tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85763107653752463192024-03-06T03:59:07.920+05:00The EditorialsIf you have discovered a flair for writing, reporting, photography, analyzing situations and are thinking to satiate your passions through freelance journalism, this blog could be a regular stop for you on your way to seeking knowledge, information and help to polish your journalistic skills.Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.comBlogger183125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-12247021239417008382016-05-06T14:59:00.003+05:002016-05-06T14:59:45.477+05:00POVERTY in PAKISTAN <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<a href="http://worldaffairsjournal.org/content/opinion-poverty-puzzles-pakistan" target="_blank">POVERTY PUZZLE in PAKISTAN </a></div>
Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-55789418915444478742016-05-06T14:51:00.003+05:002016-05-06T14:51:41.916+05:00DAWN NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1016100" target="_blank">DAWN News</a><br />
<br />
http://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1016100</div>
Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-33174279017354645042016-05-06T14:46:00.003+05:002016-05-06T14:46:58.644+05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1016100" target="_blank">Write a Blog on DAWN News </a></div>
Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-9984007230521241352016-05-06T14:42:00.002+05:002016-05-06T14:42:57.203+05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2013/02/27/boost-your-haiku-high-q-an-infographic/" target="_blank">Boost Your Haiku</a></div>
Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-19667302859267929532016-05-06T14:38:00.000+05:002016-05-06T14:38:32.426+05:00Online Journal of English Language <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.literaryquest.org/articleview.php?id=249" target="_blank">LITERARY QUEST </a></div>
Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-78857593697478350342010-10-01T18:17:00.000+05:002010-10-01T18:17:47.890+05:00C.I.A.'s SECRET INTERROGATION PROGRAM - Part III<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6e3905; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;">The Black Sites</span></span></span><br />
<h2 style="color: #38761d; font: normal normal bold 16px/normal Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 11.25pt; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; position: relative;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></h2><h4 style="line-height: 11.25pt; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; position: relative;"><span class="ccs"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;">by</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="ccs"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/jane_mayer/search?contributorName=jane%20mayer" style="color: #000099; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">Jane Mayer</span></a></span></span><span class="dddds"><span style="color: #9f9f9f; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase;">AUGUST 13, 2007</span></span></h4><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The inquiry source said that most of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Poland</st1:place></st1:country-region> detainees were waterboarded, including Mohammed. According to the sources familiar with the Red Cross report, Mohammed claimed to have been waterboarded five times. Two former C.I.A. officers who are friends with one of Mohammed’s interrogators called this bravado, insisting that he was waterboarded only once. According to one of the officers, Mohammed needed only to be shown the drowning equipment again before he “broke.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Waterboarding works,” the former officer said. “Drowning is a baseline fear. So is falling. People dream about it. It’s human nature. Suffocation is a very scary thing. When you’re waterboarded, you’re inverted, so it exacerbates the fear. It’s not painful, but it scares the shit out of you.” (The former officer was waterboarded himself in a training course.) Mohammed, he claimed, “didn’t resist. He sang right away. He cracked real quick.” He said, “A lot of them want to talk. Their egos are unimaginable. K.S.M. was just a little doughboy. He couldn’t stand toe to toe and fight it out.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The former officer said that the C.I.A. kept a doctor standing by during interrogations. He insisted that the method was safe and effective, but said that it could cause lasting psychic damage to the interrogators. During interrogations, the former agency official said, officers worked in teams, watching each other behind two-way mirrors. Even with this group support, the friend said, Mohammed’s interrogator “has horrible nightmares.” He went on, “When you cross over that line of darkness, it’s hard to come back. You lose your soul. You can do your best to justify it, but it’s well outside the norm. You can’t go to that dark a place without it changing you.” He said of his friend, “He’s a good guy. It really haunts him. You are inflicting something really evil and horrible on somebody.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Among the few C.I.A. officials who knew the details of the detention and interrogation program, there was a tense debate about where to draw the line in terms of treatment. John Brennan, Tenet’s former chief of staff, said, “It all comes down to individual moral barometers.” Waterboarding, in particular, troubled many officials, from both a moral and a legal perspective. Until 2002, when Bush Administration lawyers asserted that waterboarding was a permissible interrogation technique for “enemy combatants,” it was classified as a form of torture, and treated as a serious criminal offense. American soldiers were court-martialled for waterboarding captives as recently as the Vietnam War.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A C.I.A. source said that Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding only after interrogators determined that he was hiding information from them. But Mohammed has apparently said that, even after he started coöperating, he was waterboarded. Footnotes to the 9/11 Commission report indicate that by April 17, 2003—a month and a half after he was captured—Mohammed had already started providing substantial information on Al Qaeda. Nonetheless, according to the person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry, he was kept in isolation for years. During this time, Mohammed supplied intelligence on the history of the September 11th plot, and on the structure and operations of Al Qaeda. He also described plots still in a preliminary phase of development, such as a plan to bomb targets on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s West Coast.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ultimately, however, Mohammed claimed responsibility for so many crimes that his testimony became to seem inherently dubious. In addition to confessing to the <st1:place w:st="on">Pearl</st1:place> murder, he said that he had hatched plans to assassinate President Clinton, President Carter, and Pope John Paul II. Bruce Riedel, who was a C.I.A. analyst for twenty-nine years, and who now works at the Brookings Institution, said, “It’s difficult to give credence to any particular area of this large a charge sheet that he confessed to, considering the situation he found himself in. K.S.M. has no prospect of ever seeing freedom again, so his only gratification in life is to portray himself as the James Bond of jihadism.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By 2004, there were growing calls within the C.I.A. to transfer to military custody the high-value detainees who had told interrogators what they knew, and to afford them some kind of due process. But Donald Rumsfeld, then the Defense Secretary, who had been heavily criticized for the abusive conditions at military prisons such as Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, refused to take on the agency’s detainees, a former top C.I.A. official said. “Rumsfeld’s attitude was,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>You’ve</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>got a real problem.” Rumsfeld, the official said, “was the third most powerful person in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> government, but he only looked out for the interests of his department—not the whole Administration.” (A spokesperson for Rumsfeld said that he had no comment.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">C.I.A. officials were stymied until the Supreme Court’s Hamdan ruling, which prompted the Administration to send what it said were its last high-value detainees to Cuba. Robert Grenier, like many people in the C.I.A., was relieved. “There has to be some sense of due process,” he said. “We can’t just make people disappear.” Still, he added, “The most important source of intelligence we had after 9/11 came from the interrogations of high-value detainees.” And he said that Mohammed was “the most valuable of the high-value detainees, because he had operational knowledge.” He went on, “I can respect people who oppose aggressive interrogations, but they should admit that their principles may be putting American lives at risk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Yet Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission and later the State Department’s top counsellor, under Rice, is not convinced that eliciting information from detainees justifies “physical torment.” After leaving the government last year, he gave a speech in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city>, in which he said, “The question would not be, Did you get information that proved useful? Instead it would be, Did you get information that could have been usefully gained only from these methods?” He concluded, “My own view is that the cool, carefully considered, methodical, prolonged, and repeated subjection of captives to physical torment, and the accompanying psychological terror, is immoral.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Without more transparency, the value of the C.I.A.’s interrogation and detention program is impossible to evaluate. Setting aside the moral, ethical, and legal issues, even supporters, such as John Brennan, acknowledge that much of the information that coercion produces is unreliable. As he put it, “All these methods produced useful information, but there was also a lot that was bogus.” When pressed, one former top agency official estimated that “ninety per cent of the information was unreliable.” Cables carrying Mohammed’s interrogation transcripts back to <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state> reportedly were prefaced with the warning that “the detainee has been known to withhold information or deliberately mislead.” Mohammed, like virtually all the top Al Qaeda prisoners held by the C.I.A., has claimed that, while under coercion, he lied to please his captors.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In theory, a military commission could sort out which parts of Mohammed’s confession are true and which are lies, and obtain a conviction. Colonel Morris D. Davis, the chief prosecutor at the Office of Military Commissions, said that he expects to bring charges against Mohammed “in a number of months.” He added, “I’d be shocked if the defense didn’t try to make K.S.M.’s treatment a problem for me, but I don’t think it will be insurmountable.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Critics of the Administration fear that the unorthodox nature of the C.I.A.’s interrogation and detention program will make it impossible to prosecute the entire top echelon of Al Qaeda leaders in captivity. Already, according to the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Wall Street Journal</i>, credible allegations of torture have caused a Marine Corps prosecutor reluctantly to decline to bring charges against Mohamedou Ould Slahi, an alleged Al Qaeda leader held in Guantánamo. Bruce Riedel, the former C.I.A. analyst, asked, “What are you going to do with K.S.M. in the long run? It’s a very good question. I don’t think anyone has an answer. If you took him to any real American court, I think any judge would say there is no admissible evidence. It would be thrown out.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The problems with Mohammed’s coerced confessions are especially glaring in the Daniel Pearl case. It may be that Mohammed killed <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pearl</st1:place></st1:city>, but contradictory evidence and opinion continue to surface. Yosri Fouda, the Al Jazeera reporter who interviewed Mohammed in <st1:city w:st="on">Karachi</st1:city>, said that although Mohammed handed him a package of propaganda items, including an unedited video of the <st1:place w:st="on">Pearl</st1:place> murder, he never identified himself as playing a role in the killing, which occurred in the same city just two months earlier. And a federal official involved in Mohammed’s case said, “He has no history of killing with his own hands, although he’s proved happy to commit mass murder from afar.” Al Qaeda’s leadership had increasingly focussed on symbolic political targets. “For him, it’s not personal,” the official said. “It’s business.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ordinarily, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> legal system is known for resolving such mysteries with painstaking care. But the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program, Senator Levin said, has undermined the public’s trust in American justice, both here and abroad. “A guy as dangerous as K.S.M. is, and half the world wonders if they can believe him—is that what we want?” he asked. “Statements that can’t be believed, because people think they rely on torture?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Asra Nomani, the Pearls’ friend, said of the Mohammed confession, “I’m not interested in unfair justice, even for bad people.” She went on, “Danny was such a person of conscience. I don’t think he would have wanted all of this dirty business. I don’t think he would have wanted someone being tortured. He would have been repulsed. This is the kind of story that Danny would have investigated. He really believed in American principles.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Source : </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz0xJw71sAq"><span style="color: #003399;">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz0xJw71sAq</span></a></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></span></span><div><span class="dddds"><span style="color: #9f9f9f; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #9f9f9f; font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; text-transform: uppercase;"><br />
</span></span></div></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-7036139308684323792010-10-01T18:09:00.000+05:002010-10-01T18:09:57.123+05:00C.I.A.'s SECRET INTERROGATION PROGRAM - Part II<div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6e3905; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;">The Black Sites</span></span></span></span></span></div><h2 style="color: #38761d; font: normal normal bold 16px/normal Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 11.25pt; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; position: relative;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></h2><h4 style="line-height: 11.25pt; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; position: relative;"><span class="ccs"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;">by</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="ccs"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/jane_mayer/search?contributorName=jane%20mayer" style="color: #000099; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">Jane Mayer</span></a></span></span><span class="dddds"><span style="color: #9f9f9f; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase;">AUGUST 13, 2007</span></span></h4><br />
<div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The C.I.A. knew even less about running prisons than it did about hostile interrogations. Tyler Drumheller, a former chief of European operations at the C.I.A., and the author of a recent book, “On the Brink: How the White House Compromised U.S. Intelligence,” said, “The agency had no experience in detention. Never. But they insisted on arresting and detaining people in this program. It was a mistake, in my opinion. You can’t mix intelligence and police work. But the White House was really pushing. They wanted<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>someone</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to do it. So the C.I.A. said, ‘We’ll try.’ George Tenet came out of politics, not intelligence. His whole modus operandi was to please the principal. We got stuck with all sorts of things. This is really the legacy of a director who never said no to anybody.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Many officials inside the C.I.A. had misgivings. “A lot of us knew this would be a can of worms,” the former officer said. “We warned them, It’s going to become an atrocious mess.” The problem from the start, he said, was that no one had thought through what he called “the disposal plan.” He continued, “What are you going to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>do</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with these people? The utility of someone like K.S.M. is, at most, six months to a year. You exhaust them. Then what? It would have been better if we had executed them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The C.I.A. program’s first important detainee was Abu Zubaydah, a top Al Qaeda operative, who was captured by Pakistani forces in March of 2002. Lacking in-house specialists on interrogation, the agency hired a group of outside contractors, who implemented a regime of techniques that one well-informed former adviser to the American intelligence community described as “a ‘Clockwork Orange’ kind of approach.” The experts were retired military psychologists, and their backgrounds were in training Special Forces soldiers how to survive torture, should they ever be captured by enemy states. The program, known as<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="smallcaps">SERE</span>—an acronym for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape—was created at the end of the Korean War. It subjected trainees to simulated torture, including waterboarding (simulated drowning), sleep deprivation, isolation, exposure to temperature extremes, enclosure in tiny spaces, bombardment with agonizing sounds, and religious and sexual humiliation. The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="smallcaps">SERE</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>program was designed strictly for defense against torture regimes, but the C.I.A.’s new team used its expertise to help interrogators inflict abuse. “They were very arrogant, and pro-torture,” a European official knowledgeable about the program said. “They sought to render the detainees vulnerable—to break down all of their senses. It takes a psychologist trained in this to understand these rupturing experiences.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The use of psychologists was also considered a way for C.I.A. officials to skirt measures such as the Convention Against Torture. The former adviser to the intelligence community said, “Clearly, some senior people felt they needed a theory to justify what they were doing. You can’t just say, ‘We want to do what <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s doing.’ When the lawyers asked what their basis was, they could say, ‘We have Ph.D.s who have these theories.’ ” He said that, inside the C.I.A., where a number of scientists work, there was strong internal opposition to the new techniques. “Behavioral scientists said, ‘Don’t even think about this!’ They thought officers could be prosecuted.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Nevertheless, the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="smallcaps">SERE</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>experts’ theories were apparently put into practice with Zubaydah’s interrogation. Zubaydah told the Red Cross that he was not only waterboarded, as has been previously reported; he was also kept for a prolonged period in a cage, known as a “dog box,” which was so small that he could not stand. According to an eyewitness, one psychologist advising on the treatment of Zubaydah, James Mitchell, argued that he needed to be reduced to a state of “learned helplessness.” (Mitchell disputes this characterization.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Steve Kleinman, a reserve Air Force colonel and an experienced interrogator who has known Mitchell professionally for years, said that “learned helplessness was his whole paradigm.” Mitchell, he said, “draws a diagram showing what he says is the whole cycle. It starts with isolation. Then they eliminate the prisoners’ ability to forecast the future—when their next meal is, when they can go to the bathroom. It creates dread and dependency. It was the K.G.B. model. But the K.G.B. used it to get people who had turned against the state to confess falsely. The K.G.B. wasn’t after intelligence.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As the C.I.A. captured and interrogated other Al Qaeda figures, it established a protocol of psychological coercion. The program tied together many strands of the agency’s secret history of Cold War-era experiments in behavioral science. (In June, the C.I.A. declassified long-held secret documents known as the Family Jewels, which shed light on C.I.A. drug experiments on rats and monkeys, and on the infamous case of Frank R. Olson, an agency employee who leaped to his death from a hotel window in 1953, nine days after he was unwittingly drugged with LSD.) The C.I.A.’s most useful research focussed on the surprisingly powerful effects of psychological manipulations, such as extreme sensory deprivation. According to Alfred McCoy, a history professor at the <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:placename>, in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Madison</st1:place></st1:city>, who has written a history of the C.I.A.’s experiments in coercing subjects, the agency learned that “if subjects are confined without light, odors, sound, or any fixed references of time and place, very deep breakdowns can be provoked.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Agency scientists found that in just a few hours some subjects suspended in water tanks—or confined in isolated rooms wearing blacked-out goggles and earmuffs—regressed to semi-psychotic states. Moreover, McCoy said, detainees become so desperate for human interaction that “they bond with the interrogator like a father, or like a drowning man having a lifesaver thrown at him. If you deprive people of all their senses, they’ll turn to you like their daddy.” McCoy added that “after the Cold War we put away those tools. There was bipartisan reform. We backed away from those dark days. Then, under the pressure of the war on terror, they didn’t just bring back the old psychological techniques—they perfected them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The C.I.A.’s interrogation program is remarkable for its mechanistic aura. “It’s one of the most sophisticated, refined programs of torture ever,” an outside expert familiar with the protocol said. “At every stage, there was a rigid attention to detail. Procedure was adhered to almost to the letter. There was top-down quality control, and such a set routine that you get to the point where you know what each detainee is going to say, because you’ve heard it before. It was almost automated. People were utterly dehumanized. People fell apart. It was the intentional and systematic infliction of great suffering masquerading as a legal process. It is just chilling.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> government first began tracking Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 1993, shortly after his nephew Ramzi Yousef blew a gaping hole in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">World</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Trade</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>. Mohammed, officials learned, had transferred money to Yousef. Mohammed, born in either 1964 or 1965, was raised in a religious Sunni Muslim family in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Kuwait</st1:country-region>, where his family had migrated from the Baluchistan region of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. In the mid-eighties, he was trained as a mechanical engineer in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>, attending two colleges in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">North Carolina</st1:place></st1:state>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As a teen-ager, Mohammed had been drawn to militant, and increasingly violent, Muslim causes. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood at the age of sixteen, and, after his graduation from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, in Greensboro—where he was remembered as a class clown, but religious enough to forgo meat when eating at Burger King—he signed on with the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, receiving military training and establishing ties with Islamist terrorists. By all accounts, his animus toward the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> was rooted in a hatred of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In 1994, Mohammed, who was impressed by Yousef’s notoriety after the first World Trade Center bombing, joined him in scheming to blow up twelve U.S. jumbo jets over two days. The so-called Bojinka plot was disrupted in 1995, when Philippine police broke into an apartment that Yousef and other terrorists were sharing in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Manila</st1:place></st1:city>, which was filled with bomb-making materials. At the time of the raid, Mohammed was working in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Doha</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Qatar</st1:country-region></st1:place>, at a government job. The following year, he narrowly escaped capture by F.B.I. officers and slipped into the global jihadist network, where he eventually joined forces with Osama bin Laden, in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Along the way, he married and had children.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Many journalistic accounts have presented Mohammed as a charismatic, swashbuckling figure: in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Philippines</st1:country-region>, he was said to have flown a helicopter close enough to a girlfriend’s office window so that she could see him; in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, he supposedly posed as an anonymous bystander and gave interviews to news reporters about his nephew’s arrest. </span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Neither story is true. But Mohammed did seem to enjoy taunting authorities after the September 11th attacks, which, in his eventual confession, he claimed to have orchestrated “from A to Z.” In April, 2002, Mohammed arranged to be interviewed on Al Jazeera by its <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city> bureau chief, Yosri Fouda, and took personal credit for the atrocities. “I am the head of the Al Qaeda military committee,” he said. “And yes, we did it.” Fouda, who conducted the interview at an Al Qaeda safe house in Karachi, said that he was astounded not only by Mohammed’s boasting but also by his seeming imperviousness to the danger of being caught. Mohammed permitted Al Jazeera to reveal that he was hiding out in the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Karachi</st1:place></st1:city> area. When Fouda left the apartment, Mohammed, apparently unarmed, walked him downstairs and out into the street.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the early months of 2003, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> authorities reportedly paid a twenty-five-million-dollar reward for information that led to Mohammed’s arrest. <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> officials closed in on him, at 4<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="smallcaps">A.M.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>on March 1st, waking him up in a borrowed apartment in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Rawalpindi</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region></st1:place>. The officials hung back as Pakistani authorities handcuffed and hooded him, and took him to a safe house. Reportedly, for the first two days, Mohammed robotically recited Koranic verses and refused to divulge much more than his name. A videotape obtained by “60 Minutes” shows Mohammed at the end of this episode, complaining of a head cold; an American voice can be heard in the background. This was the last image of Mohammed to be seen by the public. By March 4th, he was in C.I.A. custody.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Captured along with Mohammed, according to some accounts, was a letter from bin Laden, which may have led officials to think that he knew where the Al Qaeda founder was hiding. If Mohammed did have this crucial information, it was time sensitive—bin Laden never stayed in one place for long—and officials needed to extract it quickly. At the time, many American intelligence officials still feared a “second wave” of Al Qaeda attacks, ratcheting the pressure further.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to George Tenet’s recent memoir, “At the Center of the Storm,” Mohammed told his captors that he wouldn’t talk until he was given a lawyer in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>, where he assumed he would be taken. (He had been indicted there in connection with the Bojinka plot.) Tenet writes, “Had that happened, I am confident that we would have obtained none of the information he had in his head about imminent threats against the American people.” Opponents of the C.I.A.’s approach, however, note that Ramzi Yousef gave a voluminous confession after being read his Miranda rights. “These guys are egomaniacs,” a former federal prosecutor said. “They<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>love</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to talk!”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A complete picture of Mohammed’s time in secret detention remains elusive. But a partial narrative has emerged through interviews with European and American sources in intelligence, government, and legal circles, as well as with former detainees who have been released from C.I.A. custody. People familiar with Mohammed’s allegations about his interrogation, and interrogations of other high-value detainees, describe the accounts as remarkably consistent.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Soon after Mohammed’s arrest, sources say, his American captors told him, “We’re not going to kill you. But we’re going to take you to the very brink of your death and back.” He was first taken to a secret U.S.-run prison in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. According to a Human Rights Watch report released two years ago, there was a C.I.A.-affiliated black site in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region> by 2002: an underground prison near <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Kabul</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">International</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Airport</st1:placetype></st1:place>. Distinctive for its absolute lack of light, it was referred to by detainees as the Dark Prison. Another detention facility was reportedly a former brick factory, just north of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kabul</st1:place></st1:city>, known as the Salt Pit. The latter became infamous for the 2002 death of a detainee, reportedly from hypothermia, after prison officials stripped him naked and chained him to the floor of his concrete cell, in freezing temperatures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In all likelihood, Mohammed was transported from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> to one of the Afghan sites by a team of black-masked commandos attached to the C.I.A.’s paramilitary Special Activities Division. According to a report adopted in June by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, titled “Secret Detentions and Illegal Transfers of Detainees,” detainees were “taken to their cells by strong people who wore black outfits, masks that covered their whole faces, and dark visors over their eyes.” (Some personnel reportedly wore black clothes made from specially woven synthetic fabric that couldn’t be ripped or torn.) A former member of a C.I.A. transport team has described the “takeout” of prisoners as a carefully choreographed twenty-minute routine, during which a suspect was hog-tied, stripped naked, photographed, hooded, sedated with anal suppositories, placed in diapers, and transported by plane to a secret location.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry, referring to cavity searches and the frequent use of suppositories during the takeout of detainees, likened the treatment to “sodomy.” He said, “It was used to absolutely strip the detainee of any dignity. It breaks down someone’s sense of impenetrability. The interrogation became a process not just of getting information but of utterly subordinating the detainee through humiliation.” The former C.I.A. officer confirmed that the agency frequently photographed the prisoners naked, “because it’s demoralizing.” The person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry said that photos were also part of the C.I.A.’s quality-control process. They were passed back to case officers for review.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A secret government document, dated December 10, 2002, detailing “<span class="smallcaps">SERE</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure,” outlines the advantages of stripping detainees. “In addition to degradation of the detainee, stripping can be used to demonstrate the omnipotence of the captor or to debilitate the detainee.” The document advises interrogators to “tear clothing from detainees by firmly pulling downward against buttoned buttons and seams. Tearing motions shall be downward to prevent pulling the detainee off balance.” The memo also advocates the “Shoulder Slap,” “Stomach Slap,” “Hooding,” “Manhandling,” “Walling,” and a variety of “Stress Positions,” including one called “Worship the Gods.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the process of being transported, C.I.A. detainees such as Mohammed were screened by medical experts, who checked their vital signs, took blood samples, and marked a chart with a diagram of a human body, noting scars, wounds, and other imperfections. As the person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry put it, “It’s like when you hire a motor vehicle, circling where the scratches are on the rearview mirror. Each detainee was continually assessed, physically and psychologically.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to sources, Mohammed said that, while in C.I.A. custody, he was placed in his own cell, where he remained naked for several days. He was questioned by an unusual number of female handlers, perhaps as an additional humiliation. He has alleged that he was attached to a dog leash, and yanked in such a way that he was propelled into the walls of his cell. Sources say that he also claimed to have been suspended from the ceiling by his arms, his toes barely touching the ground. The pressure on his wrists evidently became exceedingly painful.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ramzi Kassem, who teaches at Yale Law School, said that a Yemeni client of his, Sanad al-Kazimi, who is now in Guantánamo, alleged that he had received similar treatment in the Dark Prison, the facility near Kabul. Kazimi claimed to have been suspended by his arms for long periods, causing his legs to swell painfully. “It’s so traumatic, he can barely speak of it,” Kassem said. “He breaks down in tears.” Kazimi also claimed that, while hanging, he was beaten with electric cables.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to sources familiar with interrogation techniques, the hanging position is designed, in part, to prevent detainees from being able to sleep. The former C.I.A. officer, who is knowledgeable about the interrogation program, explained that “sleep deprivation works. Your electrolyte balance changes. You lose all balance and ability to think rationally. Stuff comes out.” Sleep deprivation has been recognized as an effective form of coercion since the Middle Ages, when it was called<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>tormentum insomniae</i>. It was also recognized for decades in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> as an illegal form of torture. An American Bar Association report, published in 1930, which was cited in a later U.S. Supreme Court decision, said, “It has been known since 1500 at least that deprivation of sleep is the most effective torture and certain to produce any confession desired.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Under President Bush’s new executive order, C.I.A. detainees must receive the “basic necessities of life, including adequate food and water, shelter from the elements, necessary clothing, protection from extremes of heat and cold, and essential medical care.” Sleep, according to the order, is not among the basic necessities.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In addition to keeping a prisoner awake, the simple act of remaining upright can over time cause significant pain. McCoy, the historian, noted that “longtime standing” was a common K.G.B. interrogation technique. In his 2006 book, “A Question of Torture,” he writes that the Soviets found that making a victim stand for eighteen to twenty-four hours can produce “excruciating pain, as ankles double in size, skin becomes tense and intensely painful, blisters erupt oozing watery serum, heart rates soar, kidneys shut down, and delusions deepen.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mohammed is said to have described being chained naked to a metal ring in his cell wall for prolonged periods in a painful crouch. (Several other detainees who say that they were confined in the Dark Prison have described identical treatment.) He also claimed that he was kept alternately in suffocating heat and in a painfully cold room, where he was doused with ice water. The practice, which can cause hypothermia, violates the Geneva Conventions, and President Bush’s new executive order arguably bans it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Some detainees held by the C.I.A. claimed that their cells were bombarded with deafening sound twenty-fours hours a day for weeks, and even months. One detainee, Binyam Mohamed, who is now in Guantánamo, told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, that speakers blared music into his cell while he was handcuffed. Detainees recalled the sound as ranging from ghoulish laughter, “like the soundtrack from a horror film,” to ear-splitting rap anthems. Stafford Smith said that his client found the psychological torture more intolerable than the physical abuse that he said he had been previously subjected to in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Morocco</st1:place></st1:country-region>, where, he said, local intelligence agents had sliced him with a razor blade. “The C.I.A. worked people day and night for months,” Stafford Smith quoted Binyam Mohamed as saying. “Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and doors, screaming their heads off.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Professor Kassem said his Yemeni client, Kazimi, had told him that, during his incarceration in the Dark Prison, he attempted suicide three times, by ramming his head into the walls. “He did it until he lost consciousness,” Kassem said. “Then they stitched him back up. So he did it again. The next time, he woke up, he was chained, and they’d given him tranquillizers. He asked to go to the bathroom, and then he did it again.” This last time, Kazimi was given more tranquillizers, and chained in a more confining manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The case of Khaled el-Masri, another detainee, has received wide attention. He is the German car salesman whom the C.I.A. captured in 2003 and dispatched to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, based on erroneous intelligence; he was released in 2004, and Condoleezza Rice reportedly conceded the mistake to the German chancellor. Masri is considered one of the more credible sources on the black-site program, because <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> has confirmed that he has no connections to terrorism. He has also described inmates bashing their heads against the walls. Much of his account appeared on the front page of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Times</i>. But, during a visit to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> last fall, he became tearful as he recalled the plight of a Tanzanian in a neighboring cell. The man seemed “psychologically at the end,” he said. “I could hear him ramming his head against the wall in despair. I tried to calm him down. I asked the doctor, ‘Will you take care of this human being?’ ” But the doctor, whom Masri described as American, refused to help. Masri also said that he was told that guards had “locked the Tanzanian in a suitcase for long periods of time—a foul-smelling suitcase that made him vomit.” (Masri did not witness such abuse.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Masri described his prison in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> as a filthy hole, with walls scribbled on in Pashtun and Arabic. He was given no bed, only a coarse blanket on the floor. At night, it was too cold to sleep. He said, “The water was putrid. If you took a sip, you could taste it for hours. You could smell a foul smell from it three metres away.” The Salt Pit, he said, “was managed and run by the Americans. It was not a secret. They introduced themselves as Americans.” He added, “When anything came up, they said they couldn’t make a decision. They said, ‘We will have to pass it on to <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>.’ ” The interrogation room at the Salt Pit, he said, was overseen by a half-dozen English-speaking masked men, who shoved him and shouted at him, saying, “You’re in a country where there’s no rule of law. You might be buried here.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to two former C.I.A. officers, an interrogator of Mohammed told them that the Pakistani was kept in a cell over which a sign was placed: “The Proud Murderer of 3,000 Americans.” (Another source calls this apocryphal.) One of these former officers defends the C.I.A.’s program by noting that “there was absolutely nothing done to K.S.M. that wasn’t done to the interrogators themselves”—a reference to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="smallcaps">SERE</span>-like training. Yet the Red Cross report emphasizes that it was the simultaneous use of several techniques for extended periods that made the treatment “especially abusive.” Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has been a prominent critic of the Administration’s embrace of harsh interrogation techniques, said that, particularly with sensory deprivation, “there’s a point where it’s torture. You can put someone in a refrigerator and it’s torture. Everything is a matter of degree.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">One day, Mohammed was apparently transferred to a specially designated prison for high-value detainees in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Poland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Such transfers were so secretive, according to the report by the Council of Europe, that the C.I.A. filed dummy flight plans, indicating that the planes were heading elsewhere. Once Polish air space was entered, the Polish aviation authority would secretly shepherd the flight, leaving no public documentation. The Council of Europe report notes that the Polish authorities would file a one-way flight plan out of the country, creating a false paper trail. (The Polish government has strongly denied that any black sites were established in the country.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">No more than a dozen high-value detainees were held at the Polish black site, and none have been released from government custody; accordingly, no first-hand accounts of conditions there have emerged. But, according to well-informed sources, it was a far more high-tech facility than the prisons in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The cells had hydraulic doors and air-conditioning. Multiple cameras in each cell provided video surveillance of the detainees. In some ways, the circumstances were better: the detainees were given bottled water. Without confirming the existence of any black sites, Robert Grenier, the former C.I.A. counterterrorism chief, said, “The agency’s techniques became less aggressive as they learned the art of interrogation,” which, he added, “<i>is</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>an art.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mohammed was kept in a prolonged state of sensory deprivation, during which every point of reference was erased. The Council on <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>’s report describes a four-month isolation regime as typical. The prisoners had no exposure to natural light, making it impossible for them to tell if it was night or day. They interacted only with masked, silent guards. (A detainee held at what was most likely an Eastern European black site, Mohammed al-Asad, told me that white noise was piped in constantly, although during electrical outages he could hear people crying.) According to a source familiar with the Red Cross report, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claimed that he was shackled and kept naked, except for a pair of goggles and earmuffs. (Some prisoners were kept naked for as long as forty days.) He had no idea where he was, although, at one point, he apparently glimpsed Polish writing on a water bottle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">In the C.I.A.’s program, meals were delivered sporadically, to insure that the prisoners remained temporally disoriented. The food was largely tasteless, and barely enough to live on. Mohammed, who upon his capture in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rawalpindi</st1:place></st1:city> was photographed looking flabby and unkempt, was now described as being slim. Experts on the C.I.A. program say that the administering of food is part of its psychological arsenal. Sometimes portions were smaller than the day before, for no apparent reason. “It was all part of the conditioning,” the person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry said. “It’s all calibrated to develop dependency.”</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Source : </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz0xJw71sAq"><span style="color: #003399;">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz0xJw71sAq</span></a></span></span></span> </span>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-31390248316598275692010-10-01T18:04:00.000+05:002010-10-01T18:04:56.902+05:00C.I.A.'s SECRET INTERROGATION PROGRAM - Part I<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;">The Black Sites</span></span></span><br />
<h2 style="line-height: 11.25pt; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></h2><h4 style="line-height: 11.25pt; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="ccs"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">by</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span class="ccs"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/jane_mayer/search?contributorName=jane%20mayer"><span style="color: black;">Jane Mayer</span></a></span></span><span class="dddds"><span style="color: #9f9f9f; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;">AUGUST 13, 2007</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></h4><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In March, Mariane Pearl, the widow of the murdered<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Wall Street Journal</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>reporter Daniel Pearl, received a phone call from Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General. At the time, Gonzales’s role in the controversial dismissal of eight United States Attorneys had just been exposed, and the story was becoming a scandal in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>. Gonzales informed Pearl that the Justice Department was about to announce some good news: a terrorist in U.S. custody—Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al Qaeda leader who was the primary architect of the September 11th attacks—had confessed to killing her husband. (<st1:city w:st="on">Pearl</st1:city> was abducted and beheaded five and a half years ago in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, by unidentified Islamic militants.) The Administration planned to release a transcript in which Mohammed boasted, “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl in the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Karachi</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Pearl</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> was taken aback. In 2003, she had received a call from Condoleezza Rice, who was then President Bush’s national-security adviser, informing her of the same news. But Rice’s revelation had been secret. Gonzales’s announcement seemed like a publicity stunt. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pearl</st1:place></st1:city> asked him if he had proof that Mohammed’s confession was truthful; Gonzales claimed to have corroborating evidence but wouldn’t share it. “It’s not enough for officials to call me and say they believe it,” <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pearl</st1:place></st1:city> said. “You need evidence.” (Gonzales did not respond to requests for comment.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The circumstances surrounding the confession of Mohammed, whom law-enforcement officials refer to as K.S.M., were perplexing. He had no lawyer. After his capture in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region>, in March of 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency had detained him in undisclosed locations for more than two years; last fall, he was transferred to military custody in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Guantánamo Bay</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>. There were no named witnesses to his initial confession, and no solid information about what form of interrogation might have prodded him to talk, although reports had been published, in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Times</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and elsewhere, suggesting that C.I.A. officers had tortured him. At a hearing held at Guantánamo, Mohammed said that his testimony was freely given, but he also indicated that he had been abused by the C.I.A. (The Pentagon had classified as “top secret” a statement he had written detailing the alleged mistreatment.) And although Mohammed said that there were photographs confirming his guilt, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> authorities had found none. Instead, they had a copy of the video that had been released on the Internet, which showed the killer’s arms but offered no other clues to his identity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Further confusing matters, a Pakistani named Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had already been convicted of the abduction and murder, in 2002. A British-educated terrorist who had a history of staging kidnappings, he had been sentenced to death in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> for the crime. But the Pakistani government, not known for its leniency, had stayed his execution. Indeed, hearings on the matter had been delayed a remarkable number of times—at least thirty—possibly because of his reported ties to the Pakistani intelligence service, which may have helped free him after he was imprisoned for terrorist activities in India. Mohammed’s confession would delay the execution further, since, under Pakistani law, any new evidence is grounds for appeal.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A surprising number of people close to the case are dubious of Mohammed’s confession. A longtime friend of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pearl</st1:place></st1:city>’s, the former<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Journal<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>reporter Asra Nomani, said, “The release of the confession came right in the midst of the U.S. Attorney scandal. There was a drumbeat for Gonzales’s resignation. It seemed like a calculated strategy to change the subject. Why now? They’d had the confession for years.” Mariane and Daniel Pearl were staying in Nomani’s <st1:city w:st="on">Karachi</st1:city> house at the time of his murder, and Nomani has followed the case meticulously; this fall, she plans to teach a course on the topic at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Georgetown</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>. She said, “I don’t think this confession resolves the case. You can’t have justice from one person’s confession, especially under such unusual circumstances. To me, it’s not convincing.” She added, “I called all the investigators. They weren’t just skeptical—they didn’t believe it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Special Agent Randall Bennett, the head of security for the U.S. consulate in Karachi when Pearl was killed—and whose lead role investigating the murder was featured in the recent film “A Mighty Heart”—said that he has interviewed all the convicted accomplices who are now in custody in Pakistan, and that none of them named Mohammed as playing a role. “K.S.M.’s name never came up,” he said. Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. officer, said, “My old colleagues say with one-hundred-per-cent certainty that it was not K.S.M. who killed <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pearl</st1:place></st1:city>.” A government official involved in the case said, “The fear is that K.S.M. is covering up for others, and that these people will be released.” And Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father, said, “Something is fishy. There are a lot of unanswered questions. K.S.M. can say he killed Jesus—he has nothing to lose.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mariane Pearl, who is relying on the Bush Administration to bring justice in her husband’s case, spoke carefully about the investigation. “You need a procedure that will get the truth,” she said. “An intelligence agency is not supposed to be above the law.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mohammed’s interrogation was part of a secret C.I.A. program, initiated after September 11th, in which terrorist suspects such as Mohammed were detained in “black sites”—secret prisons outside the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>—and subjected to unusually harsh treatment. The program was effectively suspended last fall, when President Bush announced that he was emptying the C.I.A.’s prisons and transferring the detainees to military custody in Guantánamo. This move followed a Supreme Court ruling, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which found that all detainees—including those held by the C.I.A.—had to be treated in a manner consistent with the Geneva Conventions. These treaties, adopted in 1949, bar cruel treatment, degradation, and torture. In late July, the White House issued an executive order promising that the C.I.A. would adjust its methods in order to meet the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Geneva</st1:place></st1:city> standards. At the same time, Bush’s order pointedly did not disavow the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” that would likely be found illegal if used by officials inside the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The executive order means that the agency can once again hold foreign terror suspects indefinitely, and without charges, in black sites, without notifying their families or local authorities, or offering access to legal counsel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The C.I.A.’s director, General Michael Hayden, has said that the program, which is designed to extract intelligence from suspects quickly, is an “irreplaceable” tool for combatting terrorism. And President Bush has said that “this program has given us information that has saved innocent lives, by helping us stop new attacks.” He claims that it has contributed to the disruption of at least ten serious Al Qaeda plots since September 11th, three of them inside the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to the Bush Administration, Mohammed divulged information of tremendous value during his detention. He is said to have helped point the way to the capture of Hambali, the Indonesian terrorist responsible for the 2002 bombings of night clubs in <st1:place w:st="on">Bali</st1:place>. He also provided information on an Al Qaeda leader in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Michael Sheehan, a former counterterrorism official at the State Department, said, “K.S.M. is the poster boy for using tough but legal tactics. He’s the reason these techniques exist. You can save lives with the kind of information he could give up.” Yet Mohammed’s confessions may also have muddled some key investigations. Perhaps under duress, he claimed involvement in thirty-one criminal plots—an improbable number, even for a high-level terrorist. Critics say that Mohammed’s case illustrates the cost of the C.I.A.’s desire for swift intelligence. Colonel Dwight Sullivan, the top defense lawyer at the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions, which is expected eventually to try Mohammed for war crimes, called his serial confessions “a textbook example of why we shouldn’t allow coercive methods.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Bush Administration has gone to great lengths to keep secret the treatment of the hundred or so “high-value detainees” whom the C.I.A. has confined, at one point or another, since September 11th. The program has been extraordinarily “compartmentalized,” in the nomenclature of the intelligence world. By design, there has been virtually no access for outsiders to the C.I.A.’s prisoners. The utter isolation of these detainees has been described as essential to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s national security. The Justice Department argued this point explicitly last November, in the case of a Baltimore-area resident named Majid Khan, who was held for more than three years by the C.I.A. Khan, the government said, had to be prohibited from access to a lawyer specifically because he might describe the “alternative interrogation methods” that the agency had used when questioning him. These methods amounted to a state secret, the government argued, and disclosure of them could “reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage.” (The case has not yet been decided.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Given this level of secrecy, the public and all but a few members of Congress who have been sworn to silence have had to take on faith President Bush’s assurances that the C.I.A.’s internment program has been humane and legal, and has yielded crucial intelligence. Representative Alcee Hastings, a Democratic member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “We talk to the authorities about these detainees, but, of course, they’re not going to come out and tell us that they beat the living daylights out of someone.” He recalled learning in 2003 that Mohammed had been captured. “It was good news,” he said. “So I tried to find out: Where is this guy? And how is he being treated?” For more than three years, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hastings</st1:place></st1:city> said, “I could never pinpoint anything.” Finally, he received some classified briefings on the Mohammed interrogation. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hastings</st1:place></st1:city> said that he “can’t go into details” about what he found out, but, speaking of Mohammed’s treatment, he said that even if it wasn’t torture, as the Administration claims, “it ain’t right, either. Something went wrong.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Since the drafting of the Geneva Conventions, the International Committee of the Red Cross has played a special role in safeguarding the rights of prisoners of war. For decades, governments have allowed officials from the organization to report on the treatment of detainees, to insure that standards set by international treaties are being maintained. The Red Cross, however, was unable to get access to the C.I.A.’s prisoners for five years. Finally, last year, Red Cross officials were allowed to interview fifteen detainees, after they had been transferred to Guantánamo. One of the prisoners was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. What the Red Cross learned has been kept from the public. The committee believes that its continued access to prisoners worldwide is contingent upon confidentiality, and therefore it addresses violations privately with the authorities directly responsible for prisoner treatment and detention. For this reason, Simon Schorno, a Red Cross spokesman in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>, said, “The I.C.R.C. does not comment on its findings publicly. Its work is confidential.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The public-affairs office at the C.I.A. and officials at the congressional intelligence-oversight committees would not even acknowledge the existence of the report. Among the few people who are believed to have seen it are Condoleezza Rice, now the Secretary of State; Stephen Hadley, the national-security adviser; John Bellinger III, the Secretary of State’s legal adviser; Hayden; and John Rizzo, the agency’s acting general counsel. Some members of the Senate and House intelligence-oversight committees are also believed to have had limited access to the report.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Confidentiality may be particularly stringent in this case. Congressional and other <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state> sources familiar with the report said that it harshly criticized the C.I.A.’s practices. One of the sources said that the Red Cross described the agency’s detention and interrogation methods as tantamount to torture, and declared that American officials responsible for the abusive treatment could have committed serious crimes. The source said the report warned that these officials may have committed “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions, and may have violated the U.S. Torture Act, which Congress passed in 1994. The conclusions of the Red Cross, which is known for its credibility and caution, could have potentially devastating legal ramifications.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Concern about the legality of the C.I.A.’s program reached a previously unreported breaking point last week when Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the intelligence committee, quietly put a “hold” on the confirmation of John Rizzo, who as acting general counsel was deeply involved in establishing the agency’s interrogation and detention policies. Wyden’s maneuver essentially stops the nomination from going forward. “I question if there’s been adequate legal oversight,” Wyden told me. He said that after studying a classified addendum to President Bush’s new executive order, which specifies permissible treatment of detainees, “I am not convinced that all of these techniques are either effective or legal. I don’t want to see well-intentioned C.I.A. officers breaking the law because of shaky legal guidance.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A former C.I.A. officer, who supports the agency’s detention and interrogation policies, said he worried that, if the full story of the C.I.A. program ever surfaced, agency personnel could face criminal prosecution. Within the agency, he said, there is a “high level of anxiety about political retribution” for the interrogation program. If congressional hearings begin, he said, “several guys expect to be thrown under the bus.” He noted that a number of C.I.A. officers have taken out professional liability insurance, to help with potential legal fees.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Paul Gimigliano, a spokesman for the C.I.A., denied any legal impropriety, stressing that “the agency’s terrorist-detention program has been implemented lawfully. And torture is illegal under <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> law. The people who have been part of this important effort are well-trained, seasoned professionals.” This spring, the Associated Press published an article quoting the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Silvestre Reyes, who said that Hayden, the C.I.A. director, “vehemently denied” the Red Cross’s conclusions. A <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> official dismissed the Red Cross report as a mere compilation of allegations made by terrorists. And Robert Grenier, a former head of the C.I.A.’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Counterterrorism</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>, said that “the C.I.A.’s interrogations were nothing like Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo. They were very, very regimented. Very meticulous.” He said, “The program is very careful. It’s completely legal.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Accurately or not, Bush Administration officials have described the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo as the unauthorized actions of ill-trained personnel, eleven of whom have been convicted of crimes. By contrast, the treatment of high-value detainees has been directly, and repeatedly, approved by President Bush. The program is monitored closely by C.I.A. lawyers, and supervised by the agency’s director and his subordinates at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Counterterrorism</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>. While Mohammed was being held by the agency, detailed dossiers on the treatment of detainees were regularly available to the former C.I.A. director George Tenet, according to informed sources inside and outside the agency. Through a spokesperson, Tenet denied making day-to-day decisions about the treatment of individual detainees. But, according to a former agency official, “Every single plan is drawn up by interrogators, and then submitted for approval to the highest possible level—meaning the director of the C.I.A. Any change in the plan—even if an extra day of a certain treatment was added—was signed off by the C.I.A. director.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">On September 17, 2001, President Bush signed a secret Presidential finding authorizing the C.I.A. to create paramilitary teams to hunt, capture, detain, or kill designated terrorists almost anywhere in the world. Yet the C.I.A. had virtually no trained interrogators. A former C.I.A. officer involved in fighting terrorism said that, at first, the agency was crippled by its lack of expertise. “It began right away, in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, on the fly,” he recalled. “They invented the program of interrogation with people who had no understanding of Al Qaeda or the Arab world.” The former officer said that the pressure from the White House, in particular from Vice-President Dick Cheney, was intense: “They were pushing us: ‘Get information! Do<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>not</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>let us get hit again!’ ” In the scramble, he said, he searched the C.I.A.’s archives, to see what interrogation techniques had worked in the past. He was particularly impressed with the Phoenix Program, from the Vietnam War. Critics, including military historians, have described it as a program of state-sanctioned torture and murder. A Pentagon-contract study found that, between 1970 and 1971, ninety-seven per cent of the Vietcong targeted by the Phoenix Program were of negligible importance. But, after September 11th, some C.I.A. officials viewed the program as a useful model. A. B. Krongard, who was the executive director of the C.I.A. from 2001 to 2004, said that the agency turned to “everyone we could, including our friends in Arab cultures,” for interrogation advice, among them those in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region>, Jordan, and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Saudi Arabia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, all of which the State Department regularly criticizes for human-rights abuses.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="descender" style="line-height: 11.25pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Source : </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Source : </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz0xJw71sAq"><span style="color: #003399;">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz0xJw71sAq</span></a></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-29824536766383660102010-09-26T03:43:00.000+05:002010-09-26T03:43:04.686+05:00American Muslims - Muslim Americans<h2 id="post-27642" style="font-size: 20px; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;">Can A Muslim Truly Be An American?</span></span></span></span></h2><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8I8yUU2oUAArxVwZKXyBdUpTEmqU01QZwRoDumHH2WtYR38OBOsCuiiG3qcS5wzWAk_JLcITTK4wX_cBN0j8pw87qIuKWuUrqwaRXcp6MsvkzwRerIOyNW2cmG3LD_k6FjMJkcdW-fxT/s1600/muslim-obama_gi1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8I8yUU2oUAArxVwZKXyBdUpTEmqU01QZwRoDumHH2WtYR38OBOsCuiiG3qcS5wzWAk_JLcITTK4wX_cBN0j8pw87qIuKWuUrqwaRXcp6MsvkzwRerIOyNW2cmG3LD_k6FjMJkcdW-fxT/s320/muslim-obama_gi1.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"></span>There are numerous ways to approach this question. From a legal standpoint, many Muslims are American, having been born in the </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. Many Muslim immigrants are in possession of a </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> passport, an item that ideally would be the only criterion by which one is judged “American.” National identity is only partly informed by formal citizenship, however. In the </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> today, as throughout its history, citizenship is invested with crucial symbolic features. Most of the symbolic features of proper American-ness involve race or religion (wherein, say, Jews or African Americans aren’t seen to be fully American ideologically or, in some cases, legally). Another, often related, feature is political belief: dissent from what politicians and corporate media deem the national interest isn’t traditionally a welcome feature of true American-ness (i.e., the normative American). In turn, the politically-mainstream white Christian is the truest American of all.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Current conceptions of the normative American can best be detected in the recent imbroglio over the “ground-zero mosque,” a histrionic misnomer popularized by right-wing media. The proposed Muslim community center two blocks from the northeastern tip of ground zero, actually called Cordoba House, has created a national frenzy that compels us to reassess the symbolic qualities of citizenship in the </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. By expressing such loud opposition to the community center, a significant portion of Americans has again reinforced a limited definition of American-ness, in this case one that excludes Muslims from the full rights of citizenship.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="more-27642"></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The debate over the community center in the </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> is framed by troublesome assumptions and implications. Most commentators focus on moral questions about the purported insensitivity of constructing a mosque so close to the site of one of </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">’s deepest tragedies. Because Muslims perpetrated 9/11, the reasoning goes, their association with ground zero is absolute and irreparable. Otherwise, the conversation revolves around a rights-based discourse. Supporters of Cordoba House invoke constitutional rights as a reason that the community center ought to exist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It would be useful to look beyond these morals- and rights-based discourses and instead examine the issue from the perspective of belonging and citizenship. If Cordoba House is simply a matter of constitutional rights, then its inability to function (whether by legal or popular decree) merely formalizes the reality that Muslims have constricted access to the rights of American citizenship. If the rights of the Cordoba House planners are upheld but those planners are impelled by widespread outrage to abandon the project, then Muslims are delimited in their moral and ontological rights.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These matters come down to the fact that most Americans (as polling suggests) are unwilling to perceive Muslims as normatively American. The categories of “American” and “Muslim” in the popular imagination are mutually exclusive. The normal privileges of citizenship for Muslim Americans, then, can be circumscribed without abandoning the ideals of democratic belonging. For this reason a cross can be mounted above the </span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oklahoma City</span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> memorial without controversy, even though the bombing of the </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alfred</span></st1:placename><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Murrah</span></st1:placename><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Federal</span></st1:placename><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Building</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> was an act of terrorism carried out by Christians. Unlike Christians, the embodiment of a Messianic America, Muslims can be readily associated with the behavior of extremists, while Christians are freed from the burden of their own fanatical ideologues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even the sporadic defense of Muslim Americans does little to clarify their restricted access to the ideals of citizenship. Trying to allay his readers’ fear of Muslims, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times writes, “My hunch is that the violence in the Islamic world has less to do with the Koran or Islam than with culture, youth bulges in the population, and the marginalization of women. In </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, I know a young woman whose brothers want to kill her for honor—but her family is Christian, not Muslim.” Kristof enters into dangerous territory here by indicating that the very culture of the East is indelibly different than that of his idealized </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. (Kristof is also tendentious: many women in the </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> are murdered by angry husbands or male family members who happen to be Christian without even a mention of culture or religion.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Kristof’s formulation, Muslims can be defended on legal and ideological grounds but nevertheless remain outside the boundaries of normative American-ness. This is made clear when he invokes the seemingly-requisite specter of Osama bin Laden: “Osama abhors the vision of interfaith harmony that the proposed Islamic center represents.” For Kristof, Cordoba House emblematizes only the proverbial “good Muslim”—the pro-American, moderate, assimilated, ecumenical fantasy of xenophobic reactionaries—and he does little to foster the acceptability of Islam itself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Too frequently ignored or overlooked in the great ground zero mosque debate is the attribution of irrational violence to Islam, which effectively subdues acknowledgment of the profound violence perpetrated by the American state (military intervention, police brutality, labor exploitation, torture, legislative racism). The debate is fundamentally incomplete: it begins with the assumption that all Muslims are subsumed in a religious violence that is somehow nonexistent in Christian modernity. Muslim Americans are thus endowed a historical burden that no community could ever possibly overcome.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As to the question of whether a Muslim can ever truly be American, the answer at present is no. The current perceptions of the normative American do not provide space in the national community to the Muslim who does not disavow the forms of Islam invented by his patriotic interrogators. For the Muslim truly to become American, it is not the Muslim who must change, but the restrictive and racialized ideals of American national identity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Religion is an important factor of this racialized American identity: one of the primary arguments in opposition to Cordoba House either proclaims or intimates that white Christianity is the primary basis on which American normativity should be judged. In this schema, even secular logic is inherently religious. It is also a specious logic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If America, in essence if not in law, is in fact a Christian nation, then no crosses should be allowed in Panama, Iraq, Palestine, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Grenada, Lebanon, Haiti, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, East Timor, Somalia, Afghanistan, Mexico, and Japan, for in these places American violence caused extraordinary destruction, and in that destruction all Christians are implicated. Indeed, given the countless atrocities committed against Indigenous peoples directly in the name of Christianity in the so-called New World, it is certainly insensitive to build churches anywhere in the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><em><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This article was originally published at</span></span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span></i></span><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/143/can-a-muslim-truly-be-an-american?"><span style="color: #004477;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">www.jadaliyya.com</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Source : </span><a href="http://pulsemedia.org/2010/09/20/can-a-muslim-truly-be-an-american/#print"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://pulsemedia.org/2010/09/20/can-a-muslim-truly-be-an-american/#print</span></a><o:p></o:p></div></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-16605736476961406122010-09-26T03:28:00.002+05:002010-09-26T03:31:14.283+05:00Terrorism vs Resistance<h2 style="margin-bottom: 5.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 3.75pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Reece Erlich: “Stop using the word ‘terrorist’”</span><o:p></o:p></span></h2><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbj0vBFQcQDnphFH_il_ALNQZj44M6WtekVaQam6TfCMXmuazr0F-ALSVQm1m-8xdfMATE1O6MohBu58LpuH2B-pHzv6QRalW_rohPzLzVAxWIBKF35wD_NxH9znYVhQtTR01BdIgNgP1J/s1600/Conversation+with+Terrorists.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbj0vBFQcQDnphFH_il_ALNQZj44M6WtekVaQam6TfCMXmuazr0F-ALSVQm1m-8xdfMATE1O6MohBu58LpuH2B-pHzv6QRalW_rohPzLzVAxWIBKF35wD_NxH9znYVhQtTR01BdIgNgP1J/s320/Conversation+with+Terrorists.png" width="204" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">Defining what a terrorist is and isn’t is a major dilemma. What one may consider terrorism, another may consider resistance. So where does one draw the line? Reese Erlich tackles that topic in his latest book</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://p3books.com/conversationswithterrorists" target="_hplink"><span style="color: #cc0000;">“Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and empire.”</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">Erlich is a veteran journalist who has covered <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> foreign policy for decades. He has freelanced for National Public Radio, Radio Deutsche Welle, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, and writes for The San Francisco Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">Drawing on firsthand interviews and original research, Erlich argues that yesterday’s terrorist is often today’s national leader and that today’s freedom fighter may become tomorrow’s terrorist. By branding all of American’s opponents as “terrorists,” it makes it more difficult to look beyond the individual or the political group and understand what they are really all about. I caught up with Erlich recently and here’s what he had to say.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span id="more-27793"></span><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">What is your definition of terrorist and what is this term often misconstrued, misused, or inaccurately portrayed in the American mainstream media?</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">In the popular sense, it is anybody who uses violence you don’t like. So therefore al Qaida, Hamas, or Hezbollah are all terrorists whereas the Muhajahdeen fighting the Soviets in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region> and the Contras in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:place></st1:country-region> were freedom fighters. In my view, terrorism is the use of violence against civilians for political ends. Governments, insurgent groups, and individuals can commit terrorism. They are trying to impact political events by using violence against civilians.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #222222;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s use the example of the resistance in World War II. They sometimes blew up Nazi soldiers; sometimes civilians were killed inadvertently. But nobody would call them terrorists today because they were aiming at overthrowing</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the Nazi occupation in </span><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Europe</span></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and were not intentionally trying to kill civilians. I think we should use that same criteria when evaluating any insurgent group.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">You write that government policies can also be acts of terrorism. How do governments commit acts of terrorism and how do you distinguish acts of terrorism versus acting in self-defense or protecting American foreign policy or national security interests?</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">In the book, I wrote that the CIA hired Saudi and Lebanese agents to try and kill Ayatollah Mohammad Fadlallah in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Beirut</st1:city></st1:place> in 1985. They planted a bomb, it went off, and 80-plus people were killed and many more were injured. Fadlallah escaped alive and uninjured, but many civilians died. The agents who did that on behalf of the CIA knew that civilians were going to be killed. So the deaths of many dozens of people was OK in their thinking of they could get one alleged terrorist.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">Israeli officials do the same thing when they drop 500-pound bombs on apartment buildings in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gaza</st1:place></st1:city>. They know that a lot of civilians were going to be killed. They make up stories about phoning people in advance, do Robocalls, and drop leaflets. They know perfectly well that civilians are going to do die but they figure it is worth it. They think if they can get this one Hamas leader, so what if a bunch of Palestinians die? Maybe they won’t support Hamas now. That’s terrorism.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">What is the difference between how the western world views terrorism vs. its adversaries say North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Venezuela, Cuba, etc?</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">I think you have to make a distinction among different people. If you look at the communist countries, historically and today, by and large they don’t engage in terrorism. I wouldn’t say they’ve never engaged in a terrorist act, and they certainly engage in violent acts. According to Marxist theory, you alienate potential supporters by intentionally killing civilians. You should be going after military and political targets.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">So many of the left-wing insurgent groups intentionally target military, corporate, and political leaders in a battle for power. That doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with them. But they are not terrorists.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">If you look at <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>, or <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, on the other hand and depending on the government and the time frame we’re looking at, they sometimes did engage in terrorist tactics. Certainly military and intelligence sources associated with them have engaged in terrorist tactics. The 2008 Mumbai bombing was clearly a terrorist attack. It was designed to intimidate the Indian government by wreaking havoc among civilians and has been linked to the ISI intelligence service in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Some of these <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> allies engage in serious terrorist actions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">What is the difference between resistance and terrorism? How and why do these terms get confused?</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">The <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> government vilifies anybody who takes up arms against the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place> or its allies Everybody automatically becomes a terrorist. Some groups really are attacking civilians, like al Qaida. Others may have used terrorist tactics, but they are seen in their countries as legitimate national liberation groups, such as Columbian Marxist guerrillas (FARC), Hamas, Hezbollah, and the PLO for that matter. All of them have taken up arms and the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> condemns them as terrorists.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">I have very sharp differences with Hezbollah and Hamas. They are, at the core, right-wing fundamentalist Muslim groups that want to come to power in their respective countries. I would never vote for them. But they are not mainly trying to kill civilians in order to seize power. They have certainly used violence and killed Israeli civilians and engaged in terrorist tactics, but they are viewed by their own people as national liberation groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">In the case of Hezbollah, they are seen as the only group that is capable of militarily defending <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> against continued Israeli attacks. They have a lot of support among Lebanese Sunni Muslims, Christians and Druze.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">Hamas won the 2006 elections fair and square in the Palestinian Authority, a little detail the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> likes to forget about. So it does no good to simply vilify them as terrorists. You have to deal with them politically. What do they stand for? Why not sit down and negotiate with them?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">In your book, you meet with individuals that many western foreign leaders/governments consider to be terrorists. For instance, you talk with Hamas leader Khalid Meshal. The </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"> considers Meshal and especially Hamas a terrorist organization. How is Meshal and Hamas misportrayed by American government elites and or the mainstream media?</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">I spend a fair amount of time going into Hamas in the book. It began as a distinctly rightwing fundamentalist group that was tolerated by <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> because Israeli authorities wanted to split the Palestinians at the time, and they saw the PLO as the main danger. But Hamas has evolved and developed a sizeable base of support, as reflected in the elections. But then they faced the problem of “How do you actually govern?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">A lot of their fundamentalist ideology didn’t work because the Palestinians, at their core, are secular. They aren’t interested in a fundamentalist government running them like in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iran</st1:country-region> or <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Saudi Arabia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> at that time should have acknowleged the changes in Hamas. It wasn’t the Hamas of 20 years ago. There could have been some major breakthroughs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">All you have to do is look at the history of the PLO. I remember when Yasser Arafat was the “chief terrorist,” when Israeli leaders called him another “Hitler.” The PLO began advocating a two-state solution in the early 1980s. But the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> and Israeli refused to negotiate the the PLO “terrorists.” Then boom, the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin comes into power and is willing to negotiate. Suddenly, they acknowledge what the PLO had been saying for 10 years. They sat down and negotiated the Oslo Accords. The same thing eventually is going to happen with Hamas.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">Suddenly some Israeli politician is going to make a 180-degree turn and realize that Hamas isn’t the horrible group they have been vilifying, and Hamas is willing to negotiate a two-state solution. Meshal made that clear to me, to former president Jimmy Carter, and numerous other people — contrary to all the propaganda in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Under certain circumstances Hamas would accept a two-state solution and agree to a long-term ceasefire with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Recently,</span></span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></span></b></span><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://is.gd/fpE5C" target="_hplink"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">some militant members of Hamas killed settlers in Hebron.</span></a></span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></span></b></span><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Were those acts of terrorism and how do you respond to that incident? How can we view that incident accurately and appropriately?</span></span></strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">This is where I disagree with Hamas. They see all of these things as acts of resistance. I don’t. I think there is a distinction between waging a guerrilla war against soldiers and political leaders and simply killing people because they are Israelis. Sometimes Hamas makes that distinction and sometimes it doesn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">But what about the argument that the settlers are akin to </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Israel</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">’s reserve army because they are given weapons to use and what not?</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">I’ve been in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Hebron</st1:city></st1:place>. Some of these folks are armed occupiers and are no different from the military. I think that is true. I think if you went to other places like Ariel or other settlements, basically you have secular people who are looking for cheap housing and the Israeli government provides cheap mortgages for expanding suburbs. So I think Hamas should make that distinction.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/08/octavia-nasr-cnn-tweet-fired" target="_hplink"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">CNN anchor Octavia Nasr was recently fired</span></a></span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></span></b></span><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">for expressing sympathy or remorse over the death of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fadlallah. How and or why is he and Hezbollah misportrayed in the American media and based on your experiences what is the truth of Fadlallah and/or Hezbollah?</span></span></strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">In <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Fadlallah was considered a moderate on many issues. In the book I quote Lebanese leader Walid Jumblatt, who has gone to war with Hezbollah at various times. Hesaid Fadllalah was quite moderate in many of his policies. He is not Hezbollah’s spiritual advisor. He never was. He saw himself as a Muslim cleric who was trying to unite Muslims of all different political and religious tendencies. On domestic issues, he was in favor of women’s rights and democracy in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He issued a fatwa against smoking and upheld science against superstition. Nasr was simply reflecting the widespread sentiment in much of the Arab world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">What other examples of terrorism stands out that Americans do not hear about or receive false information? What do Americans need to unlearn when it comes to terrorism and terrorist organizations?</span></span></strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">There is a whole dirty war, basically death squads promoted by the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> around the world. They are called Special Operations. They engage in terrorist tactics. Imagine for a moment that an enemy of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> decided to come into <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> territory with undercover agents, to kidnap, torture, and imprison American citizens that it considered dangerous. Can you imagine the outrage inside the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>? But the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> does that. It was done very widely under George W. Bush, but it continues under Barack Obama. The Obama Administration defends it. Look at the most recent court decision<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/11/exceptionalism/index.html"><span style="color: #004477;">not allowing any court hearing for people who were tortured by the U.S. or sent to countries to be tortured</span></a>. I think that is an important story that needs to be told.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana;">What do people need to unlearn? I think as a practical matter, stop calling people or groups “terrorists.” Just accurately describe what they are doing and what they believe. Then let people decide whether they like them or not. Just stop throwing around the epithet ‘terrorist.’<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Source : <a href="http://pulsemedia.org/2010/09/24/reece-erlich-stop-using-the-word-terrorist/#more-27793">http://pulsemedia.org/2010/09/24/reece-erlich-stop-using-the-word-terrorist/#more-27793</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-63340291389338348032010-09-25T19:30:00.004+05:002010-09-25T19:41:20.500+05:00The Obama Syndrome - Interview with Tariq Ali<h1 style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">"Surrender at Home, War Abroad"</span></span></span></h1><div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwXMoj7lr20pp8u4LW-fmDN1nVhfBIQ2T8HP8uj__IgpxxMbamfmHq-d5MiawIULioP7xdfd1HDBhQsOXzgsR2b-fhVWss5B48q_QcWyOiSK5DkKq_I33uUwM4JfSOisUhnW4PSxShGxx/s1600/Obama+Syndrome+-+Tariq+Ali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwXMoj7lr20pp8u4LW-fmDN1nVhfBIQ2T8HP8uj__IgpxxMbamfmHq-d5MiawIULioP7xdfd1HDBhQsOXzgsR2b-fhVWss5B48q_QcWyOiSK5DkKq_I33uUwM4JfSOisUhnW4PSxShGxx/s400/Obama+Syndrome+-+Tariq+Ali.jpg" width="285" /></a></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">We speak with British Pakistani political commentator, writer, </span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">activist and </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">editor of the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><b>New Left Review</b></span></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><b>Tariq Ali</b></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">He is the author of numerous books; </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">his latest is</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">The Obama Syndrome</span></b>: </span></i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ea9999;">Surrender at Home, War Abroad</span></span></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">.</span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Coming up, Glenn Greenwald joins us, usually in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>, but here he’s in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>. But right now we’re staying with Tariq Ali. He has a new book out; it’s called<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad</i>. Some might say that’s a little harsh.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">I know some of his supporters might feel it’s a little harsh, but I think that we’ve had two years of him now, Amy, and the contours of this administration are now visible. And essentially, it is a conservative administration which has changed the mood music. So the talk is better. The images of the administration are better, the reasonable looks. But in terms of what they do—in foreign policy, we’ve seen a continuation of the Bush-Cheney policies, and worse, in AfPak, as they call it, and at home, we’ve seen a total capitulation to the lobbyists, to the corporations. The fact that the healthcare bill was actually drafted by someone who used to be an insurance lobbyist says it all.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">So, it’s essentially now a PR operation to get him reelected. But I don’t think people are that dumb. I’ve been speaking to some of his, you know, partisan supporters, and they’re disappointed. So the big problem for Obama is that if you do nothing and promise that you would bring about some changes, you will not have people coming out to vote for you again. And building up the tea party into this great bogey isn’t going to work. It’s your own supporters you have to convince to come out and vote for you, as they did before. I can’t see that happening.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">The cover of your book,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad</i>, is a picture of the face, the head of President Obama, and half of it is peeled away to reveal President Bush.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Well, this, you know, I think, is a sort of very brilliant West Coast montage artist, and they are the best. Whenever there’s a crisis, they come up with an image which says it all. And I like that image a lot, and I used it very deliberately to show the continuation, that it’s not a case that we have a new administration. We do, technically, but it’s continuing with many of the old policies in the—how it deals with the economy. When you have people like Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, occasionally Frank Rich in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>New York Times</i>, Maureen Dowd, these people who were desperate for a Democrat administration being incredibly critical of some of its things, when you have venerable professors like Gary Wells saying, "I’m disappointed," the honeymoon didn’t last long with Obama. It lasted much, much longer with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Clinton</st1:place></st1:city>. And one reason for that is that he had raised hopes and was unable to deliver. He turned out to be an apparatchik and a political operator from one of the worst Democrat areas in the country, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>, and that’s what he behaves like.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjpA6kVi3m1KGkYcqxR1CEYOaOWX0vacaeARKT1Snpkh-cVpEyjGfA8kQ1cU6McYFMS46OWio5gFvkZeykmXr4p3lNV2sdNhkczRKOfpjaS_80jllwWDuRRRb5bi27EKkccyBiG7Qopi3/s1600/tariq_ali_140x140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjpA6kVi3m1KGkYcqxR1CEYOaOWX0vacaeARKT1Snpkh-cVpEyjGfA8kQ1cU6McYFMS46OWio5gFvkZeykmXr4p3lNV2sdNhkczRKOfpjaS_80jllwWDuRRRb5bi27EKkccyBiG7Qopi3/s200/tariq_ali_140x140.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Robert Gibbs, the White House press spokesperson, going after the so-called "professional left"? Your thoughts?</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Well, I mean, it’s interesting that they are incapable of dealing with the right. With the right, it’s conciliation. That’s what they feel they have to appeal to. With critics from the left, they tend to be very harsh, as if they are saying to us, "You don’t know how lucky you are." But why are we lucky? I mean, you know, we judge people not by how they look or what they say, but by what they do. And what Obama has been doing is, you know, to put it mildly, extremely disappointing at home, and abroad it’s murderous. On <st1:city w:st="on">Palestine</st1:city>, on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region>, no changes at all. So, one has to spell this out, because if they don’t realize that they’re doing this, they’re going to get more shocks. And Rahm Emanuel refers to people on the liberal left who are critical of Obama, and he uses a bad swear word and then says, "effing retards"—well, we’ll see who the retards are after the midterms, Amy. That’s all I can say.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Surrender at Home, War Abroad</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">You were born in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. You ultimately went to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>, where we just came from last night. It’s been interesting to see the politics there, but also the devastation of the war, the effects of the wars, on the population at home in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>. A report in the paper the other day, when we were in London, saying that 20,000 veterans are in prison, mainly Iraq, Afghanistan war veterans, for committing violent and sexual crimes. But what about the war abroad and what President Obama is doing—says he’s scaling back Iraq, still about 50,000—actually, well more than that—military, and you could say paramilitaries with a mercenary armies there, and in Afghanistan, the surge?</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Well, I mean, again, let’s look at it concretely. Bush had promised exactly the same withdrawal pattern from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>: by this time, we will be out. Obama has followed it. They’re not going out. What is essentially happening, they’re reducing the presence of combat troops and eliminating it in the big cities, and building six huge military bases all over Iraq, in which they’ll keep between fifty and sixty thousand soldiers, ready to act when the need be—just like the British did when they occupied Iraq in the '20s and ’30s of the last century. And the British were then driven out by a violent upheaval and revolution in the ’50s. So the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> is keeping these bases in, (a) to control <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>, and (b) as a warning to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region>. And I think there's going to be trouble.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">The war isn’t over at all. We’ve seen, just a few days ago, huge explosions in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Baghdad</st1:place></st1:city> and Fallujah. It’s a total disaster and a mess. And to present that as somehow "mission accomplished part two" is a joke. That country has been wrecked, a million Iraqis dead, its social infrastructure destroyed. And in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, they are now going from bad to worse. They know, and General Eikenberry knows and says, we cannot win this war militarily. They can’t lose it, but they can’t win it, either. So, political solution is the only way out, and that means that they have to have an exit strategy. Obama isn’t even talking about that, because that might be construed as a sign of weakness. But by who? The army knows what’s going on. They can’t stay there forever.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">It was quite astounding, with the tremendous attention on Terry Jones threatening to burn a Quran, a horrific symbol all over the world, as it would be for any religious book, but at the same time, what was coming out of Afghanistan, a report of a kill team—this is a US kill team—who was taking souvenirs of fingers and other body parts, that getting very little attention in terms of what it means for not just the Muslim community, but for people all over the world.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">But, you know, Amy, some of us who are sort of elderly now remember exactly the same things happening in Vietnam during that war, where there were lots of report—in those days publicized much more, I have to say—of US soldiers in Vietnam taking trophies, which were parts of bodies of Vietnamese dead or who they had killed or tortured to death.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">And just this report we read today, Michael Ware, well known face on CNN, constantly on talking about <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>—<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Exactly.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">—saying when he had this footage of a <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> soldier killing an Iraqi teen, they did not allow him to run that footage. And CNN owns it, so he can’t get it.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">It’s a disgrace that CNN did that, but that is a sign of how the global media corporations have been reporting the wars in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Self-censorship has been the order of the day. They haven’t wanted to offend the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> military, in sharp contrast to how the Vietnam War was covered. I remember Morley Safer on CBS News reporting a family’s home being destroyed by US Marines and Safer commenting, "We’re fighting for freedom." That sort of stuff is not permitted now. The global corporations don’t do it, which is why programs like this are important. But now that if he can’t even use the footage that he took, what is that? I mean, how people in that part of the world know exactly what’s going, and it’s not the Quran burnings that upset them so much—but they do, too—but what is happening to their daily lives with the US and NATO presence. That is what upsets them, and that is the root of the problem.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">You know, we were just in London and saw a production that’s based on Howard Zinn’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>A People’s History of the United States</i>, but it’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The People Speak</i>. It’ll air on History Channel UK on October 31st, a remarkable production of British people’s history. And one of the people who is portrayed there was you, talking about "Blair-faced liars." But you have a long history of decades of organizing around global politics in Britain. What about solutions right now? I mean, you have this One World March that’s going to be taking place on October 2nd in Washington, DC, based on jobs, justice and education. What about the kind of organizing that you feel is the most effective? People say, well, what should Obama do? What should Obama do? He is one person, albeit occupies the most powerful position on earth. But isn’t it really about movements, pressuring these individuals? That’s what makes history.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">I agree with you entirely. And I remember saying to lots of activists in the United States during the Obama election campaign—you know, people mobilized by MoveOn.org, etc.—and I would say to them, "Fine. You’re campaigning for Obama. You want him elected. OK, good. Let’s hope he delivers what you hope he’s going to deliver. But he’s not going to deliver even that if you just elect him and go back home." And I remember arguing for a massive antiwar gathering for the inauguration, which would pressure right from day one on the new administration, saying, "Congrats, Barack. Now out of Baghdad and Iraq. Out of Kabul and Afghanistan," from the word go. Without that, politicians don’t do anything. We wouldn’t have won any democratic rights, unless people had fought for them. The right of women to vote would never have been got, unless there’d been suffragettes fighting for it. So, that is the lesson, I’m afraid. And, you know, when people tell me in this country, "Oh, but there’s pressure from these kooks on the right, the tea party and this and that," I said, "Obama boasts, and his office boasts, that they have 13 million supporters online. Well, what the hell are they doing with them? I mean, why couldn’t they mobilize even a tiny proportion of these to come out and give them support?" They don’t do that. So, someone has to do it.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Or they’re there and the media doesn’t cover them. When you had one of the tea party rallies in Washington—I believe it was right on the anniversary of the war—there were about 500 members of the tea party there. There were thousands of people protesting the war. It got almost no coverage, certainly not equal to what happened with the tea party.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">TARIQ ALI:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Exactly. So the exaggerated threat of the tea party is played up by the right-wing media, Fox and many others, because they see it as a useful way to hammer the administration. But the administration’s inability to take them on in terms of arguments, that is what’s worrying, Amy.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">AMY GOODMAN:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">Well, Tariq Ali, I want to thank you for being with us. We’re going to talk about the tea party with Glenn Greenwald. Tariq Ali,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is the name of his new book.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>Source : <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/21/tariq_ali_on_the_obama_syndrome">http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/21/tariq_ali_on_the_obama_syndrome</a><o:p></o:p></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-4478055312709332882010-09-25T19:11:00.000+05:002010-09-25T19:11:23.156+05:00WESTERN SOCIETY<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">The Collapse of Western Morality</span></b></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">By Paul Craig Roberts</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">September 23, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Yes, I know, as many readers will be quick to inform me, the West never had any morality. Nevertheless things have gotten worse.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">In hopes that I will be permitted to make a point, permit me to acknowledge that the US dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities, fire-bombed Tokyo, that Great Britain and the US fire-bombed Dresden and a number of other German cities, expending more destructive force, according to some historians, against the civilian German population than against the German armies, that President Grant and his Civil War war criminals, Generals Sherman and Sheridan, committed genocide against the Plains Indians, that the US today enables Israel’s genocidal policies against the Palestinians, policies that one Israeli official has compared to 19th century US genocidal policies against the American Indians, that the US in the new 21st century invaded Iraq and Afghanistan on contrived pretenses, murdering countless numbers of civilians, and that British prime minister Tony Blair lent the British army to his American masters, as did other NATO countries, all of whom find themselves committing war crimes under the Nuremberg standard in lands in which they have no national interests, but for which they receive an American pay check.</span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">I don’t mean these few examples to be exhaustive. I know the list goes on and on. Still, despite the long list of horrors, moral degradation is reaching new lows. The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> now routinely tortures prisoners, despite its strict illegality under US and international law, and a recent poll shows that the percentage of Americans who approve of torture is rising. Indeed, it is quite high, though still just below a majority.</span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">And we have what appears to be a new thrill: American soldiers using the cover of war to murder civilians. Recently American troops were arrested for murdering Afghan civilians for fun and collecting trophies such as fingers and skulls.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">This revelation came on the heels of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s alleged leak of a US Army video of US soldiers in helicopters and their controllers thousands of miles away having fun with joy sticks murdering members of the press and Afghan civilians. Manning is cursed with a moral conscience that has been discarded by his government and his military, and Manning has been arrested for obeying the law and reporting a war crime to the American people.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="apple-style-span">US</span></st1:country-region><span class="apple-style-span"> Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, of course, from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Michigan</st1:place></st1:state>, who is on the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, has called for Manning’s execution. According to US Rep. Rogers it is an act of treason to report an American war crime.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">In other words, to obey the law constitutes “treason to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.”</span><br />
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<st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="apple-style-span">US</span></st1:country-region><span class="apple-style-span"> Rep. Rogers said that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s wars are being undermined by “a culture of disclosure” and that this “serious and growing problem” could only be stopped by the execution of Manning.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">If Rep. Rogers is representative of <st1:state w:st="on">Michigan</st1:state>, then <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Michigan</st1:place></st1:state> is a state that we don’t need.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> government, a font of imperial hubris, does not believe that any act it commits, no matter how vile, can possibly be a war crime. One million dead Iraqis, a ruined country, and four million displaced Iraqis are all justified, because the “threatened” US Superpower had to protect itself from nonexistent weapons of mass destruction that the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> government knew for a fact were not in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and could not have been a threat to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> if they were in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">When other countries attempt to enforce the international laws that the Americans established in order to execute Germans defeated in World War II, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> government goes to work and blocks the attempt. A year ago on October 8, the Spanish Senate, obeying its American master, limited Spain’s laws of universal jurisdiction in order to sink a legitimate war crimes case brought against George W. Bush, Barack H. Obama, Tony Blair,and Gordon Brown.</span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">The West includes <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and there the horror stories are 60 years long. Moreover, if you mention any of them you are declared to be an anti-semite. I only mention them in order to prove that I am not anti-American, anti-British, and anti-NATO, but am simply against war crimes. It was the distinguished Zionist Jewish Judge, Goldstone, who produced the UN report indicating that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> committed war crimes when it attacked the civilian population and civilian infrastructure of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gaza</st1:place></st1:city>. For his efforts, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> declared the Zionist Goldstone to be “a self-hating Jew,” and the US Congress, on instruction from the Israel Lobby, voted to disregard the Goldstone Report to the UN.</span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">As the Israeli official said, we are only doing to the Palestinians what the Americans did to the American Indians.</span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">The Israeli army uses female soldiers to sit before video screens and to fire by remote control machine guns from towers to murder Palestinians who come to tend their fields within 1500 meters of the enclosed perimeter of Ghetto Gaza. There is no indication that these Israeli women are bothered by gunning down young children and old people who come to tend to their fields.</span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">If the crimes were limited to war and the theft of lands, perhaps we could say it is a case of jingoism sidetracking traditional morality, otherwise still in effect.</span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">Alas, the collapse of morality is too widespread. Some sports teams now have a win-at-all-cost attitude that involves plans to injure the star players of the opposing teams. To avoid all these controversies, let’s go to Formula One racing where 200 mph speeds are routine.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<span class="apple-style-span">Prior to 1988, 22 years ago, track deaths were due to driver error, car failure, and poorly designed tracks compromised with safety hazards. World Champion Jackie Stewart did much to improve the safety of tracks, both for drivers and spectators. But in 1988 everything changed. Top driver Ayrton Senna nudged another top driver Alain Prost toward a pit wall at 190 mph. According to AutoWeek (August 30, 2010), nothing like this had been seen before. “Officials did not punish Senna’s move that day in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Portugal</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and so a significant shift in racing began.” What the great racing driver Stirling Moss called “dirty driving” became the norm.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Nigel Roebuck in AutoWeek reports that in 1996 World Champion Damon Hill said that Senna’s win-at-all-cost tactic “was responsible for fundamental change in the ethics of the sport.” Drivers began using “terrorist tactics on the track.” Damon Hill said that “the views that I’d gleaned from being around my dad [twice world champion Graham Hill] and people like him, I soon had to abandon,” because you realized that no penalty was forthcoming against the guy who tried to kill you in order that he could win.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">When asked about the ethics of modern Formula One racing, American World Champion Phil Hill said: “Doing that sort of stuff in my day was just unthinkable. For one thing, we believed certain tactics were unacceptable.”</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">In today’s Western moral climate, driving another talented driver into the wall at 200 mph is just part of winning. Michael Schumacher, born in January 1969, is a seven times World Champion, an unequaled record. On August 1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, AutoWeek Reports that Schumacher tried to drive his former Ferrari teammate, Rubens Barrichello, into the wall at 200 mph speeds.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Confronted with his attempted act of murder, Schumacher said: “This is Formula One. Everyone knows I don’t give presents.”</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Neither does the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> government, nor state and local governments, nor the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> government, nor the EU.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">The deformation of the police, which many Americans, in their untutored existence as naive believers in “law and order,” still think are “on their side,” has taken on new dimensions with the police militarized to fight “terrorists” and “domestic extremists.”</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">The police have been off the leash since the civilian police boards were nixed by the conservatives. Kids as young as 6 years old have been handcuffed and carted off to jail for school infractions that may or may not have occurred. So have moms with a car full of children (see, for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AaSLERx0VM ).</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Anyone who googles videos of US police gratuitous brutality will call up tens of thousands of examples, and this is after laws that make filming police brutality a felony. A year or two ago such a search would call up hundreds of thousands of videos.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">In one of the most recent of the numerous daily acts of gratuitous police abuse of citizens, an 84-year-old man had his neck broken because he objected to a night time</span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span">towing of his car. The goon cop body-slammed the 84-year old and broke his neck. The Orlando, Florida, police department says that the old man was a “threat” to the well-armed much younger police goon, because the old man clenched his fist.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Americans will be the first people sent straight to Hell while thinking that they are the salt of the earth. The Americans have even devised a title for themselves to rival that of the Israelis’ self-designation as “God’s Chosen People.” The Americans call themselves “the indispensable people.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;">Source : </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/index.php?event=link,150&values%5b0%5d=&values%5b1%5d=9177">http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/index.php?event=link,150&values[0]=&values[1]=9177</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-60778803726053281662010-09-25T19:00:00.000+05:002010-09-25T19:00:26.568+05:00The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations<h3 style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Authors : </span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/bios/13611/jayshree_bajoria.html"><b><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jayshree Bajoria</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, Staff Writer</span></span></h3><div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Updated: July 26, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #411c0d; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><ol><li><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html#p1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ntroduction</span></span></b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html#p2" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: inside; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Supporting Terrorism?</span></span></b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html#p3" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: inside; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Control over the ISI</span></span></b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html#p4" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: inside; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Resistance in FATA</span></span></b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html#p5" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: inside; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mixed Record on Counterterrorism</span></span></b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html#p6" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: inside; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Taliban as a Strategic Asset</span></span></b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html#p7" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: inside; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Allegations of Terrorist Attacks</span></span></b></a></li>
</ol></span><ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1"></ol><h5 style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffd966;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Introduction</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h5><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has long faced accusations of meddling in the affairs of its neighbors. A range of officials inside and outside </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> have stepped up suggestions of links between the ISI and terrorist groups in recent years. In autumn 2006, a</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/5388426.stm" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">leaked report</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">by a British Defense Ministry think tank charged, "Indirectly Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism-whether in </span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">London</span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> on 7/7 [the July 2005 attacks on </span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">London</span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'s transit system], or in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, or </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">." In June 2008, Afghan officials accused </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'s intelligence service of plotting a failed assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai; shortly thereafter, they implied the ISI's involvement in a July 2008 attack on the Indian embassy. Indian officials also blamed the ISI for the bombing of the Indian embassy. Pakistani officials have denied such a connection.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Numerous </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">U.S.</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> officials have also accused the ISI of supporting terrorist groups, even as the Pakistani government seeks increased aid from </span><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Washington</span></st1:place></st1:state><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> with assurances of fighting militants. In a May 2009 </span><a href="http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003119703" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">interview with CBS'</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><em><span style="color: #411c0d; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">60 Minutes</span></span></em></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "to a certain extent, they play both sides." Gates and others suggest the ISI maintains links with groups like the Afghan Taliban as a "strategic hedge" to help </span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Islamabad</span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> gain influence in </span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Kabul</span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> once </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> troops exit the region. These allegations surfaced yet again in July 2010 when</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26isi.html" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">WikiLeaks.org made public (</span></span><em><span style="color: #411c0d; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">NYT</span></span></em><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">)</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a trove of </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">U.S.</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> intelligence records on the war in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. The documents described ISI's links to militant groups fighting </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">U.S.</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and international forces in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'s government has repeatedly denied allegations of supporting terrorism, citing as evidence its cooperation in the U.S.-led battle against extremists in which it has taken significant losses both politically and on the battlefield.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><h5 style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="" name="p2" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffd966;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Supporting Terrorism?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h5><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"The ISI probably would not define what they've done in the past as 'terrorism,'" says</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=sf.profile&person_id=17852" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">William Milam</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, former </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">U.S.</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> ambassador to </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. Nevertheless, experts say the ISI has supported a</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/9135/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">number of militant groups in the disputed Kashmir region</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">between </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, some of which are on the U.S. State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/19269/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">list</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. While </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> has a formidable military presence near the Indian border, some experts believe the relationship between the military and some Kashmiri groups has greatly changed with the rise of militancy within </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.shujanawaz.com/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Shuja Nawaz</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, author of</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Crossed Swords: </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, its Army, and the Wars Within,</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">says the ISI "has certainly lost control" of Kashmiri militant groups. According to Nawaz, some of the groups trained by the ISI to fuel insurgency in Kashmir have been implicated in bombings and attacks within </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, therefore making them army targets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"></span>On </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'s western border with </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, the</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.fas.org/irp/world/pakistan/isi/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ISI supported the Taliban</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">up to September 11, 2001, though Pakistani officials deny any current support for the group. [</span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'s government was also one of three countries, along with the </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">United Arab Emirates</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Saudi Arabia</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, that recognized the Taliban government in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">]. The ISI's first major involvement in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> came after the Soviet invasion in 1979, when it partnered with the CIA to provide weapons, money, intelligence, and training to the mujahadeen fighting the Red Army. At the time, some voices within the </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> questioned the degree to which Pakistani intelligence favored extremist and anti-American fighters. Following the Soviet withdrawal, the ISI continued its involvement in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, first supporting resistance fighters opposed to </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Moscow</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'s puppet government, and later the Taliban.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> stands accused of allowing that support to continue. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly said </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> trains militants and sends them across the border. In May 2006, the</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1778443,00.html" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">British chief of staff for southern Afghanistan told the</span></span><em><span style="color: #411c0d; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Guardian</span></span></em></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, "The thinking piece of the Taliban is out of </span><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Quetta</span></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> in </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. It's the major headquarters." Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in September 2006,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11540/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">then President Pervez Musharraf responded</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to such accusations, saying, "It is the most ridiculous thought that the Taliban headquarters can be in </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Quetta</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">." Nevertheless, experts generally suspect </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> still provides some support to the Taliban, though probably not to the extent it did in the past. "If they're giving them support, it's access back and forth [to </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">] and the ability to find safe haven," says</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.kathygannon.net/html/__about_kathy_gannon.html" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Kathy Gannon</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">who covered the region for decades for the Associated Press. Gannon adds that the Afghan Taliban need </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> even less as a safe haven now "because they have gained control of more territory inside </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Many in the Pakistani government, including slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, have called the intelligence agency "</span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/14041/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a state within a state</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">," working beyond the government's control and pursuing its own foreign policy. But Nawaz says the intelligence agency does not function independently. "It aligns itself to the power center," and does what the government or the army asks it to do, says Nawaz.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><h5 style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="" name="p3" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffd966;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Control over the ISI</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h5><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Constitutionally, the agency is accountable to the prime minister, says</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/850/hassan_abbas.html" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hassan Abbas</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. But most officers in the ISI are from the army, so that is where their loyalties and interests lie, he says. Experts say until the end of 2007, as army chief and president, Musharraf exercised firm control over the intelligence agency. But experts say it is not clear how much control Pakistan's civilian government--led by Bhutto's widower, President Asif Ali Zardari--has over the agency. In July 2008, the Pakistani government announced the ISI will be brought under the control of the interior ministry, but</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7528592.stm" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">revoked its decision (BBC)</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">within hours. Bruce Riedel, an expert on South Asia at the Brookings Institution, says the civilian leadership has</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brookings.edu%2F~%2Fmedia%2FFiles%2Fevents%2F2008%2F0806_foreign_policy%2F20080806_fpchallenges.pdf" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"virtually no control" (PDF)</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">over the army and the ISI. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In September 2008, army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani replaced the ISI chief picked by former President Musharraf with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Some experts say the move signals that Kiyani is consolidating his control over the intelligence agency by appointing his man at the top. In November 2008, the government disbanded ISI's political wing, which politicians say was responsible for interfering in domestic politics. Some experts saw it as a move by the army, which faced much criticism when Musharraf was at the helm, to distance itself from politics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"I do not accept the thesis that the ISI is a rogue organization," Milam says. "It's a disciplined army unit that does what it's told, though it may push the envelope sometimes." With a reported staff of ten thousand, ISI is hardly monolithic: "Like in any secret service, there are rogue elements," says</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&expert_id=275&prog=zgp&proj=zsa" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Frederic Grare</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, a South Asia expert and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He points out that many of the ISI's agents have ethnic and cultural ties to Afghan insurgents, and naturally sympathize with them.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.mideasti.org/about/experts.php#58" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Marvin G. Weinbaum</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, an expert on Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Middle East Institute, says Pakistan has sent "retired" ISI agents on missions the government could not officially endorse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><h5 style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="" name="p4" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffd966;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Resistance in FATA</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h5><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan's</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/13518/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">tribal areas</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">along the Afghan border have emerged as</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/15422/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">safe havens</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for terrorists. Experts say because of their links to the Taliban and other militant groups, the ISI has some influence in the region. But with the mushrooming of armed groups in the tribal agencies, it is hard to say which ones the agency controls. Also, there appears to be divisions within the ISI. While some within the intelligence agency continue to sympathize with the militant groups, Harvard's Abbas says others realize they cannot follow a policy contradictory to that of the army, which is directly involved in counterterrorism operations in the area.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"></span>Pasha, former head of military operations in charge of offensives against militants in the tribal areas, was appointed as the ISI chief in September 2008 amid growing U.S. and international pressure on Pakistan to combat terrorism. It was not immediately clear whether his appointment would lead to policy changes in the spy agency.<o:p></o:p></span></div><h5 style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="" name="p5" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffd966;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mixed Record on Counterterrorism</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h5><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan has arrested scores of al-Qaeda affiliates, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The ISI and the Pakistani military have worked effectively with the United States to pursue the remnants of al-Qaeda. Following 9/11, Pakistan also stationed eighty thousand troops in the troubled province of Waziristan near the Afghan border. Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers died there in resulting clashes with militants, which, as</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11540/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Musharraf told a CFR meeting</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in September 2006, "broke the al-Qaeda network's back in Pakistan."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But Musharraf did crack down on terrorist groups selectively, as this</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/16644/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Backgrounder</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">points out. Weinbaum in 2006 said the Pakistani military has largely ignored Taliban fighters on its soil. "There are extremist groups that are beyond the pale with which the ISI has no influence at all," he says. "Those are the ones they go after." In 2008, Ashley J. Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twq.com%2F08spring%2Fdocs%2F08spring_tellis.pdf" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">wrote (PDF)</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Washington Quarterly</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that Musharraf tightened pressure on groups whose objectives were out of sync with the military's perception of Pakistan's national interest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><h5 style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="" name="p6" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffd966;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Taliban as a Strategic Asset</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h5><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pakistan does not enjoy good relations with the current leadership of Afghanistan, partly because of rhetorical clashes with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and partly because Karzai has forged strong ties with India. But there have been increased efforts by the United States to close this gap. The Obama administration's</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/18959/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">regional strategy</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">unveiled in March 2009 focused on creating new diplomatic mechanisms; a trilateral summit of the leaders of the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan has been one such step toward helping reduce the level of distrust that runs among all three countries. But lingering suspicions about ISI's support for the Taliban continue to pose problems. In an October 2006</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15046615/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">interview</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, Musharraf said some retired ISI operatives could be abetting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, but he denied any active links. Zardari too, denies any ISI links with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. In a May 2009</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0905/09/sitroom.01.html" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">interview with CNN</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, he remarked all intelligence agencies have their sources in militant organizations but that does not translate to support. "Does that mean CIA has direct links with al-Qaeda? No, they have their sources. We have our sources. Everybody has sources."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Some experts say Pakistan wants to see a stable, friendlier government emerge in Afghanistan. Though the insurgency certainly doesn't serve this goal, increased Taliban influence, especially in the government, might. Supporting the Taliban also allows Pakistan to hedge its bets should the NATO coalition pull out of Afghanistan. In a February 2008</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/15424/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">interview</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">with CFR.org, Tellis said the Pakistani intelligence services continue to support the Taliban because they see the Taliban leadership "as a strategic asset," a reliable back-up force in case things go sour in Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Not everyone agrees with this analysis. According to Weinbaum, Pakistan has two policies. One is an official policy of promoting stability in Afghanistan; the other is an unofficial policy of supporting jihadis in order to appease political forces within Pakistan. "The second [policy] undermines the first one," he says. Nawaz says there is ambivalence within the army regarding support for the Taliban. "They'd rather not deal with the Afghan Taliban as an adversary," he says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><h5 style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="" name="p7" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffd966;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Allegations of Terrorist Attacks</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h5><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Indian officials implicated the ISI for the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly two hundred people. India's foreign ministry said the</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/world/asia/06briefs-OFFICIALACCU_BRF.html" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ISI had links (Reuters)</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to the planners of the attacks, the banned militant group</span><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/17882/" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lashkar-e-Taiba</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, which New Delhi blames for the assault. Islamabad denies allegations of any official involvement, but acknowledged in February 2009 that the attack was</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,491364,00.html" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #411c0d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">launched and partly planned (AP)</span></span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from Pakistan. The Pakistani government has also detained several Islamist leaders, some of them named by India as planners of the Mumbai assault.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Gannon says this is an unusual step by Pakistan which never got enough credit in India because the country was in the middle of a national election. "I don't see any evidence" to believe that the ISI was behind the Mumbai attack, she says. However, she doubts the agency has severed all its ties with groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba which it supported to fight in Indian-administered Kashmir.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Indian officials also claim to have evidence that the ISI planned the July 2006 bombing of the Mumbai commuter trains, but these charges seem unlikely to some observers of the long, difficult India-Pakistan relationship. The two nations have a history of finger-pointing, and while some of the allegations hold water, there is a tendency to exaggerate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Following the release of the British report regarding its July 7, 2005 bombings of London's mass transit system--which London insists is not a statement of policy--Weinbaum said it makes "too broad a statement." Though Pakistan does offer safe haven to Kashmiri groups, and perhaps some Taliban fighters, the suggestion that the ISI is responsible for the 7/7 bombings is "a real stretch," Gannon says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: top;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"></span>Source : </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/isi_and_terrorism.html</span></a><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-88767560229667670962010-09-25T18:40:00.000+05:002010-09-25T18:40:38.451+05:00BRITISH MUSLIMS - Racial Profiling<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fears of racial profiling after rise in number of British Muslims held by border officials</span></b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">'They asked me where Bin Laden was, then they took my DNA'</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2cFaBTKr8z85BKWSYH4Bm2eQPeopiz-WH7R946FAOGuuXR47WJukmpiMZ2a7KOS8_mWU9jeKqcqf8U6cS8J1OtST4dLrVXyyQBXiltdmyq5RROs0pHxr8JS80vEK8frho1lKuANMVP8R/s1600/British+Muslims++-++01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2cFaBTKr8z85BKWSYH4Bm2eQPeopiz-WH7R946FAOGuuXR47WJukmpiMZ2a7KOS8_mWU9jeKqcqf8U6cS8J1OtST4dLrVXyyQBXiltdmyq5RROs0pHxr8JS80vEK8frho1lKuANMVP8R/s200/British+Muslims++-++01.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivJNqNCb1ok4qmqo1evibv3R6oeFVQ7YVQRnjXHqp4AQ2pSB51qQ7PY8Q5monsWuKs-vh4A8WZlSgm77CmDYZPNYDgg3Qq3JWmrzCKN3nNnEAB40tsnvmS01IITV75plDBwy0BhhS5tAfr/s1600/British+Muslimz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivJNqNCb1ok4qmqo1evibv3R6oeFVQ7YVQRnjXHqp4AQ2pSB51qQ7PY8Q5monsWuKs-vh4A8WZlSgm77CmDYZPNYDgg3Qq3JWmrzCKN3nNnEAB40tsnvmS01IITV75plDBwy0BhhS5tAfr/s200/British+Muslimz.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">By Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Tuesday, 21 September 2010</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Hundreds of British Muslims leaving and returning from holidays abroad face harassment and intimidation by security forces when they pass through UK airports and seaports, an investigation by The Independent has found.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">One man interrogated by police over his British credentials was asked whether he watched Dad's Army, while another was questioned over the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">New figures seen by this newspaper show that the number of innocent people stopped and questioned at airports and other points of entry to the UK has doubled in the last four years, raising serious concerns about racial profiling. Many British Muslims have cancelled future vacations rather than risk being questioned and held for up to nine hours by anti-terrorist officers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Related articles</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">•More UK News</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Search the news archive for more stories</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Senior Muslim police officers are also understood to be concerned about the overuse of the special powers granted under the Terrorism Act 2000. The frequent searches at ports and borders have been criticised by Lord Carlile QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who argues that the number of cases can be "reduced in number without risk to national security".</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Earlier this year the Home Secretary, Theresa May, scaled back section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which gives police officers the power to stop and search members of the public without any reasonable suspicion. But under Schedule 7 of the same legislation, police officers have greater powers to stop and detain travellers leaving and entering Britain, including taking samples of their DNA.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Figures obtained by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) under the Freedom of Information Act show that the number of people stopped and questioned has risen from 1,190 in 2004 to 2,473 in 2008. The most recent numbers of Schedule 7 cases of stopping, questioning and searching last year show that, between January and September, police and Special Branch officers carried out 1,773 operations.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">In the last five years 1,110 people were held and questioned by the police for up to nine hours. And despite a total of 10,400 "stops" carried out over the same period, only 99 people have been arrested. Of these, 48 were charged with terrorist or terrorist-related offences.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Mohamed Nur, 26, was stopped at Heathrow airport in June after returning from a holiday in Dubai. He was held for nine hours and forced to give DNA samples and fingerprints. During the questioning, one of the police officers asked about his British credentials. "He asked me 'Do you consider yourself to be English?' I said I consider myself to be British, rather than just English," Mr Nur said.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">"He said 'How do you consider yourself to be British when you have no historical links with Britain? It's like me going to Somalia and living there and people still not considering me to be Somali because of the way I look.'</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">"I said 'I've lived most of my life in Britain so that's why I'm British'. Then he asked me about Dad's Army, and whether I watched it or not. I said 'Yes'. He said 'Do you find it funny?' and I said 'Yes'. Then he said 'I consider you British'."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Mr Nur's complaint is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Asif Ahmed, 28, a property developer from Renfrew in Scotland, was stopped at Edinburgh airport as he returned from Stansted airport with his wife. The couple were collecting their bags when two plain-clothed officers approached them. They were taken to an interrogation room, separated and questioned for more than an hour. During the questioning Mr Ahmed claimed: "I was asked if I knew where [Osama] bin Laden was."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Zin Derfoufi, civil liberties officer for FOSIS, told The Independent: "Schedule 7 is the most wide ranging 'stop' power in the UK but it is also the least transparent. This new information will not only assist the public's understanding of how this power is being used but, significantly, 10 years after it was first introduced, it is also the very first step in empowering us all to be able to monitor its use and to hold the police to account."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">A Home Office spokesperson said: "Stopping people at airports is, on occasion, a necessary activity to protect public safety. These figures cover from 2004 to 2009. No figures are kept on ethnicity of individuals who are stopped and it is therefore not possible to conclude if any particular group is targeted unfairly."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Adil Hussain, 26: Detained and quizzed on beliefs for six hours</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">The PhD computer student at Imperial College London was stopped by police at Dover in April this year at the start of his walking holiday in the Alps.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Although Mr Hussain and his companions protested that they were simply spending the weekend on a short break, anti-terrorist officers told them that some of the terrorists who attacked Britain were also well educated and enjoyed hill walking.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">They were held for six hours, during which time they were searched and had their phones confiscated. At first the group believed their detention would last no longer than a few minutes.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Mr Hussain said: "Half an hour or so passes and one of the officers comes by for me to sign a paper outlining my rights and declaring that I have been held under the Anti-Terrorism Act. I am asked whether I would like anything to drink or eat – they have halal food. It turns out to be lamb curry and I think they must have a lot of Muslim visitors. They even have a prayer mat. I am reminded that I do not have the right to remain silent – if I refuse to answer any questions I could be arrested. "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">For the next six hours the men were separately interrogated about their interest in Islam, their friends in the UK and their views on British and American troops in Afghanistan. Finally they were released, but all their electronic equipment was confiscated.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Mr Hussain added: "My being singled out randomly for a 'pat down' and for my car to be inspected for dangerous materials is understandable – all of this delaying me an hour or so.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">"However, I find it wholly unacceptable to be held a further five hours late into the night simply for the officers to profile me, questioning my religious and political views and threatening to charge me for refusing to answer any questions. I find this outrageous and do not see why I have to be subjected to such treatment merely on account of my ethnicity and religion."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Source : </span><a href="http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/index.php?event=link,150&values[0]=&values[1]=9171">http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/index.php?event=link,150&values[0]=&values[1]=9171</a>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-84089452443417970702010-09-24T01:25:00.000+05:002010-09-24T01:25:12.940+05:00ISRAEL - PALESTINE - UNITED STATES<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;">A Test of Israel’s Character</span></b></span></div><h1 style="line-height: 13.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><div><nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"><br />
</span></nyt_headline></div></span></span></h1><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Arial;"><nyt_byline><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">By ROGER COHEN<o:p></o:p></span></nyt_byline></span></h6><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Arial;"><nyt_byline><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a81817; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">September 23, 2010</span></span></nyt_byline></span></h6><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"><nyt_byline><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a81817; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span></nyt_byline></span></h6><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><st1:state w:st="on"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top>NEW YORK</nyt_text></span></st1:state><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"> — At a dinner hosted by American Jewish leaders for the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, I was seated with a senior <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> diplomat to my left, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization to my right, and Abbas opposite.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">It was like listening to a rousing peace overture as an ominous leitmotif of disaster keeps returning with ever greater insistence.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">While Abbas referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as his “partner in peace” and said it would be “criminal” if Palestinian and Jewish leaders failed, the American diplomat and Yasir Abed Rabbo of the P.L.O. kept whispering in my ear that the mother of all train wrecks was looming. “Netanyahu is playing games,” Rabbo said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">I came away from the dinner convinced the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> is on the brink of a diplomatic fiasco. Less than a month after President Obama put the imprimatur of a White House ceremony on renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks, the negotiations are close to breakdown. If that happens, as Netanyahu and Abbas know, Obama would look amateurish.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">The two leaders need the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, an incentive to avoid humiliating Obama. But with just a couple of days to the expiration Sunday of an Israeli freeze on settlement construction in the <st1:place w:st="on">West Bank</st1:place>, both sides are digging in. Despite Obama’s public plea to Netanyahu — “It makes sense to extend that moratorium” — the Israeli government seems to have rejected a formal extension.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">That would be a terrible mistake. Obama should fight it until the last minute. His international credibility is on the line.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">Abbas made nice at the dinner, inching back from earlier statements that he would abandon the talks if settlement construction resumes. He could not say he would walk out but it would be “very difficult for me to resume talks.” Bottom line: Renewed building would be a body blow to the latest peace effort.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">Why, Abbas asked, could Netanyahu not tell his center-right cabinet he needed a three-month extension because direct talks were at a delicate stage? Good question, in response to which Netanyahu could ask another: Why did the Palestinians wait until the moratorium was about to expire to resume talks? Dan Meridor, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s minister of intelligence and atomic energy, got philosophical: “The end of the freeze is a test case for the concept of compromise. Neither side will get all it wants.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">Fair enough in principle, but Meridor misses the point. This decision is a symbolic test case of something much deeper. It is a test case of Israeli seriousness about peace. It is a test case of whether the two-state idea really outweighs the lingering Messianic one-state Judea and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> illusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">If there is to be a two-state solution, it cannot be that the physical space for a Palestinian state keeps diminishing, square meter by square meter, as settlements expand. Two plus two cannot equal five.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">The 43-year history of the Israeli occupation of the <st1:place w:st="on">West Bank</st1:place> has been painful and corrosive, a cycle of harsh repression and Palestinian terror. In “The Yellow Wind,” the Israeli novelist David Grossman, whose New Yorker profile by George Packer is a must read, put it this way: “I could not understand how an entire nation like mine, an enlightened nation by all accounts, is able to train itself to live as a conqueror without making its own life wretched.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">Do Israelis, in their majority, want to continue to lord over another people? Or are they ready, with the right security guarantees, to make the painful choices that would, in restoring dignity to a neighboring people, also confer riveting new dignity on Israel?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">I believe they are ready to take that risk — peace is also risk — but Netanyahu has to lead them there. He has not yet made the decision to do so. He’s a politician with his finger to the wind. What he senses from within his own Likud party and others further right is that he cannot extend the freeze and hold things together.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">Or so it seems. Oh, sure, he’ll commit privately to limiting West Bank construction to a bare minimum. But that won’t cut it with a Palestinian leadership that has taken courageous steps to stabilize the West Bank and needs a clear signal — now — that Israel understands peace will involve reversing the settlements, not growing them further.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">Abbas is serious about peace. His prime minister, Salam Fayyad, is very serious and has done enough on the West Bank to prompt a World Bank statement this week saying: “If the Palestinian Authority maintains its current performance in institution-building and delivery of public services, it is well-positioned for the establishment of a state at any point in the near future.” Both men have done an enormous amount to curb violence, renounce it as a method, and establish credible security services. Israel will not find better interlocutors.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">But the progress is fragile, as recent clashes have shown. That’s why Obama must now break some bones to get his way: “Bibi, read my lips. It makes sense to extend that moratorium by a few months. For Israel and for the United States.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> Source : </o:p></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/global/24iht-edcohen.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/global/24iht-edcohen.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print</a></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-88384240505963318022010-09-24T00:58:00.000+05:002010-09-24T00:58:52.102+05:00Kafka’s Last Trial<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #a81817; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">September 22, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></div><h1 style="line-height: 13.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span></span></h1><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Arial;"><nyt_byline><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">By ELIF BATUMAN</span><o:p></o:p></nyt_byline></span></h6><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Arial;"><nyt_byline><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></nyt_byline></span></h6><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top>During his lifetime, Franz Kafka</nyt_text></span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">burned an estimated 90 percent of his work. After his death at age 41, in 1924, a letter was discovered in his desk in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Prague</st1:place></st1:city>, addressed to his friend Max Brod. “Dearest Max,” it began. “My last request: Everything I leave behind me . . . in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others’), sketches and so on, to be burned unread.” Less than two months later, Brod, disregarding Kafka’s request, signed an agreement to prepare a posthumous edition of Kafka’s unpublished novels. “The Trial” came out in 1925, followed by “The Castle” (1926) and “Amerika” (1927). In 1939, carrying a suitcase stuffed with Kafka’s papers, Brod set out for <st1:city w:st="on">Palestine</st1:city> on the last train to leave <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Prague</st1:place></st1:city>, five minutes before the Nazis closed the Czech border. Thanks largely to Brod’s efforts, Kafka’s slim, enigmatic corpus was gradually recognized as one of the great monuments of 20th-century literature.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMauVdd2yBuvP3cMnzavSXn_lokctrUagN63bFIJw-3oAYTiovQsxsLsaajrUWRp-b565J2Ti8cpDFHTzZyUFFW-hmZjkE-w0LQ6TFjibbHB0GOZy6MzlKJcTTVuihyphenhyphenOu9xmz9p34chzMK/s1600/Franz+Kafka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMauVdd2yBuvP3cMnzavSXn_lokctrUagN63bFIJw-3oAYTiovQsxsLsaajrUWRp-b565J2Ti8cpDFHTzZyUFFW-hmZjkE-w0LQ6TFjibbHB0GOZy6MzlKJcTTVuihyphenhyphenOu9xmz9p34chzMK/s400/Franz+Kafka.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The contents of Brod’s suitcase, meanwhile, became subject to more than 50 years of legal wrangling. While about two-thirds of the Kafka<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/planning/estate-planning/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about estate planning."><span style="color: #000066;">estate</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>eventually found its way to Oxford’s Bodleian Library, the remainder — believed to comprise drawings, travel diaries, letters and drafts — stayed in Brod’s possession until his death in Israel in 1968, when it passed to his secretary and presumed lover, Esther Hoffe. After Hoffe’s death in late 2007, at age 101, the National Library of Israel challenged the legality of her will, which bequeaths the materials to her two septuagenarian daughters, Eva Hoffe and Ruth Wiesler. The library is claiming a right to the papers under the terms of Brod’s will. The case has dragged on for more than two years. If the court finds in the sisters’ favor, they will be free to follow Eva’s stated plan to sell some or all of the papers to the German Literature Archive in Marbach. They will also be free to keep whatever they don’t sell in their multiple Swiss and Israeli bank vaults and in the Tel Aviv apartment that Eva shares with an untold number of cats.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The situation has repeatedly been called Kafkaesque, reflecting, perhaps, the strangeness of the idea that Kafka can be anyone’s private property. Isn’t that what Brod demonstrated, when he disregarded Kafka’s last testament: that Kafka’s works weren’t even<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Kafka’s</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>private property but, rather, belonged to humanity?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In May,</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">I attended a session at the Tel Aviv district courthouse, dealing with the fate of the papers. Heading to the courtroom, I found myself in a small and dilapidated elevator with flickering fluorescent lights and a stated maximum occupancy of four people. I was reminded of “The Trial,” the novel that opens with the unexplained arrest of Josef K. by a mysterious court that turns out to have its offices in attics all over Prague, running its course somehow separately from the normal criminal-justice system. Half-expecting the elevator to deposit me in the upper stories of a low-income residential building, I emerged instead into a standard municipal-looking hallway with faux-marble floors. Black-robed lawyers paced around, carrying laptops or giant file folders tucked under their arms; many dragged still more files behind them in black wheeled suitcases.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Some minutes later, a barely perceptible charge in the air signaled the arrival of the sisters. Ruth, with her white sneakers, pearl earrings and short, bleached hair, looked like somebody’s grandmother (which she is). Eva, a former El Al employee who was by all accounts a great beauty in her youth, was dressed entirely in black, with a black plastic clip holding back her long auburn hair. Ruth wore a white shoulder bag, while Eva carried a plastic Iams bag with a paw-print logo.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Of five rows of wooden benches in the courtroom, the first three were occupied by more than a dozen lawyers: two lawyers for the National Library; a representative of the Israeli government office that is responsible for estate hearings; and five court-appointed executors: three representing Esther Hoffe’s will (which the National Library considers irrelevant to the case) and two representing Brod’s estate (which the sisters’ attorneys consider essentially irrelevant to the case). The German Literature Archive in Marbach, which has supposedly offered an undisclosed sum for the papers (said to be worth millions), was also represented by Israeli counsel. Ruth’s lawyer and Eva’s three lawyers rounded out the crowd. It’s impressive that the sisters had between them four lawyers, although, to put things in perspective, Josef K. at one point meets a defendant who has six. When he informs K. that he is negotiating with a seventh, K. asks why anyone should need so many lawyers. The defendant grimly replies, “I need them all.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The events leading up to the hearing that day were set into motion many decades earlier. In <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Prague</st1:place></st1:city> in the 1930s, Brod, a passionate Zionist, began mentioning plans to deposit the Kafka papers in the library of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where his and Kafka’s mutual friend Hugo Bergmann was then librarian and rector. Brod renewed these plans after his emigration to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:city> in 1939, but somehow nothing ever came of them, and the papers passed to Esther Hoffe. In 1988, Hoffe made headlines by auctioning the manuscript of “The Trial” for nearly $2 million; it ended up at the German Literature Archive.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/philip_roth/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Philip Roth."><span style="color: #000066;">Philip Roth</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>characterized this outcome as “yet another lurid Kafkaesque irony” that was being “perpetrated on 20th-century Western culture,” observing not only that Kafka was not German but also that his three sisters perished in Nazi death camps.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In later years, Hoffe engaged in negotiations to place the Kafka papers — as well as the rest of the Brod estate, which includes Brod’s voluminous diaries and correspondence with countless German-Jewish intellectual luminaries — at the archive in Marbach. Nevertheless, at the time of her death, no transaction had been completed. The bulk of the collection remained divided among an apartment on <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street> in central Tel Aviv and 10 safe-deposit boxes in Tel Aviv and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zurich</st1:place></st1:city>. It is unclear how much of Brod’s estate is still housed in the Spinoza Street apartment, which is currently inhabited by Eva Hoffe and between 40 and 100 cats. Eva’s neighbors, as well as members of the international scholarly community, have expressed concern regarding the effects of these cats on their surroundings. More than once, municipal authorities have removed some of the animals from the premises, but the missing cats always seem to be replaced.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In 2008, when the sisters tried to probate their mother’s will, they were opposed by the National Library. The library contends that Brod left the Kafka papers to Esther Hoffe as an executor rather than as a beneficiary, meaning that, after Hoffe’s death, the papers reverted to the Brod estate. Brod’s will, dated 1961, specifies that his literary estate be placed “with the library of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Municipal Library in Tel Aviv or another public archive in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> or abroad.” The Municipal Library in Tel Aviv has renounced any claim to the estate, making the Hebrew University Library — today, the National Library of Israel — the only claimant specifically named by Brod.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The National Library’s argument is complicated by Brod’s so-called gift letter of 1952. The most crucial and enigmatic document in the case, it appears to give all of the Kafka papers outright, during Brod’s lifetime, to Esther Hoffe. The sisters presented the court with a two-page photocopy of this letter. The National Library, however, produced a photocopy of a four-page version of the letter, of which the two missing middle pages appear to clarify the limitations of Brod’s gift. When the court ordered a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/forensic_science/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Forensic Science."><span style="color: #000066;">forensic</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>examination, the sisters were unable to produce the original letter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Last year, the court decided to grant the National Library’s request that the papers in the sisters’ possession be inventoried: some evidence suggests that the vaults contain further documentation clarifying Brod’s intentions for the papers. The sisters appealed the decision, maintaining that the state has no right to search private property for documents whose existence can’t be proven beforehand. The hearing I attended was to determine the outcome of their appeal.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Eva and Ruth, who fled Nazi-occupied <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Prague</st1:place></st1:city> as children, are elusive figures who keep out of the public eye. The fact that they are represented by separate counsel reflects Eva’s greater investment in the case. While Ruth married and left home, Eva lived with their mother, and with the papers, for 40 years. Her attorney Oded Hacohen characterizes Eva’s relationship to the manuscripts as “almost biological.” “For her,” he told me, “intruding on those safe-deposits is like a rape.” (When asked whether Eva had used the word “rape” herself, Hacohen looked a bit tired. “Many times,” he said.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">As long as Esther Hoffe’s will is debated, Eva and Ruth are unable to touch any part of their inheritance, which includes more than $1 million in cash. According to Hacohen, the money is a Holocaust compensation from the German government. The National Library argues that the sum could just as easily represent the proceeds from the sale of “The Trial,” which the library considers to have been a violation of Brod’s will. Eva, who claims to live in direst poverty, has unsuccessfully petitioned for a partial probate, which would have released the money before a decision was reached about the papers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The hearing I attended brought no good news for the sisters. Their appeal was overruled that day by the district court, and again the next month by the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the U.S. Supreme Court."><span style="color: #000066;">Supreme Court</span></a>. In late July, one safe-deposit box in Tel Aviv and all four <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zurich</st1:place></st1:city> vaults were inventoried. Witnesses in Tel Aviv reported seeing Eva run into the bank after the lawyers shouting: “It’s mine! It’s mine!” Eva also somehow turned up at the bank in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zurich</st1:place></st1:city> but wasn’t allowed into the vault.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Five of the safe-deposit boxes in Tel Aviv initially resisted inspection. Some of the keys obtained after strenuous negotiations with Eva turned out not to match the locks. By now, most of the boxes have been opened. According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, the banks have already yielded “a huge amount” of original Kafka material, including notebooks and the manuscript of a previously published short story. The specific contents, including any documents that might illuminate the question of ownership, will be made public once everything has been cataloged — a process estimated to last another month. In the meantime, the world continues to wait.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kafka's life</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">passed almost entirely within the space of a few city blocks in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Prague</st1:place></st1:city>, where he was born in 1883, attended school and university and, as an adult, lived with his parents and worked in an insurance agency. Kafka and Brod met in 1902, at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Charles</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">University</st1:placename></st1:place>, where both were studying law. Brod was 18 — one year younger than Kafka — but already a literary sensation. According to Brod’s biography of Kafka, the two met at a lecture Brod gave on Schopenhauer, during which Kafka objected to Brod’s characterization of Nietzsche as a fraud. Walking home together afterward, they discussed their favorite writers. Brod praised a passage from the story “Purple Death” in which Gustav Meyrink “compared butterflies to great opened-out books of magic.” Kafka, who took no stock in magic butterflies, countered with a phrase from Hugo von Hoffmansthal: “the smell of damp flags in a hall.” Having uttered these words, he fell into a profound silence that left a great impression on Brod.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">For years, Brod had no idea that Kafka also did a bit of writing in his free time. Nonetheless, he began right away to commit Kafka’s utterances to his diary, starting with “Talk comes straight out of his mouth like a walking stick” (an observation about an over-assertive classmate). In 1905, Kafka showed Brod his story “Description of a Struggle.” Brod directly adopted a lifelong mission “to bring Kafka’s works before the public.” (An uncannily perspicacious talent-spotter, Brod also brought early recognition to Jaroslav Hasek and Leos Janacek.) In a <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Berlin</st1:place></st1:state> weekly in 1907, Brod named a handful of contemporary authors maintaining the “exalted standards” of German literature: Franz Blei, Heinrich Mann, Frank Wedekind, Meyrink and Kafka. The first four were big names of the time; Kafka had yet to publish a single word. After much prodding by Brod, Kafka began publishing literary sketches in 1908, which were collected in a book in 1913.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In most respects, Brod and Kafka could not have been more different. An extrovert, Zionist, womanizer, novelist, poet, critic, composer and constitutional optimist, Brod had a tremendous capacity for survival. In his biography of Kafka, Ernst Pawel recounts how Brod, having been given a diagnosis at age 4 of a life-threatening spinal curvature, was sent to a miracle healer in the Black Forest, “a shoemaker by trade, who built him a monstrous harness into which he was strapped day and night.” Brod spent an entire year in the care of this shoemaker, emerging with a permanent hunchbacklike deformity, which did not impede him in a lifelong series of overlapping relationships with attractive blondes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kafka, tall, dark and broodingly handsome, had fewer and more anguished relations with women. From an early age, he was deeply concerned with his health, clothes and personal hygiene. (“The afternoons I spent on my hair,” a 1912 diary entry reads.) He practiced<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/v/vegetarianism/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about vegetarianism."><span style="color: #000066;">vegetarianism</span></a>, “Fletcherizing” (a system of chewing each bite for several minutes), “Müllerizing” (an exercise regimen) and various natural healing programs. He worried about dandruff and constipation to an extent that occasionally exasperated even Brod (“for instance, in Lugano, when he refused to take any laxative . . . but ruined the days for me with his moanings”). He wasn’t a good decision maker, and he didn’t have good luck. After years of complaining about his job at the insurance office, he finally worked up the nerve to mail his parents a letter saying that he was going to move to <st1:state w:st="on">Berlin</st1:state> and write for a living — less than a week before the outbreak of World War I, which obliged him to stay in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Prague</st1:place></st1:city>. In 1917, he was given a diagnosis of tuberculosis. In 1921, he told Brod that his last testament would consist of “a request to you to burn everything.” Brod promptly replied that he would do no such thing: his main justification, in later years, for overriding Kafka’s wishes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In 1923, Kafka met Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old runaway from a conservative Hasidic family in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Galicia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. She was his last and happiest love. The six-foot-tall Kafka at that point weighed 118 pounds. The couple lived for some months in a rental room in <st1:state w:st="on">Berlin</st1:state> but moved in 1924 to a sanitarium in the Austrian town of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kierling</st1:place></st1:city>, where Kafka, unable to eat, drink or speak, edited the proofs of his story “The Hunger Artist” and eventually died in Dora’s arms, having published, in his lifetime, fewer than 450 pages.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kafka studies now proliferate at a rate inversely proportional to that of Kafka’s own production: according to a recent estimate, a new book on his work has been published every 10 days for the past 14 years. Brod, in his 84 years on this planet, published 83 books, most of them now out of print.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In his role</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">in Kafka’s estate, Brod presents the paradox of a radically un-Kafkaesque protagonist in a Kafkaesque plot. This was a recurring theme in their friendship. After graduating from law school, Brod, already a published author, allowed himself to be convinced by Kafka’s thesis that “breadwinning and the art of writing must be kept absolutely apart” and took a job in the post office. Brod later bitterly regretted “the hundreds of joyless hours” squandered in offices by himself and the author of “The Trial.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Four years after Kafka’s death, Brod published a novel, “The Enchanted Kingdom of Love,” featuring a moribund, Kafka-like character called Richard Garta: “a saint of our day” whose brother turns up on a kibbutz in <st1:place w:st="on">Eastern Galilee</st1:place> and unmasks Richard, posthumously, as a fervent Zionist. In 1937, Brod wrote his biography of Kafka, which, alongside genuinely brilliant insights into Kafka’s life and work, also quotes wholesale from the descriptions of Richard Garta in “The Enchanted Kingdom,” advancing the thesis that Kafka was, if not “a perfect saint,” then still “on the road to becoming one,” and that his most seemingly ambiguous literary works are essentially religious treatments of the transcendental homelessness of European Jewry.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Brod’s biography of Kafka was not well received. According to Walter Benjamin, it testifies to a “lack of any deep understanding of Kafka’s life,” one great riddle of which is, indeed, Kafka’s choice of such a philistine for a best friend. “I will never get to the bottom of the Brod mystery,”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/milan_kundera/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Milan Kundera."><span style="color: #000066;">Milan Kundera</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>writes, marveling that Brod was astute enough to preserve Kafka’s novels for posterity, yet capable of doing so in such sentimental, vulgar and politically tendentious books. The received image of Brod in Kafka studies is a well-meaning hack who displayed extraordinary prescience, energy and selflessness in the promotion of his more talented friend, about whom, however, he understood nothing and whose dying wishes he was thus able to ignore.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The truth is more complicated. Although the loss, within a few years, of both Kafka and Europe could easily have driven Brod to despair, he instead resolved to transform it into the foundation for a new future, adopting a lifelong determination to fuse his two favorite causes — Kafka and Zionism — into a single, future-bearing entity. Kafka’s life and work became a uniform and inherently meaningful body, in which every last detail had the same supreme importance: in the “22 years of our unclouded friendship,” Brod recalled, “I never once threw away the smallest scrap of paper that came from him, no, not even a postcard.” Whatever Brod thought that Kafka was going to do for mankind, it was definitely something huge. “If humanity would only better understand what has been presented to it in the person and work of Kafka,” Brod writes, “it would undoubtedly be in a quite different position.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Pinning his hopes of a new world order onto Kafka’s oeuvre — onto, that is, a collection of abstruse literary fiction, mostly dealing with the lives of Prague white-collar workers and animals — Brod was following a dream logic common to Kafka’s own characters. In “Amerika,” Karl believes that he can “have a direct effect upon his American environment” by playing the piano in a certain way; Josephine the Mouse Singer believes that when the Mouse Folk “are in a bad way politically or economically, her singing” will save them. In 1941, Brod published an extraordinary column in the Hebrew paper Davar, recounting his arrival in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:city> with “<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">only one</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>plan” rising from a “mist of many obscure thoughts”: “to act for the memory of my friend<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/franz_kafka/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Franz Kafka."><span style="color: #000066;">Franz Kafka</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in this country that he missed.” (According to Brod, only Kafka’s “sickness and sudden death prevented his immigration.”) Having transported Kafka’s manuscripts by train and ship to the soil of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zion</st1:place></st1:city>, Brod had already found a few fellow thinkers “for whom Kafka is more than any other modern writer — he is the 20th-century Job.” Once they had fulfilled their true purpose — namely, the establishment of a Kafka archive and a Kafka club in Palestine — “the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/adolf_hitler/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Adolf Hitler."><span style="color: #000066;">Hitler</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>era, the era of destruction” would be followed by an age of “the infinite creation in the spirit of Kafka,” “a good era for humanity, and for Judaism, which has again professed salvation to the peoples by one of its finest sons.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kafka’s actual relationship to Zionism and Jewish culture was, like his relationship to most things, highly ambivalent. (In 1922, Kafka compiled a list of things he had failed at, including piano, languages, gardening, Zionism and anti-Zionism.) Although Brod’s attempts to convert Kafka to Zionism were a source of tension in the early years of their friendship, Kafka grew increasingly sympathetic to the cause. As early as 1912, he discussed a journey to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:city> with Felice Bauer, a dictating-machine representative with whom he was to pursue a long, anguished, mainly epistolary romance. (The two were twice engaged to be married before separating in 1917.) In 1918, Kafka drew up his vision of an early kibbutz. The only nourishment would be bread, dates and water; notably, in light of recent developments, there would be no legal courts: “<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:city> needs earth,” Kafka wrote, “but it does not need lawyers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kafka’s plans to move to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:city> grew more concrete only as their fulfillment grew less likely. He began studying Hebrew in 1921. According to his teacher, Puah Ben-Tovim, “he already knew he was dying” and seemed to regard their lessons “as a kind of miracle cure,” preparing “long lists of words he wanted to know”; rendered speechless by coughing, he would implore his teacher “with those huge dark eyes of his to stay for one more word, and another, and yet another.” In 1923, Ben-Tovim visited Kafka and Dora Diamant in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Berlin</st1:place></st1:state>. She found them living in bohemian squalor, reading to each other in Hebrew and fantasizing about opening a restaurant in Tel Aviv, where Diamant would work in the kitchen and Kafka would wait on tables. “Dora didn’t know how to cook, and he would have been hopeless as a waiter,” Ben-Tovim observed. Then again, “in those days most restaurants in Tel Aviv were run by couples just like them.” Ben-Tovim left one of Kafka’s Hebrew notebooks in the National Library, where I saw it this spring: a long list of those words from which Kafka expected such miracles: “tuberculosis,” “to languish,” “sorrow,” “affliction,” “genius,” “pestilence,” “belt.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Brod's interpretation</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">of Kafka as a Zionist manqué is now on trial: if not, technically, in the court of law, then certainly in the court of public opinion. “Why does Kafka belong here?” asks Mark Gelber, a literature professor at <st1:placename w:st="on">Ben-Gurion</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of the <st1:place w:st="on">Negev</st1:place>. “Because the Zionist enterprise was important to him.” Gelber told me he considers Kafka’s animal stories to participate in a Zionist discourse, from which “Kafka removes the particularist markers, erases the particularist traces.” (This lack of “particularist markers” makes Kafka particularly susceptible to different interpretations and ascriptions: those same animal stories caused Elias Canetti to call Kafka “the only essentially Chinese writer to be found in the West.”) Many European critics — for example, Reiner Stach, Kafka’s most recent and thorough biographer — object to the view of Kafka as “a Zionist or a religious author.” “The fact that specifically Jewish experiences are reflected in his works does not — as Brod believed — make him the protagonist of a ‘Jewish’ literature,” Stach told me. Rather, “Kafka’s oeuvre stands in the context of European literary modernity, and his texts are among the foundational documents of this modernity.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In a perfect world, Kafka could be both engaged with a specifically Jewish discourse<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="font-family: Arial;">and</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>a foundational author of European modernity. As Brod himself observes of “The Castle,” a “specifically Jewish interpretation goes hand in hand with what is common to humanity, without either excluding or even disturbing the other.” But an original manuscript can be in only one place at a time. The choice between <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> could not be more symbolically fraught.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">For the proponents of Marbach, the debate is really about storage conditions. “In Israel there is no place to keep the papers so well as in Germany,” Eva Hoffe has stated; Stach corroborates that “scholars everywhere outside of Israel are in agreement” that the papers would be better off in Marbach. Anyway, Marbach already has “The Trial,” and it would be more convenient for scholars to have everything in one place. In hopes of securing the cooperation of the National Library, Marbach has proposed to grant Israeli scholars priority access to the collection and to lend the papers to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> for a temporary exhibit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">But in a battle between expediency and ideals, the two sides are speaking different languages. Otto Dov Kulka, an emeritus professor of history specializing in the situation of Jews during the Third Reich, describes the claim that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> doesn’t have the resources to take care of the papers as “outrageous and hypocritical.” I spoke with Kulka in his office at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where I found him editing a document titled, in an enormous font legible from across the room, “Between the Periphery and the Metropolis of Death.” A diminutive, dynamic figure in his 70s, wearing ergonomic sandals and a short-sleeved khaki shirt that exposed a five-digit number tattooed on his forearm, he repeatedly jumped up from his chair to retrieve books from the shelves that towered above us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kulka produced and read aloud from a long list of German-Jewish intellectuals whose papers are in the National Library:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/albert_einstein/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Albert Einstein."><span style="color: #000066;">Albert Einstein</span></a>, Stefan Zweig, Gershom Scholem, Walter Benjamin, Else Lasker-Schüler, Martin Buber. “We are taking care of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and we will take care of Kafka,” he said. “They say the papers will be safer in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the Germans will take very good care of them. Well, the Germans don’t have a very good history of taking care of Kafka’s things. They didn’t take good care of his sisters.” He fell silent. “I was together with Kafka’s sister Ottla,” he added, in a conversational tone.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">“Oh, really?” I said, not understanding what he meant.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">“Yes,” he said, smiling vaguely. “In Theriesenstadt, before she was murdered.” Kulka, 9 years old at the time, never spoke to Ottla but described her as a kind and selfless person, who voluntarily escorted a group of Jewish orphans from Bialystock to <st1:place w:st="on">Auschwitz</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Oded Hacohen, Eva Hoffe’s attorney, maintains that “moral positions” about <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> are irrelevant to the case. “People ask me, ‘Don’t you care that those manuscripts could end up in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>?’ ” he said. “I care much more that those Holocaust refugees cannot pay their electricity bills here in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Brod met</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">his future secretary Esther Hoffe and her husband, Otto, shortly after his arrival in Tel Aviv. After Brod’s wife died in 1942, he and the Hoffes became extremely close. “Our home was his home; he didn’t have another one,” Esther told a reporter for Ha’aretz in 1968. Esther had an office in Brod’s apartment. She and Otto and Max took vacations together in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Although acquaintances of Brod described the relationship as a “<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">ménage à trois</span></em>,” Eva has denied that her mother and Brod were romantically involved. The relationship will presumably be illuminated in Brod’s diaries, which are believed to be in one of the vaults.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The opening of the safe-deposit boxes might also elucidate the central mystery in this case: given Brod’s evident intention for the papers to end up in an archive, why did he make them a gift to a private individual? And why did he choose an individual who proved capable of hanging onto them for 40 years?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Brod’s surviving acquaintances at the <st1:placename w:st="on">Hebrew</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>, including Otto Dov Kulka, are convinced that the 1952 gift letter, in which he seemingly bequeathed the papers to Esther, has been altered and that Brod never wavered in his intention for Kafka’s work to remain in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. They maintain that the vaults will yield proof that Brod changed his will in later years to name a new executor: Felix Weltsch, a Zionist and philosopher who worked at the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> library. (Brod mentions this change in a 1964 letter to Weltsch, but the codicil has never been found.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Reiner Stach, Kafka’s biographer, sees things differently. He maintains that Brod was torn between Marbach, with its impressive facilities, and the library in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, where so many of his friends worked. Unable to announce that he was leaving Kafka’s papers to “the country of the perpetrators,” as Stach puts it, Brod left Hoffe to play the bad cop. Stach also suggests that although Brod didn’t wish to profit financially from Kafka, he might have wanted to compensate Hoffe for her long years of secretarial work by allowing her to sell the materials to a well-financed institute.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Etgar Keret, a best-selling Israeli short-story writer who considers Kafka to be his greatest influence, proposes that Brod had no idea that Hoffe would sit on the papers for so long. “Half of us are married to people who say, ‘I’m just going to buy a pack of cigarettes,’ and never return,” he told me. “I think this is the literary version of that, with this Hoffe chick.” Keret characterizes Brod as “a good judge of texts, for sure, but a very bad judge of human characters.” If Brod could see what was happening now, Keret says, he would be “horrified.” Kafka, on the other hand, might be O.K. with it: “The next best thing to having your stuff burned, if you’re ambivalent, is giving it to some guy who gives it to some lady who gives it to her daughters who keep it in an apartment full of cats, right?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kafka wasn’t the only ambivalent one. Some part of Brod clearly wasn’t ready to let the papers out of the vaults. Most scholars agree that Brod was reluctant to give up his control over Kafka’s image. Materials in the estate will probably testify to the friends’ visits to prostitutes — which Brod excised from his edition of Kafka’s diaries — or to Kafka’s occasional anti-Zionist or anti-Semitic comments, like the wish he once expressed “to stuff all Jews (myself included) into a drawer of a laundry basket.” Furthermore, Brod’s view of Kafka as the savior of mankind made the papers a huge, life-consuming responsibility, which Brod himself must occasionally have wished to stuff into the drawer of a laundry basket. Everything was at stake — the memory of Kafka, the fate of world literature, the future of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> — and nobody could be trusted.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Meir Heller, an attorney for the National Library, told me he believes that Brod turned to Hoffe when, in his old age, he began to suspect everyone else of distorting his friend’s legacy. “She was wiping him, she was making his food,” Heller said. “He thought, I can trust her.” He describes Brod’s school of interpretation of Kafka as a “sect” into which only true believers were permitted. Heller mentioned a 1957 letter from Brod to Hoffe, specifying that, after Esther’s death, the Kafka papers should pass to one of Brod’s friends (although her daughters would still receive royalties from their publication); in later years Brod periodically returned to this letter, adding and subtracting the names of those he considered trustworthy. The publisher Klaus Wagenbach was there for a while, but Brod crossed him out after Wagenbach published a Kafka biography that Brod didn’t like.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Heller’s recurring metaphor for the papers comes from “The Lord of the Rings.” “You remember the ‘precious’?” he said, alluding to the magic ring that causes its possessor to guard it obsessively. “That’s how it is. Whoever touches these papers — it distorts their vision.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">One afternoon</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">during my stay in Tel Aviv, I headed to <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street> on the off-chance that Eva Hoffe was home and felt like talking to the press. I was accompanied by Avi Steinberg, an American writer living at the time in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. I had become acquainted with Steinberg two months earlier, when he mailed me the galleys of a memoir he wrote about his experiences as a prison librarian. In subsequent correspondence, I mentioned my impending Kafkaesque assignment to report on a “Kafka archive kept for decades in a cat-infested Tel Aviv flat,” confessing to some apprehensions that I would be unable to locate the apartment. Steinberg promptly replied that the address was <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">23 Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street>, that he had recently rung the doorbell himself but had no answer and that “last week in court, Eva Hoffe’s sweater was<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="font-family: Arial;">covered</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in animal hairs, possibly originating from a cat or cats.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Walking through the city center, we discussed the mystery of Kafka’s testament. Steinberg saw in Kafka’s cryptic letter to Brod another version of the parable of Abraham and Isaac. (Kafka wrote several retellings of this story in 1921, the same year he first mentioned to Brod that he wanted his work to be burned.) Kafka, Steinberg suggested, wanted to prove that he was ready to incinerate the child of his creation, simultaneously knowing and not knowing that Brod would step in and play the role of the angel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">“The thing is,” Steinberg said, “we only have Brod’s word for any of this. What if Kafka never even told him to burn his stuff? Has anyone ever seen that letter? What if this is all some big idea Brod had?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Similarly paranoid thoughts cross the mind of nearly everyone who studies Kafka. At a certain point you realize that everything — even the picture of Brod as a good-natured busybody who ignored Kafka’s wishes — comes from Brod himself. “Don’t write this down — I don’t want to be the laughingstock of the academic community,” one scholar told me, having ventured the idea that Brod himself had composed all of Kafka’s writings and, alarmed by their strangeness, attributed them to a reclusive friend who worked at an insurance office.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Spinoza Street</span></st1:address></st1:street><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> is in a quiet residential neighborhood lined by flat-roofed stucco buildings. The dingy off-pink stucco facade of No. 23 was partly obscured by a tree with enormous glossy leaves that were apparently being eaten away by something. Parked under the tree were a broken shopping cart and an old bicycle. Behind a large protruding window, enclosed by two layers of metal grillwork, lay an indistinct heap of cats. Some commotion involving a blackbird took place in one of the trees, causing six or so cats to look up in unison, elongating their necks. The breeze turned. A terrible smell wafted toward us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The smell was stronger inside the building. We knocked on Hoffe’s door several times. Someone or something was moving inside, but nobody answered. Steinberg, who has a mild cat allergy, began sneezing. The sneezes echoed terrifyingly in the empty stairwell.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Back in the yard, we squinted in the hazy sunlight. Two cats staggered out of a rhododendron bush, looking drunk. I kept remembering a line from “The Trial”: “The wooden steps explained nothing, no matter how long one stared at them.” Having taken the precaution of bringing some cat toys with me, I began waving an artificial mouse at a gray kitten I had just noticed under the shopping cart. After some hesitation, the kitten ran out from under the shopping cart and pounced on the mouse, then scooped it up with its little white paws and bounced it off its chest.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">What would Brod have made of it all? The situation struck me as enormously sad. It was sad that Esther had gotten so terribly old and died, and that Eva, the beautiful girl whom Brod once taught to play the piano, was now making French headlines as the “cat woman<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">septuagénaire</span></em>” who guards Kafka’s papers amid “feline miasmas and angora toxoplasmosis.” Ostensibly trying to defend her privacy and financial interests, Eva was plagued at all hours by journalists, while presumably racking up a fortune in legal fees. Nor would Brod conceivably have been delighted that Kafka’s papers had generated decades of acrimony and become the playthings of lawyers. He might have felt gratified by his friend’s extraordinary fame; but it was thanks to that very fame, which Brod himself both predicted and created, that Kafka didn’t belong to Brod anymore. Brod always knew that he couldn’t hold on to Kafka forever, but he never really faced up to it, and this was the result.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The more</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">I learned about the papers’ stormy history, the more convincing I found the “Lord of the Rings” analogy invoked by Meir Heller, the attorney for the National Library. Brod really does seem to have regarded Kafka’s work as “one ring to rule them all.” Ever since he brought it to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, it has been guarded with a secrecy and fanaticism unusual even within the contentious world of literary estates.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The first conflict over Kafka’s papers arose in the 1930s between Brod and Salman Schocken, a former department-store magnate who took over the publication of Kafka’s works in 1933. During the war, Schocken continued to publish Kafka from <st1:city w:st="on">Palestine</st1:city> and, later, <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>, but retained the original manuscripts at his library in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. Several sources confirm a fraught letter exchange between the two, with Brod demanding the return of certain manuscripts. In 1956, Schocken moved the papers in his possession to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zurich</st1:place></st1:city>. The <st1:city w:st="on">Zurich</st1:city> papers were eventually acquired for the Bodleian Library at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oxford</st1:place></st1:city> through the offices of Sir Malcolm Pasley, an Oxford Germanist and a friend of Kafka’s great-nephew Michael Steiner.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Esther Hoffe was notorious for her elusiveness regarding the papers that she inherited from Brod. According to Der Spiegel, she backed out of a plan to lend “The Trial” to a Kafka exhibition in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city> because she didn’t get a personal phone call from the French president. Later a German publisher reportedly paid her a five-digit sum for the rights to Brod’s diaries, but she never produced the goods.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">In 1974, at the request of the Israeli State Archives, an Israeli court reviewed Hoffe’s claim to the Brod estate. The judge ruled that she could do whatever she wanted with the papers during her lifetime. The following year, Hoffe was arrested at the Tel Aviv airport on suspicion of smuggling Kafka manuscripts abroad without first leaving copies with the State Archives (a stipulation of the Israeli Archives Law of 1955). A search of her luggage yielded photocopies of letters written by Kafka and, reportedly, originals of Brod’s diaries. (An estimated 22 letters and 10 postcards from Kafka to Brod were sold the previous year, presumably by Hoffe, in private sales in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Hoffe was released. Soon after, an archivist from the State Archives came to <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street> and, in the presence of Esther, Eva and an attorney, tried to inventory the estate. The archivist reported finding more than 50 feet of files, including originals of Brod’s diaries, letters to Brod from Kafka and letters to Brod and Kafka from unspecified “personages.” Most of the files, however, consisted of photocopies. When asked about the originals, Hoffe’s attorney, according to the archivist, “hesitated for a moment, then said that the material is not here,” adding that he, the lawyer, “always counseled to leave a photocopy in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, in compliance with the Archives Law.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The incompleteness of the inventory leaves many questions about the contents of the estate. The answers may well be in a more thorough catalog compiled in the ’80s by a philologist named <st1:city w:st="on">Bern</st1:city> hard Echte, now the publisher of Nimbus Books in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Copies of Echte’s inventory, which lists some 20,000 pages of material, are closely guarded. Heller has been trying vainly to get one for years.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Echte, the rare scholar whose brush with the Kafka papers doesn’t seem to have injured his sense for the magic of literary discovery, is also the only interviewee in this story who described Esther Hoffe with genuine warmth. Echte told me in an e-mail interview that Hoffe “really tried to fulfill Max Brod’s will because she admired and loved Max Brod like a young girl (and I liked her very much for it).” Although her preference for “books with a good and interesting story” led her to find Kafka “strange,” Echte said, she nonetheless recognized Kafka’s importance to world literature and was prevented only by old age from placing the papers at Marbach. Echte fondly recalled “all the discoveries we made — Mrs. Hoffe and me.” Inside “quite a normal folder” for example, they found “two or three sheets of paper with Kafka’s last notes from Kierling,” the sanitarium where Kafka died. In <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zurich</st1:place></st1:city>, they unearthed a letter that Kafka sent to Brod in 1910, enclosing two birthday gifts: “a small stone,” still in the envelope, and “a damaged book” — which turned up two years later at <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street> and proved to be a novel by Robert Walser. Other treasures that Echte described to me included a copy of “Tristan Tzara’s ‘Première Aventure Céleste de M. Antipyrine,’ the first Dada publication, with a personal dedication of the author to Kafka. Imagine that!”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">What else is in the vaults? Most experts agree that the estate is unlikely to contain any unknown major work by Kafka. On the other hand, Kafka often embedded lapidary parables and short-short stories in his letters and diaries. Brod published everything he saw fit, but Peter Fenves, a literature professor at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/northwestern_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Northwestern University"><span style="color: #000066;">Northwestern University</span></a>, speculates that there might still be some “literary gems” left: “Perhaps a story like ‘Jackals and Arabs,’ which I can imagine Brod would have suppressed” if Kafka hadn’t published it himself. (In this fable, a European traveler is informed by some jackals — sometimes interpreted as a caricature of Jews — that they have been waiting for generations for him to slit the throats of their unclean enemies, the Arabs.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">The estate is of great interest not only to literary scholars but also to historians and biographers. Reiner Stach, who has already published Volumes 2 and 3 in his three-volume life of Kafka, told me that he has been waiting for years for the vaults to divulge materials necessary for Volume 1: an early notebook by Brod “that is said to contain ‘a good deal about Kafka’ ”; Brod’s unpublished diary from 1909; and letters from Kafka’s hitherto unknown “early friends.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Kathi Diamant — Dora Diamant’s biographer and the founder of the San Diego-based Kafka Project, which in 2000 discovered Kafka’s old hairbrush at a kibbutz in Jezreel Valley — is eagerly awaiting the release from the vaults of 70 letters written by Dora to Brod. In one letter, Dora, to whom Kathi says she may or may not be related, confesses to having burned at Kafka’s request a number of his manuscripts, perhaps including an unpublished story about a blood-libel case in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kiev</st1:place></st1:city>. But Dora also saved 20 notebooks and 35 letters, which were seized from her apartment by the Gestapo in 1933. Kathi says that information from the Brod correspondence may help her track down these materials, possibly to a sealed archive in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Poland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Both Kathi and Zvi Diamant, Dora’s last living nephew, repeatedly tried to contact Esther Hoffe about the letters: “She refused to help and hung up,” Kathi recalled.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">On my last</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">night in Tel Aviv I found myself back at <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street>, to meet the filmmaker Sagi Bornstein, who is working on a documentary about the Kafka case. We met at the end of the block, just as dark was falling. Bornstein, wearing a striped knit cap and a lapel button that said simply “K” (the gift of Dutch Kafkologists), was accompanied by two crew members and a medium-size dog named Babylon Fighter. We sat on a public bench, and Bornstein fitted me with a microphone. His crew filmed our conversation from the other side of the street, where they appeared to be standing in some bushes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Bornstein was considering two titles for his film: “Kafka’s Last Story,” referring to Kafka’s will, and “Kafka’s Egg,” referring, he said, to “an Easter egg, or the egg of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Columbus</st1:place></st1:city>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">“It’s something that everyone is trying to solve — but in the end, it’s only an egg,” Bornstein explained. He talked about his experiences shooting in Marbach, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Prague</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Berlin</st1:state></st1:place> and Kierling, and about his fruitless efforts to interview Eva Hoffe. “I feel pretty sorry for her,” he said. “I think I understand her pretty well. It’s her life, and she doesn’t owe a report to anyone. Still, the story doesn’t belong only to her. She accidentally got into a story that’s bigger than all of us together.” He fell silent. A girl passed on a bicycle. Babylon Fighter, who does not wear a leash, seemed inclined to follow her, but Bornstein dissuaded him with a stern clicking noise. “So,” he said, turning to me. “You want to go knock on her door?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">I didn’t, frankly, but a job is a job. The crew emerged from the bushes, and we all headed back up <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street>. The lights were on, although it was now past 10 p.m. Bornstein walked me to the door, standing away from the peephole; if she saw him, he said, she wouldn’t open the door.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">“I don’t think she’s going to open the door anyway,” I said — accurately, as it turned out. We could hear voices inside. “She’s on the phone,” Bornstein said. Back outside, he speed-dialed Eva’s lawyer Oded Hacohen on his<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/iphone/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival news about the iPhone."><span style="color: #000066;">iPhone</span></a>, and they spoke for some minutes. A large moth circled over our heads in the light of a streetlamp, its wings flapping like some great opened-up book of magic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">“We’ve been having the same conversation for a year,” Bornstein said, hanging up. “He just says we can’t talk to her now. He doesn’t say ‘never’ — just ‘not now.’ It’s ‘Before the Law.’ It’s the exact same thing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Bornstein was alluding to the famous parable in “The Trial” about a man who comes before the law but is turned away by the doorkeeper. The man asks if he will be allowed to enter later. “It’s possible, but not now,” says the doorkeeper, explaining that he is only the first in a series of increasingly powerful and terrifying doorkeepers (“The mere sight of the third is more than even I can bear”). The man sits next to the entrance for hours, days, years, waiting to be admitted to the law. In his dying breath, he asks the guard a question: Since the law is open to everyone, why has nobody else approached it in all these years? “This entrance was meant solely for you,” the guard says. “I’m going to go and shut it now.” Like many of Kafka’s stories, it carries the dreamlike impact of a great revelation, while nonetheless not making much immediately apparent sense.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Bornstein gave me a lift home on his moped, together with Babylon Fighter and a substantial amount of video equipment. As we whizzed through traffic and a pedestrian mall, narrowly missing a fateful encounter with a young man sprawled on a sheet and claiming to be the Messiah, I reflected on “Before the Law” — specifically, on the feelings the man projects onto the doorkeeper. “Over the many years,” Kafka writes, “the man observes the doorkeeper almost incessantly. He forgets the other doorkeepers and this first one seems to him the only obstacle to his admittance to the Law.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Who is Eva Hoffe if not the doorkeeper, the one whom we observe incessantly, who seems to us the only obstacle to our understanding of Kafka? But in fact, beyond Eva lies a series of doorkeepers, most notably Brod, who has been reproached with everything under the sun: with making Kafka a saint, with refusing to burn his papers, with hiding the papers that he refused to burn, with writing such dreadful novels and, overall, with his general inescapability. And then, when we get past Brod, it’s only to face the most powerful doorkeeper of all, Kafka himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">“With Kafka, people go crazy about getting the original manuscript — not a photocopy, not a facsimile,” Meir Heller once remarked to me. “With most writers, once there’s a copy, nobody cares.” We fetishize the original manuscripts, because they seem to offer some access to a definitive Kafka — a Kafka beyond Brod. But this, too, is an illusion. The manuscripts aren’t definitive, because definitiveness, for better or worse, is the product of deadlines and editors and publishers: things Kafka either went out of his way not to have or ended up not having because of bad luck, tuberculosis and the First World War. When Kafka did prepare manuscripts for publication, he spent much time correcting mistakes and decoding his own abbreviations, sometimes even enlisting Brod’s help; one critic thus speculates that “Brod’s version might, in the end, look more like what Kafka would have published” than the most meticulous German scholarly editions. Maybe there is no Kafka beyond Brod.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;">Nonetheless, like the man in the parable, we ultimately come back to our faith in the law. In the coming weeks, a court-appointed group will finish inventorying the remaining boxes, as well as the contents of the <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Spinoza Street</st1:address></st1:street> apartment. It’s only a matter of time before the list is made public and most of the materials find their way to one archive or another. The last doorkeeper out of the way, we’ll be as close to Kafka as we’re ever going to get.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"><nyt_author_id>Elif Batuman is the author of “The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them.”<o:p></o:p></nyt_author_id></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt;"></span>Sources : <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print</a><o:p></o:p></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-57912575086963698282010-09-23T20:04:00.000+05:002010-09-23T20:04:20.394+05:00CORRUPTION IN PAKISTAN<div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/53556/national-assembly-served-meals-worth-rs11-5m/"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffdd; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; letter-spacing: -0.6pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">National Assembly served meals worth Rs11.5m</span></b></span></a></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;">Meals served to parliamentarians and journalists covering the National Assembly during the 2009-10 budget session cost Rs11.57 million to the national exchequer.</span></span></strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A budget session normally runs for 15 to 20 days and it has been a practice that the government serves meals during the session to parliamentarians and reporters covering the proceedings.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This time around, however, during the 2010-11 budget session journalists refused to avail the official luxury to avoid being pointed out as part of this practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the audit report for the 2009-10 tabled in the senate on Tuesday the office of auditor general of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> objected that funds spent for this purpose by the finance division were not allocated for such luxuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Moreover the AGP office also objected that the concerned authorities did not obtain competitive bidding as required in the Public Procurement Rules, framed in 2004 before giving the contract to a particular food outlet. In their response the concerned department stated that the practice was started four years ago on the directives of then finance minister. AGP remained dissatisfied with the reply and sent the audit paragraph to the Public Accounts Committee for further probe.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The audit report also pointed out another glaring irregularity whereby six luxurious bulletproof vehicles were used by non-government functionaries for more than two years and that their maintenance and repair was carried out from tax-payers’ money.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In its audit for the accounts of the cabinet division, it was pointed out that prime minister’s secretariat in a letter dated May 26, 2008 issued an order for returning 33 bulletproof vehicles held by the prime minister’s secretariat. However, these vehicles were not physically handed over to the cabinet division.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Six out of these 33 bulletproof vehicles, had been in the use of non-governmental functionaries for more than two years, the AGP said, adding that the use of these vehicles was open misuse at the public’s expense. However, the audit report did not mention the names of the persons who were allocated these vehicles.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In their response the cabinet division stated that the prime minister had allocated the bulletproof vehicles and thus no separate rules were required to regulate the use of such. It further said that the vehicles were provided to high level dignitaries in view of the law and order situation. The AGP office was once again not satisfied with their response and decided to send the para to the PAC for further probing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The audit report for the year 2009-10, in which eight per cent of the accounts of a government department, on average, come under random audit, pointed out irregularities worth Rs2.5 billion in the accounts departments coming under the domain of the ministry of defence and the ministry of defence production.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The audit report said that they carried out an audit of 167 out of 3,579 formations under the Defence Division and 25 out of the 44 productions and procurement agencies of the Defence Production division on what the report called the “test basis” during July to October 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The defence division, under the ministry of defence, administers matters relating to the army, navy, air force, ministry of engineering services, inter services organisations, military lands, cantonments and federal government educational institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The defence production division under the ministry of defence production deals with production, procurement, research and development related matters of the defence sector.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The report said that a total of 454 “serious observations” were issued by the AGP office to principal accounting officers of concerned departments coming under these ministries. Out of these 428 were discussed in the departmental accounts committee (DAC) meetings while both ministries failed to hold DAC meetings on the rest of the observations despite repeated request by the AGP office.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Published in The Express Tribune, September 23<sup>rd</sup>, 2010.</span></em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Source : <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/53556/national-assembly-served-meals-worth-rs11-5m/">http://tribune.com.pk/story/53556/national-assembly-served-meals-worth-rs11-5m/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-59679553152579785752010-09-23T19:28:00.001+05:002010-09-23T19:44:18.073+05:00CORRUPTION IN PAKISTAN<div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0.05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Lucida Grande', 'MS Sans Serif', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></strong></span></div><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"></span></strong><br />
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<strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><h1 class="title" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', times-roman, serif; font-size: 3em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/53555/politicians-amongst-top-tax-dodgers/" style="background-color: #ffffdd; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 30px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.8px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Politicians amongst top tax dodgers</span></a></h1></span></strong><br />
<div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0.05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">They have assets worth billions, yet they only pay a few thousand in taxes, if even that much.</span></span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbJXkXhrAxMh81uTRn2IYEeCNlsdUMJfxOowCSYhrd_S-5HzXUXKP-tVP7KeZAs_h7rOyCDvUFQhOewIcxaqFy8B2-LW1XVUwydl6G7bTybNTgOWF2ZCgEy0dzp3lVYMpShBDdw6yFi6r/s1600/Yousuf-Gillani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbJXkXhrAxMh81uTRn2IYEeCNlsdUMJfxOowCSYhrd_S-5HzXUXKP-tVP7KeZAs_h7rOyCDvUFQhOewIcxaqFy8B2-LW1XVUwydl6G7bTybNTgOWF2ZCgEy0dzp3lVYMpShBDdw6yFi6r/s200/Yousuf-Gillani.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Punjab Chief Minister Shabaz Sharif, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti, Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, Jamiat Ulema Islam – Fazal chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Interior Minister Rehman Malik are some of those who did not pay a single penny in income tax in the period between 2004 and 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;">The Express Tribune</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">obtained the tax details of some of the country’s elected representatives from the Election Commission following a recent report saying that the assets of parliamentarians have registered a three-fold increase in six years.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">According to the law, contesting candidates have to list the details of their tax returns for the last three years in the nomination papers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilX-_TFBt_Ump6GcKBS-905-L1F0I3ZNdgsi_xrFBbdcO6M5YL5sefT98sOESOs1f8yCL1QWZWEsduuxHBUBjm3-PnAC9EWl933GJIww-T1juiCySVlzI8b9UUVnNJGbhf26QhqiVq2qyf/s1600/Mian+Shehbaz+-+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilX-_TFBt_Ump6GcKBS-905-L1F0I3ZNdgsi_xrFBbdcO6M5YL5sefT98sOESOs1f8yCL1QWZWEsduuxHBUBjm3-PnAC9EWl933GJIww-T1juiCySVlzI8b9UUVnNJGbhf26QhqiVq2qyf/s200/Mian+Shehbaz+-+01.jpg" width="176" /></a></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s nomination papers show that while his assets are worth millions of rupees, he did not pay any income tax from 2004 to 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">The reason for this given by his spokesperson is that he spent most of the period in jail and thus did not pay income tax. Since becoming the prime minister, though, he has paid Rs82,000 annually, which is deducted from his salary.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">Sharif, too, with declared assets in and outside <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> worth billions of rupees, did not pay anything to the national exchequer during the same period.</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaKI1skh8lBCKa3XqxO4OPhJcBKKmpK9417KP_o5rP_H7aDFOijKUEggm47NNfGr0Rp6Oro44Tmd41P-WSBsxlGV7ekJ5V92PvoSlnFHOCs8bI8XUwvzXBsa-nf7r8KnJvpTxadWHRldxj/s1600/Fazlur-Rehman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaKI1skh8lBCKa3XqxO4OPhJcBKKmpK9417KP_o5rP_H7aDFOijKUEggm47NNfGr0Rp6Oro44Tmd41P-WSBsxlGV7ekJ5V92PvoSlnFHOCs8bI8XUwvzXBsa-nf7r8KnJvpTxadWHRldxj/s200/Fazlur-Rehman.jpg" width="148" /></a></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">His party’s excuse is that he was in exile during that time. However, it did not share how much income tax he is paying as chief minister Punjab.Asfandyar Wali and Fazlur Rehman also did not pay any tax during the period between 2004 and 2007. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who also has declared assets amounting to billions of rupees, paid Rs8,000 in income tax in the three-year period and Rs10,000 as land revenue for the same period.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani paid Rs16,000 as income tax and Rs0.6 million as land revenue during the period in question.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, and former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, who both have assets worth billions of rupees, paid only Rs0.2 million in income tax between 2004 and 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj88sYlFq8RPdGmiFlsnNntff9WpWu6t_ykX67G39QuxLZgpgnMhdhMQuQWrv7a9L7QWX7vsXk8W4Ctt-Uwr5sSYZML2IpB55HbvC-w0aUYhpPPXDN0DrJIcv8BqRtsT2xaN3HSjczhwcrw/s1600/Asfandyar-Wali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj88sYlFq8RPdGmiFlsnNntff9WpWu6t_ykX67G39QuxLZgpgnMhdhMQuQWrv7a9L7QWX7vsXk8W4Ctt-Uwr5sSYZML2IpB55HbvC-w0aUYhpPPXDN0DrJIcv8BqRtsT2xaN3HSjczhwcrw/s200/Asfandyar-Wali.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">And Rehman Malik, while he did not pay any income tax, paid a measly Rs194 as land revenue in the three years.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><em style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;">The Express Tribune</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">sent requests to the country’s main political leaders, including President Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, </span></span> </span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihD0wIOwCA-NFivp3iFjruUbt65ZawvyDYyf5eh348BMTECE1TaOaDLywz5S0PStMHE7dv2AYeG9ITn_ulUigSfS9Xb4s3vv5iR2tO4_M0chmMycam36fwOUm4bjwETlM3By2CjmRRFIQM/s1600/Ameer-Haider-Hoti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihD0wIOwCA-NFivp3iFjruUbt65ZawvyDYyf5eh348BMTECE1TaOaDLywz5S0PStMHE7dv2AYeG9ITn_ulUigSfS9Xb4s3vv5iR2tO4_M0chmMycam36fwOUm4bjwETlM3By2CjmRRFIQM/s200/Ameer-Haider-Hoti.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">seeking details of their tax returns. However, none except Gilani responded. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that the president is not bound under the law to declare his assets and tax details. The Federal Bureau of Revenue refused to give details either, saying it was not allowed to make public the tax returns of any citizen, including politicians.</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk7EQjyUKIECzUjlVGFcSPnEqAe0jlZSaiCJvJUjT1gH8llKRvsCZX15DWyY_2W38H_5rXovLD7MgQqIiO9Bfe2VS2fAtvExKQ7-9s3hidzMyZ9QEldD44fnx9HTepCrJbHwYTtVswPDqq/s1600/rehman_malik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk7EQjyUKIECzUjlVGFcSPnEqAe0jlZSaiCJvJUjT1gH8llKRvsCZX15DWyY_2W38H_5rXovLD7MgQqIiO9Bfe2VS2fAtvExKQ7-9s3hidzMyZ9QEldD44fnx9HTepCrJbHwYTtVswPDqq/s200/rehman_malik.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;">Economist and former commerce minister Dr Zubair Khan said that an independent commission should scrutinise the assets and tax details of the country’s rulers. “It is astonishing to see these figures,” he said. “Our rulers have no right to ask people for tax since they don’t pay any.”</span></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><br />
</span></em></div><div style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;">Published in The Express Tribune, September 23<sup>rd</sup>, 2010.</span></em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Source : <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/53555/politicians-amongst-top-tax-dodgers/">http://tribune.com.pk/story/53555/politicians-amongst-top-tax-dodgers/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-10381710542656482012010-09-19T22:20:00.000+05:002010-09-19T22:20:35.276+05:00Rahul Gandhi<h1 style="margin-bottom: 5.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Indira's real political heir</span><o:p></o:p></span></h1><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #848484; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/page/authorProfile?page=authorProfile"></a></span><a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/page/authorProfile?page=authorProfile"><span style="color: #024d99; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">S A Aiyar</span></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #848484; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #848484; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">19 September 2010</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">After his passionate defence of displaced tribals in Orissa, analysts have started talking about Rahul Gandhi's left turn. Whoa! Rahul is more pragmatic opportunist than left-wing ideologue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf58YUWWC2Eg6-BEugQ9S1fYaEAa6hTIWXwj_y2sZ1LWqme_E2nfKUcRt4Zvm-ZSNV4ss0RClosXEXw8h9k1lQaszbcmStLezo57qQgwBhe-boJpYTYZsOix5q-QPnRxyB_H7ijzXCagDh/s1600/948Rahul-Gandhi--Cong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf58YUWWC2Eg6-BEugQ9S1fYaEAa6hTIWXwj_y2sZ1LWqme_E2nfKUcRt4Zvm-ZSNV4ss0RClosXEXw8h9k1lQaszbcmStLezo57qQgwBhe-boJpYTYZsOix5q-QPnRxyB_H7ijzXCagDh/s320/948Rahul-Gandhi--Cong.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Remember Indira Gandhi's left turn in 1969? Supposedly for Garibi Hatao, she nationalized banks, abolished privy purses and raised income tax to 97.75%. Leftist ideologues cheered deliriously.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But a few years later, she declared an Emergency and jailed all opponents, leftist or rightist. Her great left turn was not ideological, but a ploy to maximize personal power.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Her left turn was an economic failure: poverty did not fall at all. But it was a massive political success. She crushed the old Congress leadership (called the Syndicate).The main opposition party in 1967 was the Swatantra Party, a coalition of princes and big business. Abolition of privy purses bankrupted the princes, and high income tax rates bankrupted the business class. The Syndicate and Swatantra Party crumbled before her. Only when she put Swatantra, Syndicate and CPM leaders in jail together did it become clear that ‘garibi hatao' was a cloak for ‘opposition hatao'.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidXSnLx0z38v69Az_jt8c3VmUDbuP0I63wKqeSSXrONHt8Uxvx65Ok_sZj4uBgkVTOYeVKSDjaQADga62lNSz4e2rjO_taMEKWIkNJikVJ6TfCZH1TWK0xLzEKIwBdXS7n5ypbLai3ih-a/s1600/IN11_RAHUL_GANDHI_7557f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidXSnLx0z38v69Az_jt8c3VmUDbuP0I63wKqeSSXrONHt8Uxvx65Ok_sZj4uBgkVTOYeVKSDjaQADga62lNSz4e2rjO_taMEKWIkNJikVJ6TfCZH1TWK0xLzEKIwBdXS7n5ypbLai3ih-a/s200/IN11_RAHUL_GANDHI_7557f.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Warning: don't be misled by Rahul's supposed left turn. He too is engaged in very practical politics to oust opponents. He has targeted non-Congress states in his campaign against displacement.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Recently, he went to Orissa as champion of the tribals whose land was being usurped by industrialist Anil Aggarwal for his aluminium factory. Yet, his real target was not Aggarwal but BJD chief minister Naveen Patnaik. After being thrashed by Patnaik three elections in a row, Rahul badly needs a new issue to regain lost ground.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He now plans a visit to Kerala, to support tribals protesting against their land being given to a windmill farm of Suzlon. Guess what: Kerala too is an opposition state, ruled by the CPM-led Left Front.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Corruption and callous treatment of tribals has been widely alleged in the coal and iron ore blocks in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Rahul can afford to bash all three chief ministers, because they belong to the BJP. Winning tribal support here is simply another way of winning back lost ground, including ground lost unwittingly by killing innocents in the campaign against Maoists. You did not hear of Rahul campaigning for tribals when his own party was a coalition partner in Jharkhand.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Illegal iron ore mining is the bane of Karnataka. The Reddy brothers, accused of being the main illegal miners, are now ministers in the BJP cabinet. Naturally, Congress has blasted them. Yet the Reddy brothers respond that the state Lokayukta says companies owned by Congress leaders - M Y Ghorpade, V S Lad and sons, Allum Veerabhadrappa, H G Ramulu, S M Jain and Abdul Wahab — have encroached on hundreds of acres. Congress has not castigated these gentlemen.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Indeed, quite recently, the Reddy brothers were into illegal mining by encroaching on forests in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. They were backed by former Congress chief minister Rajasekhara Reddy, and so bureaucrats dared not act against their encroachment. Only when Rajasekhara Reddy died, and his son Jagan failed in the struggle to succeed him, was it possible to take any action.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Goa is a major producer and exporter of iron ore. The Centre for Science and Environment has written passionately about the anger of local people against environmental damage by the mining companies. But this is a Congress-ruled state, so the mining giants are not in bad odour. Indeed, the biggest mine-owner in Goa is none other than Anil Aggarwal, the very gentlemen castigated by Rahul in Orissa.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By coincidence, almost all the states with embittered tribal populations are ruled by opposition parties. Even other states with agitations against land acquisition — West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh — are opposition-ruled. The fact is that Congress rules very few states on its own, and is often a junior partner where it is part of a ruling coalition. So, Rahul can afford to go on the offensive on land acquisition and tribal displacement.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This is not entirely cynical politics. Land displacement has become a mass issue. Politicians have responded, and i am delighted that the once-powerless tribals are getting some justice. More power to Congress on this. Still, remember that these tribals received far less justice in the old days of Congress hegemony.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We should welcome the change. But let us not attribute this to a sudden ideological left turn on Rahul's part. Like his grandmother, but without her high-handedness, he is resorting to the old strategy of using ideology when it suits his family's quest for power.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Source : <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/rahul-is-indira-s-real-political-heir">http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/rahul-is-indira-s-real-political-heir</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-69115967698257186762010-09-19T20:17:00.000+05:002010-09-19T20:17:27.248+05:00American Muslims Ask<h1 style="line-height: 13.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Will We Ever Belong?</span><o:p></o:p></span></h1><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #a81817; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><nyt_byline><br />
</nyt_byline></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #a81817; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><nyt_byline><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">September 5, 2010</span><o:p></o:p></nyt_byline></span></div><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></nyt_headline></span></h6><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="color: #000066;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/laurie_goodstein/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Laurie Goodstein">LAURIE GOODSTEIN</a></span></span><o:p></o:p></nyt_headline></span></h6><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"><span style="color: #000066;"><br />
</span></nyt_headline></span></h6><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top>For nine years after the attacks of Sept. 11, many American Muslims made concerted efforts to build relationships with non-Muslims, to make it clear they abhor terrorism, to educate people about Islam and to participate in interfaith service projects. They took satisfaction in the observations by many scholars that Muslims in <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region> were more successful and assimilated than Muslims in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></nyt_text></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Now, many of those same Muslims say that all of those years of work are being rapidly undone by the fierce opposition to a Muslim cultural center near ground zero that has unleashed a torrent of anti-Muslim sentiments and a spate of vandalism. The knifing of a Muslim cab driver in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:city> has also alarmed many American Muslims.<o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFjLhgpAhOT1ANNQkvsstaKPzj_V4HmmUBc1pVhxVfG3R9Uq9sUMxgQXGHozWMXhPMVOBUZuMtDFWIXFfknNja9qYc2I55uE8IrsMo570L99df44b_kNQQKmGnLJO8-y0_5FMn0kUA9eLw/s1600/Dr.+Ferhan+Asghar+-+Ohio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFjLhgpAhOT1ANNQkvsstaKPzj_V4HmmUBc1pVhxVfG3R9Uq9sUMxgQXGHozWMXhPMVOBUZuMtDFWIXFfknNja9qYc2I55uE8IrsMo570L99df44b_kNQQKmGnLJO8-y0_5FMn0kUA9eLw/s400/Dr.+Ferhan+Asghar+-+Ohio.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Dr. Ferhan Asghar at a Muslim center in West Chester, Ohio, with his wife, Pakeeza, <br />
and daughters Zara, left, and Emaan.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">“We worry: Will we ever be really completely accepted in American society?” said Dr. Ferhan Asghar, an orthopedic spine surgeon in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city> and the father of two young girls. “In no other country could we have such freedoms — that’s why so many Muslims choose to make this country their own. But we do wonder whether it will get to the point where people don’t want Muslims here anymore.”</span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Eboo Patel, a founder and director of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.ifyc.org/" title="Interfaith Youth Core"><span style="color: #000066;">Interfaith Youth Core</span></a>, a Chicago-based community service program that tries to reduce religious conflict, said, “I am more scared than I’ve ever been — more scared than I was after Sept. 11.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">That was a refrain echoed by many American Muslims in interviews last week. They said they were scared not as much for their safety as to learn that the suspicion, ignorance and even hatred of Muslims is so widespread. This is not the trajectory toward integration and acceptance that Muslims thought they were on.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Some American Muslims said they were especially on edge as the anniversary of 9/11 approaches. The pastor of a small church in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> has promised to burn a pile of Korans that day. Muslim leaders are telling their followers that the stunt has been widely condemned by Christian and other religious groups and should be ignored. But they said some young American Muslims were questioning how they could simply sit by and watch the promised desecration.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">They liken their situation to that of other scapegoats in American history: Irish Roman Catholics before the nativist riots in the 1800s, the Japanese before they were put in internment camps during World War II.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Muslims sit in their living rooms, aghast as pundits assert over and over that Islam is not a religion at all but a political cult, that Muslims cannot be good Americans and that mosques are fronts for extremist jihadis. To address what it calls a “growing tide of fear and intolerance,” the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.isna.net/" title="Islamic Society of North America"><span style="color: #000066;">Islamic Society of North America</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>plans to convene a summit of Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in Washington on Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Young American Muslims who are trying to figure out their place and their goals in life are particularly troubled, said Imam Abdullah T. Antepli, the Muslim chaplain at Duke University.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“People are discussing what is the alternative if we don’t belong here,” he said. “There are jokes: When are we moving to Canada, when are we moving to Sydney? Nobody will go anywhere, but there is hopelessness, there is helplessness, there is real grief.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Mr. Antepli just returned from a trip last month with a rabbi and other American Muslim leaders to Poland and Germany, where they studied the Holocaust and the events that led up to it (the group issued a denunciation of Holocaust denial on its return).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Some of what people are saying in this mosque controversy is very similar to what German media was saying about Jews in the 1920s and 1930s,” he said. “It’s really scary.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">American Muslims were anticipating a particularly joyful<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/ramadan/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Ramadan."><span style="color: #000066;">Ramadan</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>this year. For the first time in decades, the monthlong holiday fell mostly during summer vacation, allowing children to stay up late each night for the celebratory iftar dinner, breaking the fast, with family and friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">But the season turned sour.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">The great mosque debate seems to have unleashed a flurry of vandalism and harassment directed at mosques: construction equipment set afire at a mosque site in Murfreesboro, Tenn; a plastic pig with graffiti thrown into a mosque in Madera, Calif.; teenagers shooting outside a mosque in upstate New York during Ramadan prayers. It is too soon to tell whether hate crimes against Muslims are rising or are on pace with previous years, experts said. But it is possible that other episodes are going unreported right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Victims are reluctant to go public with these kinds of hate incidents because they fear further harassment or attack,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.cair.com/" title="The council"><span style="color: #000066;">Council on American-Islamic Relations</span></a>. “They’re hoping all this will just blow over.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Some Muslims said their situation felt more precarious now — under a president who is perceived as not only friendly to Muslims but is wrongly believed by many Americans to be Muslim himself — than it was under President<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/george_w_bush/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about George W. Bush."><span style="color: #000066;">George W. Bush</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Mr. Patel explained, “After Sept. 11, we had a Republican president who had the confidence and trust of red America, who went to a mosque and said, ‘Islam means peace,’ and who said ‘Muslims are our neighbors and friends,’ and who distinguished between terrorism and Islam.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Now, unlike Mr. Bush then, the politicians with sway in red state America are the ones whipping up fear and hatred of Muslims, Mr. Patel said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“There is simply the desire to paint an entire religion as the enemy,” he said. Referring to Imam<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/feisal_abdul_al_rauf/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Feisal Abdul al-Rauf."><span style="color: #000066;">Feisal Abdul Rauf</span></a>, the founder of the proposed Muslim center near ground zero, “What they did to Imam Feisal was highly strategic. The signal was, we can Swift Boat your most moderate leaders.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Several American Muslims said in interviews that they were stunned that what provoked the anti-Muslim backlash was not even another terrorist attack but a plan by an imam known for his work with leaders of other faiths to build a Muslim community center.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">This year, Sept. 11 coincides with the celebration of Eid, the finale to Ramadan, which usually lasts three days (most Muslims will begin observing Eid this year on Sept. 10). But Muslim leaders, in this climate, said they wanted to avoid appearing to be celebrating on the anniversary of 9/11. Several major Muslim organizations have urged mosques to use the day to participate in commemoration events and community service.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Ingrid Mattson, the president of the Islamic Society of North America, said many American Muslims were still hoping to salvage the spirit of Ramadan.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“In Ramadan, you’re really not supposed to be focused on yourself,” she said. “It’s about looking out for the suffering of other people. Somehow it feels bad to be so worried about our own situation and our own security, when it should be about empathy towards others.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>Source : <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/us/06muslims.html?sq=&st=nyt&scp=10&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/us/06muslims.html?sq=&st=nyt&scp=10&pagewanted=print</a><o:p></o:p></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-58190565178883465982010-09-19T20:06:00.001+05:002010-09-19T20:35:49.826+05:00Yom Kippur at Sea<h1 style="line-height: 13.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a81817; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">September 17, 2010</span></h1><nyt_byline> </nyt_byline><br />
<h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h6><nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"> </nyt_headline><br />
<h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By SAM KESTENBAUM<o:p></o:p></span></span></h6><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_text><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Deer Isle, Me.</span></span><o:p></o:p></nyt_text></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">TODAY is Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. It is the Day of Atonement, a day of meditation, of repentance and redemption. Many Jews will spend it at temple or in a house of study, meditating, reading Torah and chanting contemplative psalms together or quietly to themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Last year, right after graduating from college, I took a job on a commercial lobster boat here in my hometown as a sternman, one half of a two-man crew. A few days before Yom Kippur, I told the captain that I couldn’t work on the holiday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">This is not a typical day for lobstermen to take off, at least not on Deer Isle, and he looked puzzled. I explained, “You see, it’s a High Holy Day.” It was 4:30 in the morning and the sun had yet to rise. We were sipping coffee on the dock as the row of diesel boats beside us sputtered to life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">I wasn’t sure how much he knew about our holiday, or how much I should tell him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Should I explain that we fast on this day, humbling ourselves before God and preparing for judgment? Should I tell him how fates are sealed in the Book of Life? Or should I instead share some of the biblical stories that we retell on Yom Kippur? Launch into the tale of the binding of Isaac, or talk about Abraham and Sarah? Should I recount Jonah’s trip to the bottom of the sea, and the redemption he finds there in the belly of a whale? Should I commandeer the CB radio on our boat and blow the shofar, the ram’s horn, across the airwaves?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">We finished our coffee and made our way to the boat, lunch boxes in hand. I decided it was too early in the morning for shofar blowing. Besides, we had more than 300 traps to haul — a full day’s work.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Growing up on Deer Isle, I quickly learned that there was something a little different about how my family worshiped. There were many churches on the island — from Catholic to Protestant to Latter-day Saints; from small, one-room church houses to big, established churches with freshly paved driveways. We didn’t pray at any of these. Instead we made a weekly pilgrimage to the nearest synagogue, 60 miles away in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangor</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">One day, earlier in the fishing season, my captain and I were stacking lobster traps in his dooryard. Another fisherman sat nearby and watched us. He was in his mid-80s and spoke with a thick Down East accent, the kind that would be unintelligible to anyone from out of state.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I see you’ve got a man who works hard. Think you’ll keep him around?” he asked my captain. Then he chuckled and turned to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“What did you say your name was again?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Sam,” I said. “Sam Kestenbaum.” He raised his eyebrows.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">On the island, the name Kestenbaum is often met with this kind of puzzled look, then followed by, “You’re going to have to spell that.” Certain last names fill up pages in the phone book here. The names of old families that have been here for generations, networks of cousins, aunts and uncles — Eaton, Haskell, Hardy, Heanssler and Weed, among others. But you will find only one Kestenbaum family in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hancock</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place>. And you won’t find too many other Jewish lobstermen (perhaps not particularly surprising considering the non-kosher status of the catch).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Despite this, I feel close to my faith when I’m on the water. The work is difficult, but meditative. Fishermen grapple daily with the elements: the wind, the tide, the shifting of the seasons. Jews also keep their eyes on the elements, recognizing the great, sacred powers that are present in the world. And wherever we go, we believe God travels with us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIpk3ProPoxNmlETpfix2zviGGb11PjBiSS_xSpHp-7yuVrOwQUGPuG3M9ODbk2hnWm5CZPUYdOxEpB_EBeqW0fsdLaGtUH08Jk_itO5n6tLCBVwm9knjxOPJpgzkqUV3rGh_DZzUNqI-/s1600/yom-kippur-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIpk3ProPoxNmlETpfix2zviGGb11PjBiSS_xSpHp-7yuVrOwQUGPuG3M9ODbk2hnWm5CZPUYdOxEpB_EBeqW0fsdLaGtUH08Jk_itO5n6tLCBVwm9knjxOPJpgzkqUV3rGh_DZzUNqI-/s400/yom-kippur-01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">It is said that when the Jews went into exile, the Shekinah, the divine presence, went into exile, too — hovering over us, around us wherever we were, waiting for us to invite the sacred into our lives. This is one of the great gifts of diaspora: we travel, move, but remain who we are.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Last year, during the week of Yom Kippur, a storm whirled into <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Penobscot</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype></st1:place>, the first of the fall. The rain was heavy; fierce winds shook the trees and bent their branches. It turned out I wasn’t the only fisherman to spend the holiday onshore. Most stayed in their shops, mending traps, coiling rope or painting buoys.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">And me, I drove the hour and a half to the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangor</st1:place></st1:city> temple to meditate on teshuvah — on turning and returning to God, on starting fresh. It wasn’t boat work, but it was work — a kind of repair, a checking of the knots and wiring, refueling for another year.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">And today I’ll do the same. On this Yom Kippur, I wish my fellow Jews “gmar chatima tova,” may you be written in the Book of Life for good. And to my fellow fishermen: I wish safe waters and good hauls. May the price per pound of lobster rise. May we weather the coming storms.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_author_id>Sam Kestenbaum works on a lobster boat.<o:p></o:p></nyt_author_id></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>Source : <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/opinion/18kestenbaum.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/opinion/18kestenbaum.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print</a> <o:p></o:p></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-92004807538939021572010-09-19T19:56:00.001+05:002010-09-19T20:40:06.699+05:00ENTREPRENEURS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><h1 style="line-height: 13.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">Just Manic Enough: Seeking Perfect Entrepreneurs<o:p></o:p></span></h1><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #a81817; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">September 18, 2010</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h6><nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"> </nyt_headline><br />
<h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/david_segal/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by David Segal"><span style="color: #000066;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">DAVID SEGAL</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></h6><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Cambridge</span></span></nyt_text></span></st1:city><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">, </span></span><st1:state w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Mass.</span></span></st1:state></span></st1:place><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">IMAGINE you are a venture capitalist. One day a man comes to you and says, “I want to build the game layer on top of the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">You don’t know what “the game layer” is, let alone whether it should be built atop the world. But he has a passionate speech about a business plan, conceived when he was a college freshman, that he says will change the planet — making it more entertaining, more engaging, and giving humans a new way to interact with businesses and one another.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">If you give him $750,000, he says, you can have a stake in what he believes will be a $1-billion-a-year company.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTiLKXhfN0Q2Yj5ZshVOh2jXd5ERlNaEhOJULYQ3aNWg1MOIw-6JNDH6ibYRGBKcLb3AhhHDHsaNjgAH316psvh1Kp7fWmrUt1dXLfeBH-zHdw0rwQVNpxqGVBDCO23UVIkUd7jVFAkjmJ/s1600/0304_entrepreneurs_400x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTiLKXhfN0Q2Yj5ZshVOh2jXd5ERlNaEhOJULYQ3aNWg1MOIw-6JNDH6ibYRGBKcLb3AhhHDHsaNjgAH316psvh1Kp7fWmrUt1dXLfeBH-zHdw0rwQVNpxqGVBDCO23UVIkUd7jVFAkjmJ/s400/0304_entrepreneurs_400x400.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Interested? Before you answer, consider that the man displays many of the symptoms of a person having what psychologists call a hypomanic episode. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual — the occupation’s bible of mental disorders — these symptoms include grandiosity, an elevated and expansive mood, racing thoughts and little need for sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Elevated” hardly describes this guy. To keep the pace of his thoughts and conversation at manageable levels, he runs on a track every morning until he literally collapses. He can work 96 hours in a row. He plans to live in his office, crashing in a sleeping bag. He describes anything that distracts him and his future colleagues, even for minutes, as “evil.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">He is 21 years old.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">So, what do you give this guy — a big check or the phone number of a really good shrink? If he is Seth Priebatsch and you are<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.hcp.com/" title="Firm’s Web site."><span style="color: #000066;">Highland Capital Partners</span></a>, a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/v/venture_capital/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Venture Capital."><span style="color: #000066;">venture capital</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>firm in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lexington</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Mass.</st1:state></st1:place>, the answer is a big check.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">But this thought exercise hints at a truth: a thin line separates the temperament of a promising entrepreneur from a person who could use, as they say in psychiatry, a little help. Academics and hiring consultants say that many successful entrepreneurs have qualities and quirks that, if poured into their psyches in greater ratios, would qualify as full-on mental illness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Which is not to suggest that entrepreneurs like Seth Priebatsch (pronounced PREE-batch) are crazy. It would be more accurate to describe them as just crazy enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“It’s about degrees,” says John D. Gartner, a psychologist and author of “The Hypomanic Edge.” “If you’re manic, you think you’re Jesus. If you’re hypomanic, you think you are God’s gift to technology investing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">The attributes that make great entrepreneurs, the experts say, are common in certain manias, though in milder forms and harnessed in ways that are hugely productive. Instead of recklessness, the entrepreneur loves risk. Instead of delusions, the entrepreneur imagines a product that sounds so compelling that it inspires people to bet their careers, or a lot of money, on something that doesn’t exist and may never sell.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">So venture capitalists spend a lot of time plumbing the psyches of the people in whom they might invest. It’s not so much about separating the loonies from the slightly manic. It’s more about determining which hypomanics are too arrogant and obnoxious — traits common to the type — and which have some humanity and interpersonal skills, always helpful for recruiting talent and raising money.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Some V.C.’s have personality tests to help them weed out the former. Others emphasize their toleration of mild forms of mania, if only because starting a business is, on its face, a little nuts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“You need to suspend disbelief to start a company, because so many people will tell you that what you’re doing can’t be done, and if it could be done, someone would have done it already,” says Paul Maeder, a general partner at Highland Capital. “There are six billion human beings on this planet, we’ve been around for hundreds of thousands of years, we’re a couple hundred years into the industrial revolution — and nobody has done what you want to do? It’s kind of crazy.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">ON a recent Saturday evening, Seth Priebatsch is sitting in his office/bedroom in the 26,000-square-foot space that houses<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.scvngr.com/" title="Scvngr Web site."><span style="color: #000066;">Scvngr</span></a>(pronounced “scavenger”), which he founded in early 2009. Dozens of toy race cars fill a bookshelf on one wall; the other is covered with lists and drawings. The sofa where he crashes in his sleeping bag lies between the two.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">He will explain the genesis of Scvngr, and offer a sort of guided tour of his mind, while sitting on a stool in his bare feet, wearing jeans and a Princeton T-shirt. A pair of Oakley sunglasses are perched, as they nearly always are, atop his head — part talisman, part personal branding.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">He is lean, smiley and partial to the word “awesome,” which he uses as a noun — as in “an extra dose of awesome.” He speaks quickly and with what sounds like a Canadian accent, which seems odd because he was raised in Boston.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">He first pitched Scvngr as a freshman at Princeton, to a professor linked to an annual business plan contest open to undergraduates and graduates. “I told him I wanted to build the game layer on top of the world,” Mr. Priebatsch recalls. “And he didn’t say, ‘You’re insane.’ So I said, ‘And I want everyone in the world to help me build it.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Scvngr won first prize, which came with $5,000 and emboldened him to apply to a seed financing company,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dreamitventures.com/" title="Company’s Web site."><span style="color: #000066;">DreamIt Ventures</span></a>, which gave him $35,000. The victory also caught the eye of a venture capitalist, Peter Bell of Highland Capital, who read about Mr. Priebatsch’s prize while surfing the Web one night. Mr. Bell popped off an e-mail.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“It was Saturday night, pretty late,” Mr. Bell recalls. “I said, ‘If you ever come to Boston, I’d love to meet you.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Mr. Priebatsch replied immediately: he’d decided to drop out of Princeton and move to Boston. The university would be around a long time, he reasoned, but the moment to start Scvngr was fleeting and couldn’t wait a few weeks, let alone three years.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">So, what is this potentially globe-altering enterprise?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Scvngr is a game that you play on your phone, and playing Scvngr is incredibly easy,” he begins.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">The game allows you to compete and win rewards at stores, gyms, theaters, museums and so on. A Mexican restaurant, for instance, might offer half off your next soda if you fold the tin foil on your burrito into origami, then snap a picture of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">If this sounds like little more than a gimmicky way to lure in consumers, well, you haven’t listened to Mr. Priebatsch long enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“We play games all the time, right?” he says. “School is a game. It’s just a very badly designed game.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/american_express_company/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about American Express Company"><span style="color: #000066;">American Express</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>cards, with their escalating status, from green, to gold to black — they are a game. So are frequent-flier miles.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“But game dynamics aren’t consciously leveraged in any meaningful way, and Scvngr does that.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">This, apparently, has enormous implications. “If we can bring game dynamics to the world, the world will be more fun, more rewarding, we’ll be more connected to our friends, people will change their behavior to be better. But if this is going to work it has to be something that anyone can play and that everyone can build.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">This, he says, is the key: Scvngr is both a game and a game platform. Anyone can create a Scvngr challenge, free, using four default games or tools the company offers. There are now 20 million Scvngr challenges in the United States, according to the company, most of which are simple tasks, like “stand in this spot and say something.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">In addition, about 1,000 companies and organizations — including the New England Patriots, Zipcar,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/sony_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about SONY Corporation"><span style="color: #000066;">Sony</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/warner_bros_entertainment_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Warner Brothers."><span style="color: #000066;">Warner Brothers</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>— pay Scvngr to create and manage their challenges.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“The last decade was the decade where the social framework was built,” he says — most successfully by<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Facebook."><span style="color: #000066;">Facebook</span></a>. “The next decade will be the decade of games.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Judging this pitch by reading it, as opposed to hearing it in person, is like appraising a song based solely on its lyrics. Mr. Priebatsch describes Scvngr and the future it portends with burbling fluency, as if it were a country he has visited and one that you must see. He is especially good at giving “the game layer” an aura of inevitability.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">It is hardly clear, though, that such a layer will catch on or, if it does, whether Scvngr will be the company to build it. The field of location-based tech games is crowded, and include standouts like<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://foursquare.com/" title="Foursquare’s site."><span style="color: #000066;">Foursquare</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://gowalla.com/" title="Gowalla’s site."><span style="color: #000066;">Gowalla</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">The particulars of Scvngr seem nitpickable, too. The game’s points will earn you whatever goodie is offered on the spot, but there is nothing else you can do with them. And some users have found Scvngr’s challenges to be pretty lame. More than a few of the contests seem like barely veiled marketing ploys — like retailers that “challenge” you to come up with three words that describe the store.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Reviews so far have split the crowd. As of last week, a third of the roughly 1,000 people who had weighed in on the latest version of Scvngr in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/iphone/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival news about the iPhone."><span style="color: #000066;">iPhone</span></a>’s App Store gave it the highest rating and one-third gave it the lowest.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Not relevant to having fun,” read one review.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">But Mr. Priebatsch’s pitch has worked, at least by the standards of start-ups, most of which die in the blueprint phase. Part of the reason could be pinned on the investing and tech world’s raging case of Next Zuckerberg Syndrome — the urge to find another<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: #000066;"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/z/mark_e_zuckerberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Mark E. Zuckerberg.">Mark Zuckerberg</a> </span>before he starts another Facebook.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">But nobody inspires N.Z.S. without a promising idea, intelligence and a lot of charisma. Scvngr today has 60 employees, many of them veterans of very successful tech start-ups. As of December of last year, it also had $4 million from Google Ventures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Any list of the qualities that have netted all this talent and money should include Mr. Priebatsch’s quasirobotic work ethic. He does not socialize. He no longer reads books, nor does he watch TV or movies. He works from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week. He was reluctant to have a photographer visit for this article because he worried that it might distract employees.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Doesn’t he miss going to bars, just hanging out, being 21? Here’s where Mr. Priebatsch starts to sound like a teenage Vulcan.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I had friends at Princeton; I’m sure it’d be fun to see them,” he says. “But I know that what I’m going after is huge and others are going after it, and if they’re not, they’re making a mistake. But other people will figure it out, and every minute that I’m not working on it is a minute when they’re making progress and I’m not. And that is just not O.K.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">THE hypomanic temperament is, of course, not limited to entrepreneurs. It’s found in politics (<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/theodore_roosevelt/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Theodore Roosevelt."><span style="color: #000066;">Theodore Roosevelt</span></a>) the military (George S. Patton), Hollywood (the studio head David O. Selznick) and virtually any field where outsize risks yield enormous rewards.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">But the business world has contributed more than its share of hypomanics, particularly the abusive, ornery kind. The most colorful of the breed was arguably<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/henry_ford/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Henry Ford."><span style="color: #000066;">Henry Ford</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“He epitomizes the unhinged, entrepreneurial spirit,” says Douglas G. Brinkley, a history professor at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/rice_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Rice University"><span style="color: #000066;">Rice University</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and author of “Wheels for the World,” a book about Mr. Ford and his company. “He became monomaniacal in his belief that the internal combustion engine should be fueled by gas, at a time when everything was electric, and nobody thought you could put gas on a hot motor.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Mr. Ford could be both charmer and ruthless jerk. When he visited rural America to extol the horseless carriage, listeners were often left hoping that he would run for president. With employees, on the other hand, he was an autocrat who never brooked dissent. He clung so stubbornly to his vision — black cars, and only black cars, for the masses — that the company almost went bust when rivals like<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/general_motors_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about General Motors."><span style="color: #000066;">General Motors</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>started offering more choices.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Nearly all conversations about contemporary hypomanics start with the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/apple_computer_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about Apple Inc."><span style="color: #000066;">Apple</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>chief executive,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/steven_p_jobs/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Steven P. Jobs."><span style="color: #000066;">Steven P. Jobs</span></a>. Like Mr. Ford, he is a pitchman extraordinaire with a vaguely messianic streak, and, like Mr. Ford, he can anticipate what people will want before they even know they want it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Mr. Jobs is also routinely described as a despot and control freak with a terrifying temper, says Leander Kahney, author of “Inside Steve’s Brain.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Even the prospect of a chewing out by Steve Jobs makes people work 90 hours a week,” says Mr. Kahney. He treats employees as tools, Mr. Kahney went on, as a means to an end, with the end defined as a universe of Apple products and services that are tailored precisely to his specifications.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I would argue that Jobs has used his control freakery to advantage,” Mr. Kahney says. “The hallmark of Apple is the way it controls the entire user experience — the ads, the stores, the iPods. Nothing is left to chance. That comes from Steve Jobs.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Scholars in organizational studies tend to divide the world into “transformational leaders” (the group that hypomanics are bunched into, of course) and “transactional leaders,” who are essentially even-keeled managers, grown-ups who know how to delegate, listen and set achievable goals.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Both types of leaders need to rally employees to their cause, but entrepreneurs must recruit and galvanize when a company is little more than a whisper of a big idea. Shouting “To the ramparts!” with no ramparts in sight takes a kind of irrational self-confidence, which is perfectly acceptable, though it can also tilt into egomania, which is usually not.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“We have a grid personality scorecard, across 10 or 12 dimensions, attributes that are critical to success,” says Michael A. Greeley, a general partner at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.flybridge.com/" title="Firm’s Web site."><span style="color: #000066;">Flybridge Capital Partners</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in Boston.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">The goal is to spot the really erratic characters, whom Mr. Greeley calls “rail to rail”:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“One day they get up and their favorite color is pink. The next day, it’s green. I’ve worked with hypomanics, and where I think it can be quite insidious — people like this turn on colleagues quickly. An employee could be an incredible contributor, and then, after one mistake, they are out of the lifeboat.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">BEFORE Highland Capital invested in Scvngr, Peter Bell gave Seth Priebatsch’s life and résumé the vigorous frisking that is standard in the venture capital business.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Mr. Priebatsch was 19 at the time, which meant that he didn’t have a lot of former colleagues or bosses. What he did have, however, was a surprisingly long track record in business.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Scvngr is actually the third company that Mr. Priebatsch has founded. At the age of 12, with money from his parents, he started Giftopedia, a price-comparison shopping Web site. When he was in eighth grade, the company had eight employees — six in India, two in Russia.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Nobody who worked for him ever asked him his age, and he never volunteered it. “I wouldn’t say that I kept my age a secret,” he says. “I just never offered that information. Nobody knows how old you are on the Internet.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">All communications were handled via e-mail and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/skype_technologies_sa/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Skype Technologies SA."><span style="color: #000066;">Skype</span></a>, often while he was typing on a laptop while sitting in class. For a long time, his teachers thought that he was simply taking copious notes, but he was actually sending instructions overseas with a wireless connection.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“One day, I forgot to hit the mute button on my laptop and it started ringing during French class,” he recalls. The Giftopedia server was down that day, and it was a crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I got up and told my teacher, ‘I’m really sorry, but I have to take this call.’ ”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Giftopedia was profitable, but a little late to the field, Mr. Priebatsch says. Ultimately, he sold the domain name for five figures and, at 17, founded PostcardTech, which created and mailed out promotional mini-CDs on behalf of tourist destinations and universities. For that company, he rented part of a factory in China, which, he said, was time-consuming but surprisingly easy and didn’t even require a trip to Asia.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Mr. Priebatsch handed PostcardTech off to some friends, who did little with it, and the company has since folded. But it left Mr. Priebatsch with a chunk of money — he won’t say how large — that he has since invested in Scvngr.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Dr. Gartner, the author and psychologist, says he believes that hypomanics come by their disposition genetically. But it is hard to tease out what Norman and Suzanne Priebatsch — a biotech entrepreneur and a financial adviser at SmithBarney, respectively — bequeathed through their DNA and what they instilled in Seth and his older sister, Daniella Priebatsch, as they grew up.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Because chez Priebatsch sounds like boot camp for the brain.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“With both my kids, my wife and I pushed them very hard,” says Norman Priebatsch, who is a native of South Africa. “Very invasive, very intrusive, doing things, planning things continuously.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">As a child, when Seth started to read along with his father — high-level math, physics and history books were the staples — the elder Mr. Priebatsch would often turn the books upside down, adding a degree of difficulty to the experience, and presumably some fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">The upshot is that Seth can now read as quickly upside down as right-side up, something to keep in mind if you ever find yourself sitting across a desk from him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“People assume that if you’ve got a sheet of paper in front of you that no one else can read it,” he says, “and that is false.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Vacations, Seth says, made school seem relaxing. He and his sister were expected to research destinations — Istanbul, Shanghai and Rome, for instance — and then plan most of the itinerary down to the hour. On the trips, they would tour all day and night, leaving time for the children to upload photos to a laptop and type up a detailed account of everything they’d seen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“We were the scribes of those trips; that was a requirement,” says Daniella, who now works on a sales team at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/google_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about Google Inc"><span style="color: #000066;">Google</span></a>. “Every detail — what it was like at the museum, people we met. Even the room number of the hotel, in case it was a good room and we ever came back.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">The rigor and intensity of Seth’s upbringing have left him with a peculiar combination of rarefied skills and mundane deficiencies. He is a gifted software engineer but a terrible driver. (“I hit things,” he says.) He’s perfectly at ease negotiating with V.C.’s, but has had just one girlfriend, a relationship that ended abruptly when someone asked how long they’d been dating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“We answered simultaneously and she said six months and I said two weeks,” he recounts, sounding amused. “Two weeks earlier we’d had this conversation, and I said, ‘And so now we’re dating, correct?’ And she said yes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">He shrugs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I thought I’d been really clear,” he says. “I find business relationships are easier. You have to sign a piece of paper.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">IN late 2008, as part of the investment process, Mr. Priebatsch had to visit Highland Capital’s offices and present his plan to the firm’s partners.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">It went well, but there are still skeptics at the firm. Mr. Maeder of Highland still wonders whether Scvngr is the scaffolding of a major business. At the same time, he regards the $750,000 investment as a bet on Mr. Priebatsch as much as a bet on his company.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“Seth has such a fertile mind; you just know that he’ll attract great people to the company,” he says, “and the ideas will continue to flow and morph until he finds something great.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">You also get the sense that Mr. Priebatsch won’t stop, even if Scvngr is a glorious triumph.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I like winning,” he says. “I’m addicted to the act of winning, the process. When you are in the act of winning, everything is great. Once you’ve won, that’s boring. It’s cool, it’s better than having lost, but it’s boring.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Great piles of money would not slow him down, either.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I’m not anti-money,” he says. “I like nice bikes, I like nice computers. I like that money is a representation of success, but the actual entity itself is not interesting for me. There is little that I would want that I don’t have, and the things that I want money can’t buy.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Like?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">He doesn’t pause.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">“I want to build the game layer on top of the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>Source : <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19entre.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19entre.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print</a><o:p></o:p></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-992893706556760602010-09-19T19:44:00.002+05:002010-09-19T20:43:49.584+05:00AMERICAN MUSLIMS<h1 style="line-height: 13.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">Message to Muslims: I’m Sorry<o:p></o:p></span></h1><div><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><h1 style="line-height: 13.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #a81817; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">September 18, 2010</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #a81817; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_byline><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="color: #000066;"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Nicholas D. Kristof"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></nyt_byline></span></h6><h6 style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 1.5pt;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><nyt_byline><br />
</nyt_byline></span></h6><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top>Many Americans<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/my-take-will-moderate-christians-fiddle-as-qurans-burn/"><span style="color: #000066;">have suggested</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>that more moderate Muslims should stand up to extremists, speak out for tolerance, and apologize for sins committed by their brethren.<o:p></o:p></nyt_text></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">That’s reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I’m going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">I’m inspired by another journalistic apology. The Portland Press Herald in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maine</st1:place></st1:state> published an innocuous front-page article and photo a week ago about 3,000 local Muslims praying together to mark the end of Ramadan. Readers were upset, because publication coincided with the ninth anniversary of 9/11, and they deluged the paper with protests.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP54OU9Xvey_aZWRJpqxEjVztzRrgWWkaZx7xz4lvshfcphpOZzvdLpapsesyFzYQ0QuRWlVVcWwRZZIC_gTp5qbVTOEooQ2t7x4A8n62KhiBcguYaax14bisVdthUhZ-GXMXsz98xUEWk/s1600/amcli2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP54OU9Xvey_aZWRJpqxEjVztzRrgWWkaZx7xz4lvshfcphpOZzvdLpapsesyFzYQ0QuRWlVVcWwRZZIC_gTp5qbVTOEooQ2t7x4A8n62KhiBcguYaax14bisVdthUhZ-GXMXsz98xUEWk/s400/amcli2010.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">So the newspaper published<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.pressherald.com/news/newspaper-apologizes-to-those-offended_2010-09-12.html"><span style="color: #000066;">a groveling front-page apology</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>for being too respectful of Muslims. “We sincerely apologize,” wrote the editor and publisher, Richard Connor, and he added: “we erred by at least not offering balance to the story and its prominent position on the front page.” As<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2010/09/14/paper-to-readers-sorry-for-portraying-muslims-as-human/"><span style="color: #000066;">a blog by James Poniewozik</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of Time paraphrased it: “Sorry for Portraying Muslims as Human.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">I called Mr. Connor, and he seems like a nice guy. Surely his front page isn’t reserved for stories about Bad Muslims, with articles about Good Muslims going inside. Must coverage of law-abiding Muslims be “balanced” by a discussion of Muslim terrorists?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Ah, balance — who can be against that? But should reporting of Pope Benedict’s trip to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> be “balanced” by a discussion of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/25/what-an-irish-terrorist-teaches-us-about-tolerance.html"><span style="color: #000066;">Catholic terrorists in Ireland</span></a>? And what about journalism itself?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGZtyJRaZaAZiEjK-w4vFMvnLwW4Zp_iaLAxKs2TWVaX7voX9oo_I54vx3d2gNVoNEOl9VFlxCelVQvYkg5RenfUs_7O1OlP7I1TcUySe2gDOuHRDbZvea662GjN-B3RUvadO7RYYUFkj/s1600/Gallup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGZtyJRaZaAZiEjK-w4vFMvnLwW4Zp_iaLAxKs2TWVaX7voX9oo_I54vx3d2gNVoNEOl9VFlxCelVQvYkg5RenfUs_7O1OlP7I1TcUySe2gDOuHRDbZvea662GjN-B3RUvadO7RYYUFkj/s1600/Gallup.jpg" /></a></div><em><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><br />
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<em><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">I interrupt this discussion of peaceful journalism in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maine</st1:place></st1:state> to provide some “balance.” Journalists can also be terrorists, murderers and rapists. For example, radio journalists in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rwanda</st1:place></st1:country-region> promoted genocide.</span></em><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">I apologize to Muslims for another reason. This isn’t about them, but about us. I want to defend Muslims from intolerance, but I also want to defend <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> against extremists engineering a spasm of religious hatred.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Granted, the reason for the nastiness isn’t hard to understand. Extremist Muslims have led to fear and repugnance toward Islam as a whole. Threats by Muslim crazies just in the last few days forced a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Seattle</st1:place></st1:city> cartoonist, Molly Norris, to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-09-15/news/on-the-advice-of-the-fbi-cartoonist-molly-norris-disappears-from-view/"><span style="color: #000066;">go into hiding</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>after she drew a cartoon about Muhammad that went viral.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">And then there’s 9/11. When I recently compared today’s prejudice toward Muslims to the historical bigotry toward Catholics, Mormons, Jews and Asian-Americans, many readers protested that it was a false parallel. As one, Carla, put it on my blog: “Catholics and Jews did not come here and kill thousands of people.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">That’s true, but Japanese did attack <st1:place w:st="on">Pearl Harbor</st1:place> and in the end killed far more Americans than Al Qaeda ever did. Consumed by our fears, we lumped together anyone of Japanese ancestry and rounded them up in internment camps. The threat was real, but so were the hysteria and the overreaction.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Radicals tend to empower radicals, creating a gulf of mutual misunderstanding and anger. Many Americans believe that Osama bin Laden is representative of Muslims, and many Afghans believe that the Rev. Terry Jones (who talked about burning Korans) is representative of Christians.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Many Americans honestly believe that Muslims are prone to violence, but humans are too complicated and diverse to lump into groups that we form invidious conclusions about. We’ve mostly learned that about blacks, Jews and other groups that suffered historic discrimination, but it’s still O.K. to make sweeping statements about “Muslims” as an undifferentiated mass.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">In my travels, I’ve seen some of the worst of Islam: theocratic mullahs oppressing people in Iran; girls kept out of school in Afghanistan in the name of religion; girls subjected to genital mutilation in Africa in the name of Islam; warlords in Yemen and Sudan who wield AK-47s and claim to be doing God’s bidding.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">But I’ve also seen the exact opposite:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.islamicreliefusa.org/"><span style="color: #000066;">Muslim aid workers</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in Afghanistan who risk their lives to educate girls; a Pakistani imam who shelters rape victims; Muslim leaders who campaign against female genital mutilation and note that it is not really an Islamic practice; Pakistani Muslims who stand up for oppressed Christians and Hindus; and above all, the innumerable Muslim aid workers in Congo, Darfur, Bangladesh and so many other parts of the world who are inspired by the Koran to risk their lives to help others. Those Muslims have helped keep me alive, and they set a standard of compassion, peacefulness and altruism that we should all emulate.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">I’m sickened when I hear such gentle souls lumped in with Qaeda terrorists, and when I hear the faith they hold sacred excoriated and mocked. To them and to others smeared, I apologize.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>Source : <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/opinion/19kristof.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/opinion/19kristof.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print</a><o:p></o:p></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-92076566163627101232010-09-12T17:40:00.001+05:002010-09-12T18:45:26.361+05:00Bryans win Championship - Qureshi - Bhopanna win the hearts<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bob and Mike Bryan added another championship plus trophy to their fantastic career. They are number one and played their best.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet, the show was stolen by Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bhopanna by giving Bryan Twins the toughest time of their career.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiibgfP8p9elDSW1ONMF7zfj3-Bq5Ymmgjf8eFiq4FZbCXi9Y_c_URISzEzOwY-lU_U5Uq9gO7B4e12upUymNJ7d_r4n4tlHjKT_1QLRGhjLp2tgQK5QLlWB4SZDJH6aXTb29YqK_V1WBn/s1600/Bhopanna+and+Qureshi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiibgfP8p9elDSW1ONMF7zfj3-Bq5Ymmgjf8eFiq4FZbCXi9Y_c_URISzEzOwY-lU_U5Uq9gO7B4e12upUymNJ7d_r4n4tlHjKT_1QLRGhjLp2tgQK5QLlWB4SZDJH6aXTb29YqK_V1WBn/s1600/Bhopanna+and+Qureshi.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Losing to world's Number One pair is just a part of the game. But, playing double finals of doubles is an achievement for Qureshi (DDQ - Double Doubles Qureshi). He won the hearts of millions of Pakistanis back at home where unprecedented floods have displaced millions and deprived them of everything including hundreds of lives. Qureshi has become a household name in Pakistan in a couple of days. He has given people hope and rejoice after the agonizing pains, shame and sorrow of Cricket Spot Fixing Scandal.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Indo-Pak Express, as they are known in the international media, are also acting as ambassadors of peace. Their pair in the tennis courts is an alarming and formidable force to be taken notice of and their friendship off the grounds is examplry.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bryans will have to watch them in the future encounters because they have been beaten by Aisam-ul-Haq and Bhopanna in Washington last month. One of the twins admitted that this was their career's best match.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People of the sub-continent look forward to more victories by the duo and they definitely realize the gravity of the onus that they are carrying on their shoulders from now on. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saalik Siddikki</span>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576310765375246319.post-63176068691715508642010-09-12T16:28:00.000+05:002010-09-12T16:28:23.610+05:00Bopanna and Qureshi<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>Double on a peace mission</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The sport can cross borders: In Paris, enter the double Aisam Qureshi, the Pakistani Muslim and Hindu, the Indian Rohan Bopanna in common.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">If Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal walk in these days by the players lounge of Roland Garros, always walk a few dozen pairs of eyes with them. The superstars of the tennis industry will be in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city> pursued at every turn - sometimes with discrete, sometimes with no hidden eyes of competitors, coaches, representatives of the sponsors, the tournament manager.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Federer and Nadal are the central star in a universe in which literally everything revolves around them. They are even in a tournament like Roland Garros, where it should go to athletic equality and fraternity in the competition courted as the king. You get the best seats, the best training times, the best match fixtures, even if they do not ask.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Rohan Bopanna and Qureshi Aisam be hardly noticed in the huge caravan of nomads professional establishment in which size is defined too often in prize money, inaugural award or glittering, headline appearances. Here are the 30-year-old Pakistani Muslim, Indian Hindu Qureshi and Bopanna same age, two of the most outstanding protagonists of the global tennis tour, two avant-garde, swim against the tide of public conventions, sentiments and prejudices in their home countries.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Qureshi and Bopanna to play on the same side of the net in a friendly alliance tennis (and survived the first round on Sunday), is nothing less than a sensation. An even greater sensation than if Federer or Nadal would resign before a possible final next Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiembTmmEfyzjHgbcB5hcpHke3GLpQMQzbGVlvspVF96JNXeJrE7nhjZXsruzP7VnP_fV6e0WDpH-r-tsVID-ph42CcS1Y0HemD3VDKdPYFcY1pL8PxMATz_ksVX8PMaGJD6CoAE1I4HDGw/s1600/Qureshi+and+bhopana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiembTmmEfyzjHgbcB5hcpHke3GLpQMQzbGVlvspVF96JNXeJrE7nhjZXsruzP7VnP_fV6e0WDpH-r-tsVID-ph42CcS1Y0HemD3VDKdPYFcY1pL8PxMATz_ksVX8PMaGJD6CoAE1I4HDGw/s400/Qureshi+and+bhopana.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"We're just one example of how to live together peacefully," said Qureshi, overcomes a diplomat in short pants, with polished words describing a partnership, "the boundaries and ditches. Just recently got the two world-class doubles player demonstrates involuntary how amazing their own liaison is still - as a fact in India and Pakistan, the two uncanny neighboring nuclear powers, a storm of indignation about the announced marriage of Indian tennis player Sania Mirza and the Pakistan Cricket Stars Shoab Malik broke out. Politicians and populist tabloids zündelten long and hard, but ultimately in vain: The couple dared, against all odds. "We are very happy for the two," said Bopanna.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Sultry Bollywood Fans</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">On the tennis tour found the almost statesmanlike Qureshi and the teen-stormy Bopanna together easily, without having to shave tight around the political climate and military entanglements: "There are many lonely moments, if you are the whole year on the road in this sport," says Bopanna, "it was nice to be able to converse with someone who understands your language pretty well." Bopanna speaks Hindi, Urdu Qureshi, but it's close together, at least closer than most people who speak those languages.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">As Qureshi and Bopanna then agreed to the joint appearance in the doubles, they were initially pragmatic partner, which everyone was happy for himself, "to have found a good neighbor" (Qureshi). But soon they were also friends, "which sparked a wave" (Bopanna), although they are fundamentally different in character. Incidentally, although both are hot-blooded Bollywood fans, but football routes divide: Qureshi is Liverpool-freak, Bopanna fired at Manchester United. "If the play goes against each other, things get to us," said Bopanna.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Qureshi, the only Pakistani in top international tennis, so to speak, is a veteran of the sport Crossing Boundaries: In 2002, the provocateur was sympathetic to the Israeli Amir Hadad in Tour competitions at the start, accompanied by shrill noise in both nations. "Sport is for me free of all conflicts. If there is anything that connects people, then sports, "said Qureshi, an idealist, but living example of his ideals into practice. With his Jewish companions Hadad, he reached in that year at <st1:place w:st="on">Wimbledon</st1:place>, even the third round, and later they were both from the players' union the ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award ".<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The closer in the late career years, the friendship grew Bopanna, the better was the interaction on the tennis fields: "I understand so well with him that I am blind, what he does - and what not," says Qureshi. The Pakistani is the man who has the good touch, which brings the feints and tricks into the game.Bopanna stands for power, dynamic straightness. "Two players from these two countries, which are complementary just perfect," says the former world number one Mats Wilander (<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sweden</st1:place></st1:country-region>), "a wonderful thing."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>Even big plans</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The fact that they both focus almost exclusively on the tennis Affairs for two beats, positively reflected in their job reference: In Johannesburg, they won the season beginning, like their first ATP title, before Roland Garros, they were also in the doubles final in Nice. Advanc Qureshi also became the first Pakistani in doubles in the top 50 of the best rating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Since his home has a sponsorship agreement with Pepsi and spots with him to run in TV breaks the national sport cricket, he will anyway perceived quite differently: "If the kids only see cricket players in advertising, they think that they only earn money can. And suddenly, I dive on in advertising. "<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">You do not have big plans for these two unpretentious artists of international understanding. When it comes to them, will soon again on the only road border crossing between <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> put up a net in Wagah. Then there is a tennis training session to give children from both countries. Qureshi, the Pakistani will be on Indian soil. And Bopanna, the Indians on Pakistani soil. It is still a dream, a vision of the two professionals. But who, if they do not, it could create. "We want to give others the strength to tear down walls in the head," says Qureshi.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Source : <a href="http://www.welt.de/sport/article7836807/Doppel-Qureshi-und-Bopanna-auf-Friedensmission.html">http://www.welt.de/sport/article7836807/Doppel-Qureshi-und-Bopanna-auf-Friedensmission.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">NOTE</span></b> : </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">This is computer translation of the original article in German.</span></span></div>Saalik Siddikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07929945153060536729noreply@blogger.com0