The US needs to hold the Pakistani security establishment to account

Breaking America’s Silence on Pakistan … Hillary Clinton’s truth-telling is necessary and overdue

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered an especially blunt, if long overdue, message to Pakistan last week. Talking to reporters in Lahore, she said she found it “hard to believe” that local authorities did not know where key members of al Qaeda had taken refuge. Her message set off another firestorm of criticism from both the government and the Pakistani press.

Though belated, Mrs. Clinton’s remarks were entirely apt and, one hopes, mark a departure from U.S. policy under former President George W. Bush, and more recently, under President Barack Obama. Apologists for Pakistan in both administrations argued it was necessary to overlook the country’s unwillingness to be more forthcoming on counterterrorism operations because of the U.S. dependence on Pakistan’s goodwill to supply the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Though superficially correct, this reasoning overlooks the fact that Pakistan extracts significant rents for the use of its territory for this purpose and has also been the beneficiary of some $11 billion in American largesse over the past eight years.

Pakistan has helped the U.S. seize a number of key al Qaeda operatives on its soil, including Abu Zubaidyah, Ramzi Bin al Shibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu-Faraj-al-Libi, among others. Nevertheless, the Pakistani security establishment, especially in recent days, has done little to place the remnants of al Qaeda under a military anvil. Nor has it shown any willingness to disrupt and dismantle Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, two anti-Indian terrorist organizations known to have significant ties to al Qaeda. Instead Islamabad has relied on every possible subterfuge to protect them, such as asserting that evidence against the two groups is inadequate and placing Lashkar-e-Taiba’s leader under arrests and then releasing him. These organizations have been allowed to thrive despite Indian, American and international pressure. Read Sumit Ganguly in WSJ here.

My Father, the Terrorist

A son of Osama bin Laden paints an intimate portrait of the man who would become the world’s most infamous terrorist.

Since the time I could observe and reason, I have mainly known my father to be composed, no matter what might be happening.

That’s because he believes that everything of earthly life is in the hands of God.

It is difficult, therefore, for me to imagine that he became so excited when my mother told him I was about to be born that he momentarily misplaced his keys.

After a frantic search, I’m told he settled my mother hastily in the car before spinning off at a reckless speed. Luckily he had recently purchased a new automobile, the latest Mercedes, because on that day he tested all its working parts. I’ve been told it was golden in color, something so beautiful that I imagine the vehicle as a golden carriage tearing through the wide palm-tree-lined boulevards of Jeddah, Saudia Arabia.

Within a short while after that chaotic journey, I made my appearance, becoming the fourth child born to my parents.

I was only one of many in a chain of strong personalities in our bin Laden family. My father, although quiet-natured in many ways, has always been a man that no other man can control. My paternal grandfather, Mohammed Awad bin Laden, was also quite famous for his strength of character. After the premature death of his father, who left behind a grieving widow and four young children, Grandfather bin Laden sought his fortune without a clue as to where he would end up. He was the eldest at 11 years.

Since Yemen offered few possibilities in those days, my grandfather bravely turned his back on the only land and the only people he had ever known, taking his younger brother, Abdullah, with him to join one of the many camel caravans trekking through the area. Read more here.

The Battle for Mother Teresa’s Remains

Kolkata was thus thrown into shock this week when it learned that Albania, the country of Mother Teresa’s parents, had demanded that her remains be returned before her birth centenary in August 2010. One of the nuns at Mother House was appalled. She couldn’t understand why the country would want the Mother’s remains back when it had so little connection to her. In anticipation that Macedonia — where Mother Teresa was born and lived until she was 18 — might also join in the demand, the West Bengal–based State Forum of Christians, with more than 10 million members, has called for an all-religion mass rally to be held on Oct. 23. Read more here.

Scientists hope work with poison gas can be a lifesaver

Guiding the visitors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is Mark Roth, a 50-year-old biologist with a tall forehead, thinning red hair and a perpetual wry smile. He asks his assistant, Jennifer Blackwood, if the rat is ready. It is. She turns a dial, and the sealed enclosure starts to fill with poison gas — hydrogen sulfide. An ounce could kill dozens of people.

At first glance, that looks bad. We need oxygen to live. If you don’t get it for several minutes — for example, if you suffer cardiac arrest or a bad gunshot wound — you die. But something else is going on inside this rat. He isn’t dead, isn’t dying. The reason why, some people think, is the future of emergency medicine. Read full story here.

Love, pleasure, duty: Why women have sex

What makes a woman want to have sex? Is it physical attraction? Love? Loneliness? Jealousy? Boredom? Painful menstrual cramps?

It turns out that woman have sex for all of these reasons and more, and that their choices are not arbitrary; there may be evolutionary explanations at work.

Psychologists Cindy Meston and David Buss, both professors at the University of Texas at Austin, decided that the topic of “why women have sex” deserved a book of its own. They’ve woven scientific research together with a slew of women’s voices in their new collaborative work, “Why Women Have Sex,” published September 29 by Times Books.

“We do bring in men occasionally by way of contrast, but we wanted to focus exclusively on women so that the complexity of women’s sexual psychology was not given the short shrift, so to speak,” said Buss, a leading evolutionary psychologist.

The authors conducted a study from June 2006 to April 2009 that asked women whether they had ever had sex for one of 237 reasons, all of which had emerged in a previous study. About 1,000 women contributed their perspectives. Read more here. Also, watch women answer questions here. And what is virginity worth today? Click here to watch.

Films chart despair of India’s farm suicides

After drinking pesticide out of sheer desperation, poverty-stricken farmer Nandu collapsed.

He did this on screen in front of an audience at a packed multiplex cinema, which issued a collective gasp.

Nandu is just a character in a recent Indian film about farmer suicides.

But his tragic fate has been a reality for thousands of farmers across India. For the first time, this dark aspect of Indian rural life has made it to the big screen.

Most Hindi films are glossy, glamorous, super-cool and predominantly filmed in Indian or Western cities.

In the past few months several films in the Marathi language – depicting the often terrifying problems facing farmers – have been released in the state of Maharashtra.

The state is home to the glittering city of Mumbai but it is also a state where thousands of farmers have killed themselves in recent years.

This is particularly acute in the Vidarbha region, known for growing oranges and cotton, but which is prone to drought and has witnessed many farmer suicides over failed crops and mounting debts.

The central government has announced loan waivers to but thousands of families across the area have been affected.

Where Bollywood films relentlessly focus on the positive side of things, films about farmer suicides made on limited budgets by relatively inexperienced directors are by any stretch of the imagination commercially unviable.

Yet they have won critical acclaim at national and international film festivals. Read more here.

 

 

Court to hear gay divorce in Texas, despite gay marriage ban

A judge in Dallas has ruled that the state court on which she sits has the jurisdiction to hear a divorce suit by a gay couple who were married outside Texas where same-sex marriages are banned.

Dallas District Judge Tena Callahan said in the ruling that her court “has jurisdiction to hear a suit for divorce filed by persons legally married in another jurisdiction and who meet the residency and other prerequisites required to file for divorce in Dallas County, Texas.”

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott immediately said he would appeal the ruling in the latest battle over gay marriage in the United States.

“The laws and constitution of the State of Texas define marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman. Today’s ruling purports to strike down that constitutional definition,” Abbott said in a statement.

“The Office of the Attorney General will appeal the court’s ruling to defend the traditional definition of marriage that was approved by Texas voters,” he said.

The divorce suit was filed in Dallas by an unidentified man and no details were available on where he had been married. An attorney for the man could not be reached for comment.

Forty U.S. states have laws explicitly prohibiting gay marriages and the issue, along with abortion rights, is among the most divisive in America.

Same-sex marriage is banned in Texas by a voter-approved state constitutional amendment.

A handful of U.S. states, mostly in the northeast, have approved gay marriage though it is being challenged in Maine.

The District of Columbia city council voted on May 5 to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where those unions are legal, even although gay marriages cannot be conducted in Washington D.C., the U.S. capitol.

Not all FIRs should result in court cases: Moily

With more than 3.11 crore cases pending across the country, law minister Veerappa Moily has been calling for “revolutionary steps” to rid the judicial system of slow redressal. In an interview to Vineeta Pandey, Moily discusses his plans for speedy justice delivery and building a judiciary in keeping with the times. Read more in DNA.

3-D television expected to come to homes in 2010

3-dimensional images are expected to jump out of movie theaters and into living rooms by next year.

Sony and Panasonic say they will release home 3-D television systems in 2010; Mitsubishi and JVC are reported to be working on similar products.

“TV finally becomes real” in three dimensions, said Robert Perry, an executive vice president at Panasonic. “You’re in it. It’s the next frontier.”

Perry compared the 3-D transition to the switch from black-and-white to color television and the shift from standard- to high-definition images. Read more here>>

The Girl Who Cries Blood

Twinkle is a thirteen-year-old girl from India who spontaneously bleeds from her eyes, head, hands and other body parts, although there is no visible source or injury to explain it.  Some say a bad omen has been cast, others think she is possessed, and yet others think it could be self-inflicted. Hoping for a breakthrough, Twinkle and her mother put their faith in an American blood specialist who is flying to India to investigate her extraordinary case. Watch here.

 

Eight Years After 9/11: Why Osama bin Laden is a Failure

The 9/11 attacks killed hundreds of Americans, but failed to launch al-Qaeda’s anticipated revolution anticipated. The movement remained on the margins even as the Iraq invasion fueled growing anti-American feeling in the Muslim world … Read full story here.

‘Don’t obsess over Gandhi trivia’

Auctions of Mahatma Gandhi’s belongings may not see the government scouting for a good samaritan to ensure they pass into Indian hands. On Tuesday, a bronze bodhisatva gifted by the Mahatma to an Irish friend went under the hammer in London for about 7000 pounds without a murmur. 

The decision to stop trying to acquire every piece of Gandhi memorabilia has come about with an advisory panel, which has the Mahatma’s granddaughter on it, feeling that the father of the nation was not an Indian monopoly. The very frequency with which his belongings surface bespeak of a generous and unpossessive spirit. 

Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee feels government intervention is not always effective and ought to be avoided as far as can be. “The Indian government cannot always be effective in persuading people from buying and selling Gandhiji’s belongings. Gandhi belongs to entire humanity and it is up to citizens to judge a man who was an original minimalist in life,” she said. 

A member of an advisory panel set up by the ministry of culture, currently under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she and a couple of other experts have been regularly consulted whenever Gandhi’s gifts surfaced. On the last few occasions, the panel has consistently held that such auctions were not a matter that required intervention. Full story here.

Remembering a Future That Many Feared

The day dawned different and stayed that way. Traffic was thin and sidewalks quiet. The stock exchange didn’t open, nor the airports, the schools, Broadway. People loaded up on bottled water, batteries, canoes. The law enforcement presence was intense: men with machine guns, gunboats circling the harbor.

Downtown, fires burned, smoke plumed. The odor stood.

It was a city humbled and scared, where the possibilities of destruction had been recalibrated. It was Sept. 12, 2001. The day after.

So much has been said and written about what happened on 9/11. The following day is forgotten, just another dulled interlude in the aftermath of an incoherent morning. Read more.

Taliban Spreading In Afghanistan Despite U.S. Buildup

The Taliban now has a permanent presence in virtually every area of Afghanistan, expanding its influence across the country despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO troops, according to an analysis based on daily reports of insurgent activity from January to September of this year.

The International Council on Security and Development, a London-based policy research group, released the study and a new security map Thursday that paints a grim picture of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. It shows a heavy or permanent Taliban presence in 80 percent of Afghanistan. The term “permanent” is defined as provinces that report an average of one or more insurgent attacks per week.

The group says the Taliban also has a “substantial” presence in an additional 17 percent of the country. That description is based on an average of one or more insurgent attacks per month and includes accounts from residents who believe the Taliban is active in the area. Read more here.

Studies Show 1 Dose Of Swine Flu Vaccine Works

Good news in the world’s flu fight: One dose of the new swine flu vaccine looks strong enough to protect adults — and can spark protection within 10 days of the shot, Australian and U.S. researchers said Thursday.

Australian shot maker CSL Ltd. published results of a study that found between 75 percent and 96 percent of vaccinated people should be protected with one dose — the same degree of effectiveness as the regular winter flu shot. That’s remarkable considering scientists thought it would take two doses.

U.S. data to be released Friday confirm those findings, and show the protection starts rapidly, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press.

“This is quite good news,” Fauci said. Read here.

Corporate Social Responsibility

The idea that corporations bear a responsibility that stretches beyond their shareholders is not new. Many companies in the 19th century built special housing for their employees in the belief that a well-housed employee was more productive than one living in a dump. The recent debate about corporate social responsibility (CSR) has focused on three main areas:

• The environment. This has stretched way beyond the simple demand that companies stop belching smoke out of factory chimneys to a demand that they control their appetite for natural resources—for bits of Brazilian rain forest, for example, or for the skins of rare animals. The organised hostility to such behaviour has forced companies to change. For example, suppliers frightened by the venom of the anti-fur lobby felt compelled to boast: “Make no mistake; all our furs are fake.”

• Exploitation. The second strand is the exploitation of workers, especially of women in the developed world and of children in the developing world. There is a feeling that globalisation has increased the power of multinationals to exploit the poor and underpaid, at the same time as it has weakened the influence of trade unions and other organisations designed to protect them.

• Bribery and corruption. The third strand focuses on corruption, in particular on the question of what constitutes a bribe (when does generous corporate hospitality step over the line?), and what protections should be given to whistleblowers (employees or other insiders who report corporate misdeeds). Here there is a strong cultural element to confuse the issue. What constitutes bribery in western countries, for example, may not be considered such in regions such as the Middle East. For further reading, click here.

Malays charged over cow protest

Six Malaysian Muslims have been charged with sedition for parading the severed head of a cow through the streets of Shah Alam in Selangor state last month. The men were protesting against the building of a Hindu temple near a mosque in the area.

Some of the demonstrators stamped and spat on the cow’s head.

The case has stoked tensions between Malaysia’s Muslim majority and the Indian, mainly Hindu, minority to whom cows are considered sacred. Read the complete story here.

President Zardari’s turbulent first year

A year after he moved into the most powerful political office in Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari appears to be making a mixed impression. Some say he has not filled the leadership gap in Pakistan.

The military still seems to be out of civilian control, militants are far from annihilated and the economy is yet to get back on track. Others acknowledge that so far he has averted the worst fears of his friends and foes. That is to say, he has not sold off state property for a song, there have been no major financial scams bearing presidential fingerprints and he has not traded state secrets to unfriendly powers. Mr Zardari ended up in the presidential office by default, due to the death of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, who had vowed to keep him out of politics and had not allowed him to contest the 2008 elections.

This was due to his reputation as an unscrupulous wheeler-dealer who would not desist from harming the country to fill his own pocket. Full story here.

How Obama Hopes to Restart Mideast Peace Talks

Arab leaders are bracing for disappointment as the Obama Administration prepares to unveil the next stage of its plan to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Administration is hoping to announce the resumption of final-status negotiations over a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians later this month, either during the UN General Assembly meeting or soon thereafter, according to senior Arab officials involved in consultations on the plan. But with the deadline rapidly approaching, Washington’s Arab allies have expressed concern to the Administration about the content of the proposals to be delivered by Obama’s special envoy George Mitchell. One senior Arab official who asked to remain anonymous recently noted that the initial optimism generated by President Obama’s decision to prioritize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had given way to a “growing anxiety” among his country’s leaders. Read more here.

HARSH LESSON

Challenges facing foreign students in Australia

When Indian students arrive in Australia, probably the last thing they think they will end up doing is taking to the streets in a series of boisterous protests. 

First, they were voicing anger over a spate of muggings and attacks in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Police confirm there have been 97 attacks since late-May, although the true figure is probably much higher since many assaults go unreported.

Now, the ranks of disgruntled Indian students have been swelled by those who believe they are being ripped off by a private system keen to take their money, but unable to offer value for money or even a proper education.

Twin demands of protection from attacks, and safeguards from unscrupulous private education providers are now motivating what has fast become a student movement. Read more.

The remastered Beatles: You’ve got to get this into your life

“Number nine, number nine, number nine,” an engineer’s voice intones over Revolution 9, the loopy loops-laden experimental track on The Beatles’ self-titled 1968 album.

Little did John Lennon realize that the tune he dubbed “music of the future” would foreshadow Revolution 09/09/09, the day that would usher The Beatles’ entire catalog into the future with a substantial engineering overhaul, rendering the most familiar music of the modern age suddenly astonishing and revelatory. REVIEW

Jitiya Festival: Mothers Fast For Their Sons

Since time immemorial, the holy festival of Jivitputrika popularly known as Jitiya is observed by women in Bihar for the long life of their children. Mothers keep fast throughout the day without taking even a drop of water. Normally, the fast is observed for the well-being of sons. In 2009, the date of Jivitputrika Vrat is September 12. Read here in detail.

Neda’s Grave: A Shrine to Anger at Iran’s Regime

The trees are few, the swirling dust pervasive and the summer heat almost unbearable. This is Behesht-e Zahra, the country’s largest and most notorious cemetery. Some 12 miles (20 km) south of the bustling capital, this is a sprawling city-within-a-city that most Iranians try to avoid visiting. The only sound here is the constant wailing from crowds of mourning women in head-to-toe chadors. Read more here in TIME.

‘Pakistan has to accept India as big brother’

A candid dialogue between India and Pakistan’s security establishments and intelligence services is the only way to move forward for both countries in securing peace, said Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan’s former national security advisor and ex-ambassador to United States.

He summarized his recommendations to bring the people of India and Pakistan closer and reduce the acrimony between. 
 
# Strengthen SAARC so that it truly becomes a forum for the good of the people.

# Terrorism, religious bigotry and intolerance are common threat to both India and Pakistan. We need to work together before this threat destroys our way of life. Let our governments give teeth to the Joint Terrorism Mechanism ( JTM ) and move beyond meaningless statements.
 
# Chiefs of our primary intelligence agencies need to have periodic meetings to bridge their differences and cooperate on counterterrorism.

# We must not interrupt dialogue between our two countries, whatever the provocation. Communicate your anger, frustration and views through dialogue. Lack of dialogue helps neither country. I am not in favour of a dialogue just for form but primarily to move forward.

# Track II efforts need to be supported and increased.

# The backchannel needs to be revived to help the primary dialogue process and address thorny issues. 

# The media, the academic community and the businessmen in both countries needs to play a forceful role in bringing the two people together and reducing the mistrust. 

#Simplify the visa process drastically. Abolish police reporting and city specific visas. We should treat each other at least like we treat other foreigners, if we are unable to treat each other in a better fashion.

# Both countries should open up the airwaves and allow airing of each others TV programs.

# The Sir Creek and Siachen issues are ripe for resolution, let us put them behind up. We should set up a “Joint Glacial Research Centre” in Siachen. 

# The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 must be respected by both parties and all water disputes should be settled in the letter and spirit of this treaty. No smart reinterpretations please.

# Give space to the suffering Kashmiris. Guiding principal for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute should be based on the spirit of “Kashmir for the Kashmiris”.

# Include cooperation in the field of agriculture as a component of the composite dialogue. Set up an “lndo-Pak Arid Agriculture Research Centre”.

# Include cooperation in energy as a component of the composite dialogue.

# Lastly, but most important is the role of the political leadership in bridging the gap between our nations, they need to show the resolve to guide the dialogue process to a logical conclusion

Read the full story here, by Sheela Bhatt in rediff.com

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Conspiracy theorists say jet fuel fires couldn’t have brought down the towers – but a simulation of the impact proves otherwise. Then, were the 9/11 attacks a government conspiracy? Nat Geo conducts a forensic investigation to test the tenets of some of the most common conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks. Experiments with heated steel and thermite illuminate the truth behind nagging questions. 

BACKGROUND FACTS

The more information you have, the better you can support your argument.

BUILDING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER

• The twin towers opened in 1972 after two years of construction.
• Thirteen square blocks were razed to house the WTC complex.
• Each floor of the twin towers comprised about 50,000 square feet.
• The combined weight of the towers was more than 1.5 million tons. Each tower was built to safely sway about three feet during strong windstorms.
• WTC 1 was the world’s tallest building until Chicago’s Sears Tower was completed in 1973.
• 200,000 tons of steel were used in the construction of the WTC complex.
• The WTC complex contained about 43,000 windows and 200 elevators.
• About 50,000 people worked in the towers, and more than 200,000 people moved through the towers each day.  

PENTAGON SPECS

• The Pentagon has a floor space of 3,705,793 square feet and contains 7,754 windows and 17 miles of corridor.
•  Each of the Pentagon’s outer walls is 921 feet long.
•  The building was constructed out of reinforced concrete made from 380,000 tons of sand dredged from the Potomac River and is supported by 41,492 concrete piles. The designers’ ingenuity not only created a building that complemented the architectural style of the nation’s capital, but also saved enough steel to build an entire battleship. 

ABOUT THE 9/11 CONSPIRACY

• A Google search of “9/11 conspiracy” turns up 6 million hits. (The famed “JFK conspiracy” brings 52,000.)
• More than 1/3 of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a 2006 Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

Watch The World Trade Center Attacks Video Here.

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The Pentagon’s Newest Weapon Against Pirates

The U.S. military plans to deploy its newest warplane against one of the world’s oldest threats, sending unmanned Reaper drones to the Seychelles islands to deal with pirates menacing seagoing commerce in the Indian Ocean. Fighting pirates off the coast of Africa was one of the founding missions of the U.S. Marines two centuries ago; today, in a sign of the changing face of warfare, the mission of protecting maritime trade routes falls to ground-bound desk jockeys remotely operating high-tech flying machines. Read more here.

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The internet at forty

A mid-life crisis threatens its future

This past week marked the 40th birthday of the internet. And, like most other things on the brink of middle-age, the internet is struggling with its own mid-life crisis. At issue is whether it can continue to provide equal access for everyone and everything, or must evolve into something entirely different in order to cope with changing circumstances. Read more here.

Whether because exercise makes us hungry or because we want to reward ourselves, many people eat more - and eat more junk food, like doughnuts - after going to the gym. Read John Cloud in Time. 

 Also watch a related video wherein Jillian Michaels, the hardcore personal trainer from NBC’s Biggest Loser teaches TIME what to eat at the office while on a diet. 

 

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