Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Perry’s Faith-Based Foreign Policy Directive


Perry's Faith-Based Foreign Policy Directive
God says: 'Put Israel first'
by Justin Raimondo, September 21, 2011

If Rick Perry makes it to the White House, what will American foreign policy in the Middle East look like? We got a clear indication of that, recently, when he stated:

"As a Christian I have a clear directive to support Israel, from my perspective its pretty easy both as an American and a Christian. I am going to stand with Israel."

Earlier, in an interview with the Weekly Standard, he was even more emphatic, averring that "My faith requires me to support Israel."

What kind of faith requires knee-jerk support for a foreign country? Apparently, Perry is a follower of a Protestant brand of Christianity known as " dispensationalism," which holds that the End Times are approaching – and that one of the signs of the imminent apocalypse is the gathering of the Jews in the land of Israel, as supposedly foretold in the Bible. Some dispensationalists equate this with the founding of the Israeli state, in 1947, and the subsequent migration of many Jews to that country. According to dispensationalist theology, this phenomenon prefigures the start of an earth-shattering war, one that will pit Israel against the Forces of Darkness, herald the rise of the Anti-Christ, and ignite a battle that will take place on the field of Armageddon – after which Christ will return to earth and the faithful will be "raptured" up into Heaven.

Now, I don't intend to disparage anyone's religious beliefs, nor do I want to engage in the kind of snickering that usually accompanies commentary on this subject: everyone is entitled to their own faith, and, aside from that, there is something a little unsavory about the smugness and self-righteousness that is usually attached to discussions of the impact of Christian fundamentalism on American politics. There is no religious test for holding office in these United States, and it seems to me that some liberals have been trying their best to establish one – a test of ir religion – in order to marginalize millions of Americans. This kind of intolerance is mirrored, on the right, by some – like GOP presidential aspirant Herman Cain, for example – who have raised questions about the ability of religious Muslims to have their voices heard, or even to hold office.

However, the idea that a US President's religious convictions will compel him to support a foreign government, regardless of whether that support serves specifically American interests, is appalling – and dangerous. And we can see how dangerous it is by looking at Governor Perry's attacks on the Obama administration for supposedly not kowtowing to Tel Aviv with sufficient obeisance. At a press conference held in New York City, where he appeared with an Israeli government official, Perry declared:

"It is time to change our policy of appeasement toward the Palestinians to strengthen our ties to the nation of Israel, and in the process establish a robust American position in the Middle East characterized by a new firmness and a new resolve."

What, exactly, does this "policy of appeasement" consist of? The Obama administration is determined to veto the Palestinian statehood proposal being advanced in the UN Security Council, and has made it clear that the US government stands behind the Israelis in their attempt to grab as much land – via the construction of " settlements" – as they can, all of it funded by generous dollops of American "foreign aid."

Who is being "appeased" here – the Palestinians, or the Israelis?

Perry supports continued "settlements" of Palestinian lands, and also says he wants to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a symbolic affirmation of Israel's claim to the "undivided" capital of the Jewish state. This contradicts the policies of two Republican presidents – both named George Bush. It also violates the essential meaning and function of US foreign policy – to protect specifically American interests. We gain nothing by weighing in on where the capital of the state of Israel shall be – although I'll note that nearly every successful presidential aspirant made such a promise during the campaign season. That this promise was summarily broken once they got in the White House speaks volumes about the politics – and the reality – of this issue.

Perry says we should "stand by Israel," our faithful ally and the only state in the region with a long democratic tradition, and this proposition seems reasonable enough – until one begins to examine it a little more closely. Because the Israel of yesteryear – the Israel of Exodus, of the " peace process," of the liberal humanistic tradition out of which Labor Zionism sprang – is not the Israel of today.

The foreign minister of the Jewish state is one Avigdor Lieberman, a fanatic whose bigotry and aggressively nationalistic views have made him an embarrassment even to the hardline government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For example, when relations with Turkey soured, Lieberman threatened to arm the PKK – a Kurdish terrorist group that has been attacking the Turks for years. Netanyahu tried to distance his office from such irresponsible ranting, but when I awoke, this morning, to the news that a bomb had gone off near government offices in Ankara, I wasn't all that surprised.

This raises serious questions about who, exactly, is in charge in Tel Aviv – the crazies, represented by Lieberman and the "settlers," or Netanyahu?

However, a larger question needs to be raised: what has Israel become in the years since the signing of the Camp David Accords? Since that time, the Israeli electorate has moved so far to the right – that is, in the direction of expansionist nationalism – that there seems to be no room for moderates of any stripe. After years of nurturing, subsidizing, and otherwise encouraging the "settler" movement – which is imbued with the ultra-Zionist dream of establishing a " Greater Israel" – the chickens, so to speak, have come home to roost. The settler movement represents almost as great a threat to the stability and authority of the Israeli government as the radical Palestinian factions – greater, perhaps, because the danger is coming from within.

Perry is encouraging this tendency in Israeli politics: he appeared at the press conference with Israeli Knesset member Danny Danon, an ultra-nationalist rival to Netanyahu who wants to revoke the citizenship of Arab Knesset members on dubious grounds, and heads up the wing of Likud that considers even a hardliner like Netanyahu a sell-out. Danon is the darling of the settler movement, and enjoys more support outside of Israel than he does on his home turf. He headed up the ultra-extremist Betar group – an organization which has its origins in an early wing of the Zionist movement that modeled itself on the example of Italian fascism, merely draping a "Zionist" façade over an authoritarian vision of a homogenous volkish state. He is a regular on America's "Israel First" circuit, lecturing to groups of born-again dispensationalists – Perry's crowd – as well as more mainstream venues, updating Betar's authoritarian stance by calling for legal sanctions against those who organize "anti-Israel" boycotts, which apparently also means boycotts of "settler" products.

By appearing on the same stage with Danon, Perry is legitimizing and encouraging the worst impulses in Israeli society – and putting our own interests at risk. If Israel should implode in civil war – and, with the settlers getting increasingly militant, and in open rebellion against the Israeli government – it is numbskull opportunists like Perry who will bear a large part of the blame. By egging on the Israeli equivalents of the Aryan Nations, they will wind up with blood on their hands.

Aside from that, it hardly seems all that presidential for the would-be Republican nominee to be onstage with Bibi's rightist rival in the Likud party – not someone who came in second in the bid for the party leadership, but Danon, who came in third!

What gets me is that these people actually believe they are helping Israel, when their actions are the quickest way to destabilize that country I can think of. A Christian of the dispensationalist variety, who truly believes that the safety of Israel is of paramount concern to God, would have no reason to incite an extremist element to violence against the legitimate government of Israel. And even if that government came to embrace that extremism – and, say, was taken over by the Liebermans and the Danons – their policies would endanger Israel's very existence, and deliver the country to the Devil.

So, even in their own theological terms, Perry and his fellow dispensationalists are wrong, wrong, wrong.

I'm just sayin'…

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/09/20/perrys-faith-based-foreign-policy-directive/

How the "Great War" Began


How the "Great War" Began
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
by Anders Mikkelsen

[Introduction to The Myth of a Guilty Nation]

Albert Jay Nock wrote one of the first American books of World War I Revisionism -- revising the received story of why WWI began. As a lover of history, what I find particularly fascinating about his book The Myth of a Guilty Nation is not whether this is the best explanation for WWI. What is fascinating is the great contrast Nock makes between two wholly different views of the origin of the war. What "everyone knew" about the origins of The Great War at the time is quite different from what "everyone knows" now.

The common American notion was that Germany was responsible for the war. No less a personage than David Lloyd George declared,
What are we fighting for? To defeat the most dangerous conspiracy ever plotted against the liberty of nations; carefully, skilfully, insidiously, clandestinely planned in every detail, with ruthless, cynical determination.
By reading the book we start to see just how differently people viewed the origin of the war at the time, especially in the United States. Since WWI the revisionists won many of the battles, WWI is usually viewed today more as a tragedy, a pointless disaster, the effect of secret diplomacy, general militarism, etc. The reader today is therefore unaware of how many Americans understood the war as the sole outcome of a German conspiracy for plunder. While today we know Europe was an armed camp, the pro-allied propaganda claimed that Europe was unprepared for war. Nock makes the reader aware of the great extent to which the allied politicians continually lied to blame Germany and justify the war, or at least told stories with no regard for the truth. No wonder Hitler found British propaganda so inspiring. In fact the story at the time made it sound like Germany was trying to overrun Europe the way Hitler temporarily did a few decades later.

What Nock brings to the fore is the extent to which WWI may be viewed as the opposite of a conspiracy by Germany. If there was a conspiracy it would have been by the allied Entente powers. To a large degree it was blundered into by state officials, whose desire for peace was fatally undermined by their imperialist ambitions.

We should first note that Nock also touches on how many powerful parties simply wanted peace. However, small powerful parties in France, Britain, and Russia all pushed for war and created secret treaties amongst each other. As Ralph Raico has pointed out, English foreign policy was dominated by a small, secret clique no more answerable to Parliament and the people than a dictatorship like Nazi Germany. Those who knew of England's secret obligations lied to Parliament and denied their existence.

As Nock shows, English, French, and Russian foreign policy was directed against Germany and Austria-Hungary, and military spending was quite large, and much greater than Germany and Austria-Hungary's. All three had powerful cliques who were aggressive towards the Central Powers. They were bound by secret treaties, though this alliance was not publicly acknowledged.

In Nock's book, this is roughly what happened to start WWI: Serbia and the Balkans had a foreign policy dominated by Russia. The assassins of Archduke Ferdinand were linked to the Russian prowar clique. Russia had been "test" mobilizing since the spring of 1914, and its army alone was equal to Germany and Austria-Hungary combined. Russia had a secret treaty with France calling for France to support Russia if Russia mobilized and went to war. The UK had a secret treaty with France calling for it to support France during war, and, to a much lesser but important degree, Russia. Bound by secret treaties, all three powers found themselves thrust into war. Germany saw itself encircled by superior numbers. (Therefore it had to defeat France and Russia in decisive battles before it succumbed in a war of attrition.)

The assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, conveniently for the prowar Entente cliques, set off the train of powder to the powder keg of a general European war of France, Russia, and England against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

For sources, Nock makes great use of Belgian diplomatic correspondence, which noted little evidence of German aggression. The Soviet Union also released many embarrassing secret documents from the Tsarist archives. Nock highly recommends English Liberals Francis Neilson's and E.D. Morel's works of WWI revisionism. (Neilson's How Diplomats Make War is hard to read, while Nock's is a breeze. Neilson focuses more on how English and other nations' diplomats created uncertainty.) It should be noted too that Nock shows evidence that Belgian neutrality was a fig leaf to justify unpopular UK involvement.

Having documentation of a push for war by cliques in Russia, France, and England, Nock shows how German war guilt is a myth and, if anything, prowar cliques in Russia, France, and England were successful in conspiring for war.

What makes this book worth reading is not whether this is the best explanation for WWI. It is worth seeing how small groups of state officials engaged in secret actions that led to a catastrophic war, and continually lied throughout the whole process to provide themselves ideological cover. What is fascinating is the great contrast Nock makes between two wholly different views of the origin of the war. While history and reality seem settled and known, people at different times have radically different understandings of the exact same events.

Anders Mikkelsen is a cost-management consultant in New York City.

http://mises.org/daily/5617/How-the-Great-War-Began

**JP** Pakistani Business man death sentence in China

 

Re: Fwd: [New post] Solyndra Executives to Plead the 5th During Congressional Hearing

the company was personally promoted by President Obama in his visit as
a model for government investment in green technology

another waste of our tax dollars and another BO failure

On Sep 21, 10:27 am, Bruce Majors <majors.br...@gmail.com> wrote:
> **
>     <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/author/doctorbulldog/>
> Solyndra Executives to Plead the 5th During Congressional
> Hearing<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/solyndra-executives-to-...>
> *doctorbulldog <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/author/doctorbulldog/>* |
> 21 September, 2011 at 9:02 am | Categories:
> Environ-mental-ism<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=26193242>,
> Obama Sucks <http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=5183334>,
> politics<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/?cat=398>| URL:http://wp.me/p1NPg-7kQ
>
> *Hm...  If you have nothing to hide, there's no reason to plead the 5th.
> Come to think of it, notoriously, the only guys who seem to consistently
> plead the 5th during congressional hearings are mob bosses and communists.
> How apropos:*
>
> *Solyndra execs will decline to testify at hearing*
>
> Sept 20 (Reuters<http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFS1E78J1KE20110920>)
> - Solyndra LLC's chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke
> their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions put to them
> at a Congressional hearing on Friday, according to letters from their
> attorneys obtained by Reuters.
>
> In the letters sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's
> Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, attorneys for Solyndra CEO
> Brian Harrison and CFO W. G. Stover said they advised their clients not to
> provide testimony during the hearings.
>
> The bankrupt company's $535 million federal loan guarantee is being
> investigated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
>
> Harrison is represented by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Stover is
> represented by Keker & Van Nest.
>
> Solyndra's offices were raided by the FBI two days after the company filed
> for bankruptcy, although the FBI did not say what prompted the raid.
>
> *I'll tell you what I think prompted the FBI raid:  Obama and his cronies in
> the Justice Department who are desperately trying to keep any incriminating
> documents away from Darrell Issa...*
>
> Add a comment to this
> post<http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/solyndra-executives-to-...>
>
>   [image: WordPress]
>
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Zombies eat brains....

Yep, They would starve to death at a tea party rally...
Booooooooom!!!!!!!!!!!

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**JP** Fw: ~:C.C.4.U:~ Wikileaks: The Gangs of Karachi


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: S K Afridi <afridisk@yahoo.com>
To: desi_pardesi@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 21 September 2011 11:25 AM
Subject: ~:C.C.4.U:~ Wikileaks: The Gangs of Karachi

 


 
 
Wikileaks: The Gangs of Karachi
 
US Embassy cable - 09KARACHI138

SINDH - THE GANGS OF KARACHI

Identifier:
09KARACHI138
Origin:
Created:
2009-04-22 11:52:00
Classification:

Tags: PTER ASEC PGOV PK

VZCZCXRO6005
OO RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHKP #0138/01 1121152
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
O 221152Z APR 09
FM AMCONSUL KARACHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1042
INFO RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 0499
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0271
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0314
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1861
RUEHLH/AMCONSUL LAHORE PRIORITY 2720
RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR PRIORITY 4603
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 KARACHI 000138 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2019 
TAGS: PTER, ASEC, PGOV, PK 
SUBJECT: SINDH - THE GANGS OF KARACHI 
 
Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN FAKAN FOR REASONS 1 
.4 b and d. 
 
1. (S) Summary: The police in Karachi are only one of several 
armed groups in the city, and they are probably not the most 
numerous or best equipped.  Many neighborhoods are considered 
by the police to be no-go zones in which even the 
intelligence services have a difficult time operating.  Very 
few of the groups are traditional criminal gangs.  Most are 
associated with a political party, a social movement, or 
terrorist activity, and their presence in the volatile ethnic 
mix of the world,s fourth largest city creates enormous 
political and governance challenges. 
 
MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement) 
------------------------------ 
 
2. (S) The MQM is an ethnic political party of the Urdu 
speaking community (known as \"Mohajirs,\" which is Arabic for 
immigrants) that migrated from India at the time of 
partition; Mohajirs make up around fifty percent of the total 
population in Karachi.  MQM is middle-class, avowedly 
secular, and anti-extremist (the only party to publicly 
protest the recent Swat Nizam-e-Adl regulations).  It has a 
long history of clashes with the Pakistan People,s Party 
(PPP), which controls the Sindh province in which Karachi is 
located, and with the Awami National Party (ANP), which 
represents MQM,s rival ethnic Pashtuns. 
 
3. (S) MQM\'s armed members, known as \"Good Friends,\" are the 
largest non-governmental armed element in the city.  The 
police estimate MQM has ten thousand active armed members and  
as many as twenty-five thousand armed fighters in reserve. 
This is compared to the city\'s thirty-three thousand police 
officers.  The party operates through its 100 Sector 
Commanders, who take  their orders directly from the party 
leader, Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in the United 
Kingdom.  The Sector Commanders plan and monitor the 
activities of the armed elements.  MQM\'s detractors claim 
these armed men are  involved in extortion, assassination of 
political rivals, shootings at campaign rallies, and the 
murder of people from other ethnic communities. 
 
4. (S) Low to middle-ranked police officials acknowledge the 
extortion and the likely veracity of the other charges.  A 
senior police officer said, in the past eight years alone, 
MQM was issued over a million arms licenses, mostly for 
handguns.  Post (Consulate) has observed MQM security personnel carrying 
numerous shoulder-fired weapons, ranging from new European 
AKMs to crude AK copies, probably produced in local shops. 
MQM controls the following neighborhoods in Karachi: 
Gulberg, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Korangi, Landhi, Liaquatabad, 
Malir, Nazimabad, New Karachi, North Nazimabad, Orangi Town, 
Saddar and Shah Faisal. 
 
MQM-H (Muhajir Quami  Movement-Haqiqi) 
------------------------------------- 
 
5. (S) MQM-H is a small ethnic political party that broke 
away from the MQM in the mid-1980s.  MQM-H has its 
strongholds in the Landhi, Korangi and Lines Area 
neighborhoods of the city.  The MQM regarded these areas as 
no-go zones when it was in power during the Musharraf 
presidency.  As a condition for joining the Sindh government 
in 2003, it asked that MQM-H be eliminated.  The local police 
and Rangers were used to crack down on MQM-H, and its leaders 
were put behind bars.  The rank and file of MQM-H found 
refuge in a local religious/political party, Sunni Tehrik 
(see para 9).  The local police believe MQM-H still maintains 
its armed groups in the areas of Landhi and Korangi, and that 
the party will re-organize itself once its leadership is 
released from  jail. 
 
ANP (Awami National Party - Peoples National Party) 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
6. (S) The ANP represents the ethnic Pashtuns in Karachi. 
The local Pashtuns do possess personal weapons, following the 
tribal traditions of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 
and there are indications they have begun to organize formal 
armed groups.  With the onset of combat operations in the 
 
KARACHI 00000138  002 OF 003 
 
 
Federally Administered Tribal Areas in August 2008, a growing 
number of Pashtuns fled south to swell the Pashtun ranks of 
what already is the largest Pashtun city in the world.  This  
has increased tensions between ANP and MQM. 
 
7. (S) If rhetoric of the police and the ANP leadership is to 
be believed, these armed elements may be preparing to 
challenge MQM control of Karachi.  In March, the Karachi 
Police Special Branch submitted a report to the Inspector 
General of Police in which it mentioned the presence of 
\"hard-line\" Pashtuns in the Sohrab Goth neighborhood.  Sohrab 
Goth is located in the Northeast of the city. 
 
8. (S) The report said this neighborhood was becoming a no-go 
area for the police.  The report went on to claim the 
Pashtuns are involved in drug trafficking and gun running and 
if police wanted to move in the area they had to do so in 
civilian clothing.  A senior member of the Intelligence 
Bureau in Karachi recently opined that the ANP would not move 
against MQM until the next elections, but the police report 
ANP gunmen are already fighting MQM gunmen over 
protection-racket turf. 
 
ST (Sunni Tehrik - Sunni Movement) 
---------------------------------- 
 
9. (S) ST is a small religious/political group with a 
presence in small pockets of Karachi.  The group has only 
managed to win a handful of council seats  in local elections 
but militarily it is disproportionably powerful because of 
the influx of MQM-H gunmen after the government crack-down on 
MQM-H (see above).  ST has organized the party and its gunmen 
along the lines of MQM by dividing its areas of influence  
into sectors and units, with sector and unit commanders.  ST 
and MQM have allegedly been killing each other\'s leadership 
since the April 2006 Nishtar Park bombing that killed most of 
ST\'s leadership.  ST blames MQM for the attack.  There 
appears to have been a reduction  in these targeted killings 
since 2008. 
 
PPP (Pakistan People\'s Party) 
----------------------------- 
 
10. (S) PPP is a political party led by, and centered on the 
Bhutto family.  The party enjoys significant support in 
Karachi, especially among the Sindhi and Baloch populations. 
Traditionally, the party has not run an armed wing, but the 
workers of the PPP do possess weapons, both licensed and 
unlicensed.  With PPP in control of the provincial government 
and having an influential member in place as the Home  
Minister, a large number of weapons permits are currently 
being issued to PPP workers.  A police official recently told 
Post that he believes, given the volume of weapons permits 
being issued to PPP members, the party will soon be as 
well-armed as MQM. 
 
Gangs in Lyari: Arshad Pappoo (AP) and Rahman Dakait (RD) 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
11. (S) AP and RD are two traditional criminal  gangs that 
have been fighting each other since the turn of the century 
in the Lyari district of Karachi.  Both gangs gave their 
political support to PPP in the parliamentary elections.  The 
gangs got their start with drug trafficking in Lyari and 
later included the more serious crimes of kidnapping and 
robbery in other parts of Karachi.  (Comment:  Kidnapping is 
such a problem in the city that the Home Secretary once asked 
Post for small tracking devices that could be planted under 
the skin of upper-class citizens and a satellite to track the 
devices if they were kidnapped.  End comment.) 
 
12. (S) Each group has only about 200 hard-core armed 
fighters but, according to police, various people in Lyari 
have around 6,000 handguns, which are duly authorized through 
valid weapons permits.  In addition, the gangs are in 
possession of a large number of unlicensed AK-47 rifles, 
Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers and hand grenades.  The 
weapons are carried openly and used against each other as 
well as any police or Rangers who enter the area during 
security operations.  During police incursions, the gang 
members maintain the tactical advantage by using the narrow 
 
KARACHI 00000138  003 OF 003 
 
 
streets and interconnected houses.  There are some parts of 
Lyari that are inaccessible to law enforcement agencies. 
 
Pashtun Terrorists 
------------------ 
 
13. (S) A Senior IB officer recently opined to Post that \"All 
Pashtuns in Karachi are not Taliban, but all Taliban are 
Pashtuns.\"  The size, scope and nature of \"Talibanization\" 
and true Taliban terrorist activity in Karachi is difficult 
to pin down, but Post has increasingly received anecdotes 
about women, even in more upscale neighborhoods, being 
accosted by bearded strangers and told to wear headscarves in 
public. 
 
14. (S) There has not been a terrorist attack against U.S. 
interests in Karachi since 2006.  There are several theories 
about Taliban activity in Karachi and why  they have not 
staged an attack in so long.  One school of thought has it 
that MQM is too powerful and will not allow the Pashtuns to 
operate in Karachi, and this, combined with the ease of 
operating elsewhere in Pakistan, makes Karachi an undesirable 
venue.  Another line of thinking claims Karachi is too 
valuable as a hiding place and place to raise money. 
 
15. (S) In April, the police in Karachi arrested Badshah Din 
Mahsud, from their Most Wanted Terrorist list, known as the 
Red Book.  It is alleged he was robbing banks in Karachi at 
the behest of Baitullah Mehsud, from the NWFP, and the money 
was being used to finance terrorist activity.  There is a 
large body of threat reporting which would seem to indicate 
the equipment and personnel for carrying out attacks are 
currently in place in Karachi.  In April, Karachi CID told 
Post they had arrested five men from NWFP who were building 
VBIEDs and planed to use them in attacks against Pakistani 
government buildings; including the CID office located behind 
the US Consulate.  CID also claimed they had reliable 
information that suicide vests had been brought to Karachi. 
 
16. (S) Comment:  The importance of maintaining stability in 
Karachi cannot be over-emphasized.  Traditionally, Karachi 
was at the center of lawlessness, criminal activity, and 
politically-inspired violence in Pakistan.  But with the 
security situation in the rest of the country deteriorating, 
the megalopolis has become something of an island of 
stability.  Nevertheless, it still has a number of well-armed 
political and religious factions and the potential to explode 
into violent ethnic and religious conflict given the wrong 
circumstances. 
 
17. (S) The PPP,s decision to include MQM in coalition 
governments in Sindh Province and in the federal government 
has helped preclude a return to the PPP-MQM violence of the 
1990,s.  But the potential for MQM-ANP conflict is growing 
as Pashtuns challenge Mohajir political dominance and vie for 
control of key economic interests, such as the lucrative 
trucking industry.  Any sign that political violence is 
returning to Karachi, especially if it is related to the 
growing strength of conservative Pashtun \"Taliban,\" will send 
extremely negative shockwaves through the society and likely 
accelerate the flight from Pakistan of the business and 
intellectual elite of the society.  End comment. 
FAKAN 
 

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Fwd: [New post] Solyndra Executives to Plead the 5th During Congressional Hearing


Solyndra Executives to Plead the 5th During Congressional Hearing

doctorbulldog | 21 September, 2011 at 9:02 am | Categories: Environ-mental-ism, Obama Sucks, politics | URL: http://wp.me/p1NPg-7kQ

Hm...  If you have nothing to hide, there's no reason to plead the 5th.  Come to think of it, notoriously, the only guys who seem to consistently plead the 5th during congressional hearings are mob bosses and communists.   How apropos:

Solyndra execs will decline to testify at hearing

Sept 20 (Reuters) - Solyndra LLC's chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions put to them at a Congressional hearing on Friday, according to letters from their attorneys obtained by Reuters.

In the letters sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, attorneys for Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W. G. Stover said they advised their clients not to provide testimony during the hearings.

The bankrupt company's $535 million federal loan guarantee is being investigated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Harrison is represented by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Stover is represented by Keker & Van Nest.

Solyndra's offices were raided by the FBI two days after the company filed for bankruptcy, although the FBI did not say what prompted the raid.

I'll tell you what I think prompted the FBI raid:  Obama and his cronies in the Justice Department who are desperately trying to keep any incriminating documents away from Darrell Issa...

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