Posts Tagged ‘Pakistan’
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Liz Gooch; 10/4/10; (2 Items)
Through most of their 17-year marriage, she and her husband observed rituals that she considered integral to their Hindu faith. Each morning they would pray before a shrine and on Fridays they would fast. During festivals they wore traditional outfits to attend their local temple. Those were traditions that M. Indira Gandhi, a teacher in the town of Ipoh, Malaysia, assumed they would pass on to their three children. But nearly a year ago she was stunned to discover her husband had converted to Islam. Her surprise turned to anger when she found out that, without consulting her, he had also converted their children. He then won custody of them through an Islamic court. “If he wants to convert, OK,” Ms Gandhi said. “But these are children that were born from both of us.”
(more…)
Tags: Children, Human Rights, Malaysia, Pakistan, Religion
Posted in Asia, Health & Children, Human Rights, Religion, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Tom Reilly; 3/3/10
For Saide Haddad the choice between a chance at a normal life and one shackled to a dialysis machine was simple. ”Nobody knows what it is like to be so sick … If you have an opportunity that gives you a 10 per cent chance of success you have to take it. Even a 5 per cent chance, you would try.” For Mrs Haddad, a mother of three from Ryde, that chance involved flying to Baghdad in 2002 to buy a kidney from an impoverished Palestinian. Although there are no official figures on the number of Australians who buy an organ overseas – a practice known as transplant tourism – statistics compiled by Mrs Haddad’s specialist, Yvonne Shen, show at least 118 have travelled to purchase a kidney.
(more…)
Tags: Australia, health, Pakistan
Posted in Aid / Trade, Asia, Australia, Health & Children | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
23/2/10;
The Australian; New Statesman; No Internet Text
Fatima Bhutto dispels three of her favourite myths about her home country. Pakistan was not created so fundamentalist Muslims would have a country of their own to call home. The nation’s founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, insisted on complete freedom of religion. “Moral of the story? Religious extremists are made, not born. You can thank General Zia ul-Haq, our pro-Islamist president from 1977-88, and his financial backers Mrs Thatcher and Mr Reagan for that.”
Secondly, Pakistan is not a nation of madrassa-educated, bearded Taliban enthusiasts. But their growing influence is because military dictatorships and corrupt civilian rulers have ensured that most of the funds earmarked for education are siphoned off before they can be spent.
Lastly is the myth that Pakistan funds religious terrorists such as the Taliban and al-Qa’ida. “But so does the US, notably Sunni militias in Iraq and once even the Taliban in Afghanistan. Find me a country that doesn’t stash its cash in dirty bank accounts and then we’ll talk.”
Tags: Pakistan
Posted in Human Rights | No Comments »
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Paul McGeough; 13/2/10
The kohl-eyed Hakimullah Mehsud probably is dead. He was the target for a missile fired last month from an unmanned aircraft hovering over the Afghan-Pakistani border – but launched by an operator in the US. Mehsud was the ruthless mastermind of multiple suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan. He was part of a suicide mission on December 30 at Khost, just across the border in Afghanistan, which killed seven CIA agents who were working on the covert operation that now appears to have ended Mehsud’s brief and brutal leadership of the Taliban in Pakistan. In the artistry of war, the insertion of a Jordanian double-agent who detonated his explosive vest inside this super-sensitive CIA bunker was flawless. But, in their payback, the enraged Americans confirmed the breadth of a new horizon in modern warfare – launching 15 clinical drone attacks in which more than 100 people died along the border, as Washington’s electronic eyes and guns sought out Mehsud and his Taliban and al-Qaeda allies. War does not get more radical than this – technically, politically and, perhaps, ethically.
(more…)
Tags: Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Afghanistan, Arms, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Marwan Bishara; 15/1/09; (2 Items)
What does it say about Washington’s ”war on terror” that dozen and a half people with paper cutters forced hundreds of thousands of Western troops into the battlefields of the “greater Middle East” region; “That 100,000 foreign soldiers are bogged down in occupied Afghanistan wondering how many dozens of al-Qaeda operatives have remained, if any; That the most liberal democracy enacted new controversial illiberal laws and unpatriotic practices under its “Patriot Act”; That one shoe-bomber has forced millions of people to take off their shoes every time they take a flight.”
(more…)
Tags: Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Henry and Bert Thornton; 4/1/10; http://www.henrythornton.com/article.asp?article_id=5906; (2 Items)
The United Nations has withdrawn one-third of its staff from Pakistan because of worsening security and increased terrorist attacks. The Wall Street Journal writes Pakistan’s failure to defeat terrorist groups operating within the country and Afghanistan forced the UN to leave.
Suicide bomber strikes at heart of CIA’s Afghan program
The Wall Street Journal; The suicide attack this week on a CIA compound in Afghanistan devastated what has been a hub of counter-terrorism and intelligence operations for the spy agency. The CIA base was at the heart of a covert program overseeing strikes by the agency’s remote-controlled aircraft along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, officials familiar with the installation said. The CIA continued drone strikes yesterday. A security official in Pakistan confirmed that two militants were killed in what was described as a missile attack by a Predator drone in Pakistan’s autonomous North Waziristan region, across the border from Khost.
(more…)
Tags: Afghanistan, CIA, Clandestine, Pakistan, Secrecy, Terrorism, USA, Yemen
Posted in Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Monday, December 28th, 2009
28/12/09
At least four people have been killed and several more injured in a suspected US drone attack on a house in Pakistan’s northwest. Pakistani intelligence officials said the missile strike targeted a hideout of anti-government fighters in the Babar Raghazi area of North Waziristan on Saturday. But local security officials told Al Jazeera that those killed in the attack were all civilians. Unmanned drones are often the weapon of choice for the United States as it targets the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in remote, rugged areas along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. But the US military has rarely confirmed the attacks.
(more…)
Tags: Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
23/12/09
A court in Pakistan’s most liberal city has ordered two men to have their nose and ears chopped off as punishment for inflicting similar injuries on a woman they abducted, an official says. An anti-terrorism court headed by judge Khalid Naveed Dar handed down the ruling in the eastern city of Lahore, sentencing them to life in prison and fining them each 700,000 rupees ($9,438). “The court ordered that the nose and ears of Sher Mohammad and Ammanat Ali be chopped off as part of an Islamic punishment of a nose for a nose and ears for ears,” court official Azhar Ameen said. The men were found guilty of kidnapping a woman who had refused to marry one of them, then hacking off her nose and ears.
(more…)
Tags: Human Rights, Pakistan
Posted in Human Rights, Religion, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Jeremy Scahill; 23/11/09
At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus. The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater’s involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so “compartmentalized” that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.
(more…)
Tags: Afghanistan, Mercenaries, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Arms, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Gerg Miller: 16/11/09
The CIA has funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan’s intelligence service since the September 11, 2001, attacks, accounting for one-third of the foreign spy agency’s annual budget, according to current and former US officials. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency had also collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA program that paid for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department, officials said. US officials often tout US-Pakistani intelligence co-operation. But the extent of the financial underpinnings of that relationship has never been publicly disclosed. The CIA payments are a hidden stream in a much broader financial flow; the US has given Pakistan more than $US15 billion ($A16 billion) over the past eight years in military and civilian aid.
(more…)
Tags: Human Rights, Iraq, Pakistan, Terrorism, UK, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Iraq, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Ida Lichter; 4/11/09
Now that the Taliban and their allies are being cornered in the tribal areas, the toxic fallout is terrorising a populace fed up with suicide bombings and the burning of schools. Among the international community, there is concern about Pakistan’s double-dealing with Islamist paramilitaries and the threat of extremists operating from within. And while the focus remains on military operations in the battle zone, the plight of ordinary Pakistani women is easily overlooked. Curtailing of women’s rights through strict sharia law became evident during the two-year jihad in the Swat region of the North West Frontier Province. A smuggled mobile phone video of punishment by lashing showed a woman being whipped while surrounding onlookers applauded. Islamists also proclaimed that female education was contrary to Islamic teachings and promoted indecency. But these hardships must be seen in perspective. Prior to the current threats of Taliban oppression, women in Pakistan faced life-long cultural and legislated discrimination. Considered a saleable commodity valued far less than males, they have been bartered for land and animals. The infant mortality rate is higher for females than males, and women’s life expectancy is lower than men’s, the result of less nourishment, healthcare and education, according to a UN study. In some rural areas female literacy rates are as low as 2 per cent, because parents see no financial benefits in educating girls.
(more…)
Tags: Pakistan, Terrorism, USA, Womens Rights
Posted in Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
29/1/0/09
USA drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, according to a top UN investigator. ”The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan,” UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston said. ”My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”US strikes with remote-controlled aircraft against al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan have often resulted in civilian deaths.
(more…)
Tags: Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Arms, Human Rights, USA | No Comments »
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
David Ignatius; 10/10/09
It’s a classic example of the law of unintended consequences: Congress triples its assistance to Pakistan as part of a deepening strategic relationship. But members of Congress, always eager to tell other countries what to do, insert conditions that Pakistanis find insulting. As a result, rather than welcoming American aid and friendship, Pakistanis are indignant at US meddling. When I was in Islamabad a week ago, the Pakistani press was dripping with anti-American outrage. And this week, the Pakistani military and parliament were both protesting US interference. All this in response to legislation that was meant to symbolise US support for Islamabad’s growing firmness in fighting al-Qa’ida and the Taliban. Strangely, this uproar seems to have taken the Obama administration by surprise, with senior officials initially denouncing as inaccurate a story in The New York Times this week that reported Pakistani anger and opposition to the bill. Richard Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, should have seen this one coming.
(more…)
Tags: Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
19/9/09; Bruce Loudon, senior editor at The Australian, was formerly the newspaper’s South Asia correspondent
Lumped against Naheed Khan on the seat of the white, armour-plated Toyota Landcruiser, blood gushing from a massive wound to her temple, is one of the world’s most celebrated political leaders. Seconds before, Benazir Bhutto had been standing with her head and shoulders through the vehicle’s sunroof, shouting slogans in her campaign to become Pakistan’s prime minister for a third time: “Jiaye Bhutto, Jiaye Bhutto” (“Long live Bhutto, Long live Bhutto”), the rallying cry of her Pakistan People Party (PPP) and the last words she would ever utter. The devoted Naheed, Bhutto’s political secretary and her inseparable shadow for 23 years, is mopping the wound, frantically using her dupatta headscarf in a futile attempt to staunch the flow of blood and brain matter.
(more…)
Tags: Assasination, Pakistan
Posted in Pakistan, Terrorism | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
9/9/09
At least 10 people have been killed after a suspected US drone fired missiles into Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, Pakistani intelligence has said.The attack late on Tuesday targeted a Taliban residential compound in Dargamandi village in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan. It was not immediately clear whether any Taliban fighters were present in the area at the time. The United States has fired scores of missiles from unmanned drones into the tribal regions since last year in a campaign targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders… “People are angered by the way the Americans are conducting their affairs in this particular conflict . This is an infringement of sovereignty.”
(more…)
Tags: Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Monday, August 24th, 2009
24/8/09
Of course, as you report, the Pentagon would like to take more control over where our troops in Afghanistan are to be posted and how they are to fight, and of course there is plentiful evidence from the higher levels of the US civil and military governmental bodies that Australia should be extremely sceptical of any requests and attached promises (“US to urge bigger role for Diggers”, 22-23/8). US generals have recently told the American news media that the Taliban are today stronger than before — well-funded and equipped and high in morale. This, after nearly eight years of coalition military action in the area, does not suggest that playing war games as the American generals want would be in the interests of the Afghan people, or our troops. Do we really want to be part of that? Paul Kunino Lynch; Katoomba, NSW
(more…)
Tags: Afghanistan, Australia, Pakistan, USA
Posted in Australia, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
