the U.S. in fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Sunday's demonstration was organized by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is widely believed to be a front for the militant group that attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 and killed 166 people. The rally was originally called to protest changes to Pakistani laws that mandate the death penalty for insulting Islam. But many of the speakers used the opportunity to stoke anger over the recent shootings.

"An American scoundrel has killed two innocent youths in the streets of Lahore," said the leader of Jamiat Ulema Islam, Maulana Fazlur Rahman. "It should be decided in the courts and any decision beyond the courts will not be acceptable to us. There should be an end to American hegemony in Pakistan."

Lahore police chief Aslam Tareen said there were between 15,000 and 20,000 people at the rally in the center of the city.

The protest leaders paraded two men who they said were brothers of the shooting victims. The men joined protesters in shouting "any friend of America is a traitor." Others held signs that said "Punish the American Killer" and "Hang this American in Public."

The leader of Jammat-e-Islami, Syed Munawar Hasan, criticized the Pakistani government for allowing armed diplomats to move around the country.

A senior U.S. official has said the American man was authorized by the U.S. to carry a weapon, but that it was a "gray area" whether Pakistani law permitted him to do so. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The American was taken into custody soon after the shooting and appeared in court Friday for an initial hearing. U.S. officials were granted access to him only late the same day, soon after prosecutors said they would pursue possible murder charges against him.

A third man died when he was allegedly hit by an American car that rushed to the scene to help the U.S. official. Pakistani police have said they want to question the driver of that vehicle as well.