Justice - Gone with the wind or Still in the air!

Thursday, 26 June 2014

QATAR Annus Horribilis

*Summary & Editor’s Note by: KANWAL ABIDI

Annus Horribilis is a Latin word meaning “horrible year” – and the column is written in the context that it has been an unsuccessful year for Qatar.

With the growing #FIFA fever gripping all over the world, Qatar Government rallied up for FIFA 2022. Oblivious of the fact what is going in the games currently, the column reveals latest rumors of allegations on Qatar officials for bribing to secure FIFA 2022 and also revolves around the buzz about Qatar stance in GCC – Gulf Cooperation Council.
The recent Bergdahl & 5 Taliban Prisoner Swap in May 2014, has highlighted prominent role of QATAR govt, along with US administration - in being a part of diplomatic forward block. Yet Qatar falls in the back seat of Syrian National Coalition. ***** Read further the whole story

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QATAR Annus Horribilis:

What a difference a year makes in the Middle East. One year ago this week, Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, handed over power to his son Sheikh Tamim, joining a short but seemingly growing list of monarchs who have abdicated in favor of their relatives. At the time of his abdication, Hamad left behind an empire of soft power and influence that spanned the entire region. Twelve months on, things could not be more different.

Only 72 hours after Tamim's ascension to the throne, the Muslim Brotherhood — arguably Qatar’s biggest ally that the Gulf state has propped up with billions of dollars and favorable media coverage through Al Jazeera Arabic — was swept from power in Egypt. The movement, which only a few days before held the presidency, the premiership, cabinet posts and parliament, was chased underground, jailed and exiled. President Mohammed Morsi did not even have time to send a cable of congratulations to the young emir. Elsewhere, Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda movement, another close ally of Qatar, agreed to give up power and appoint a caretaker cabinet only a few weeks after the Brotherhood was ousted in Egypt. In Libya, where Qatar committed money, media and military power, former Gen. Khalifa Hifter has pledged to “purge” his country of Muslim Brotherhood members. The Qatari-backed and Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Syrian National Coalition no longer plays a significant role, with the opposition now headed by the Saudi-backed Ahmed al-Jarba, leading one political pundit to comment on Qatar’s influence that "Politically, it is in the back seat — or maybe not even in the car."

Qatar’s Muslim Brotherhood allies suffered a major blow when Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s two holiest shrines, joined Egypt and declared the group a “terrorist” organization. Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz sent a cable to congratulate Egypt’s new strongman President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi less than an hour after he was declared president, saying, “Causing any harm to Egypt is tantamount to harming Islam, Arabs and Saudi Arabia" and advising Sisi to “beware bad friends.” In another clear reference to Qatar, the king said, “Any of us should be aware that if he is able to provide assistance [to Egypt], but lagged behind rather than coming up with this duty, he will have no place among us tomorrow.”

Qatar is increasingly suffering a major image problem over its hosting of the World Cup. Accusations ranged from bribing FIFA officials to vote for Qatar as the host of the World Cup 2022 to repeat accusations of “slave labor” conditions in the country. In the past few weeks, the United States downgraded Qatar in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, and all but one sponsor — the UAE's Emirates airline — called upon FIFA to open an investigation into the allegations known as “Qatargate.”

In March, in an unprecedented step, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Doha after Qatar failed to honor a joint security agreement in November 2013 that included commitments from Doha to cease support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its hosting of Gulf opposition figures. Over the past few months, Kuwait’s veteran diplomat-turned-emir has volunteered to mediate between the Gulf Tripartite (Saudi, Bahrain and the UAE) and Qatar. A task that has yet to bear any fruits will be to find a face-saving measure for Qatar’s emir that is acceptable to the Gulf Tripartite. According to one diplomatic source, unless Qatar satisfies the group's conditions, the latter may opt to boycott the upcoming Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha in December, therefore denying the necessary quorum for a Gulf summit to convene.

The events of the past few months are turning 2014 into an “annus horribilus” for Qatar. However, it is too early to dismiss it from the game of nations. Qatar is still the host of the forward headquarters of the US Central Command, it is endowed with immense natural wealth and although Al Jazeera Arabic has turned into an Islamist shadow of its former self, its English-language networks are slowly gaining global prominence. On a visit to France, Tamim told his hosts on June 23, “We have always been playing the role of a mediator between countries with differences.” Yet, the biggest test for the young emir will be whether he can work out his own differences with the Gulf Tripartite and not find himself alone at the table in December.

Edited By: *KANWAL ABIDI

Political Analyst & Journalist

Information

Shared By: *Sultan S Qassemi

Qatar Political Correspondent

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Reality of Boko Haram

BOKO HARAM Attack on Nigerian Girls:

Twitter lobbies to bring back the girls:

Americans have increasingly been pulled into the frightening story of more than 220 schoolgirls in Nigeria who were kidnapped by terrorist group Boko Haram. People around the world have watched and prayed and helped spread awareness of the girls’ plight by using the social media hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

** Boko Haram’s leader has offered to trade the girls for the freedom of captured terrorists.

Instead of the girls sitting for their exams - they were kidnapped? Why? Who is responsible?

What is Boko Haram? Has it been active for long?

Boko Haram is a Nigerian-based terrorist organization that has received funding and training from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaeda’s North Africa franchise. It attacked the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in 2011. Boko Haram has effectively turned the northern part of Nigeria into a conflict zone, forcing more than a quarter-million Nigerians to flee their homes.

The terrorist group conducts nearly daily indiscriminate attacks against both Muslims and Christians, including car bombs, assassinations, shootings, raids and abductions. More than 8,000 people have died in the past four years as a result of the conflict driven by Boko Haram and Ansaru’s (a Boko Haram breakaway organization) violent activities.

Why is it abducting schoolgirls?

The abduction of the girls from Chibok follows Boko Haram’s desire to ban women’s education and its goal to create a Sharia law state. Since 2013, Boko Haram has claimed it would abduct infidel women and turn them into slaves to sell at the market.

Point of thought by the editor: In Pakistan, the Taliban Peace Talks is a reflection of the struggle to enforce sharia law but it was a fallacy on the part of government to think that peace talks shall be carried out smoothly and it was a camouflage to launch strikes in Miran Shah and Waziristan areas. Were F 16 a part of plot on sharia vs constitution saga?

What is the U.S. doing to help?

Recently, the Obama administration announced it was sending a limited number of military personnel (about 30), intelligence and negotiators to assist the Nigerian government in locating and securing the girls. The U.S. is flying surveillance missions across the region to look for the girls, but given the vast and heavily forested terrain, aerial surveillance is unlikely to produce meaningful intelligence. Given the regional ramifications of Boko Haram and the likelihood of the girls being outside Nigeria, U.S. personnel in the immediate term will likely have a limited impact on securing the girls, other than to allow President Obama to say he “did something.”

Hillary Clinton’s State Department refused to give Boko Haram the legal designation of official terrorist organization, which it did not receive from the U.S. government until 2013. What does that mean?

For nearly three years, the U.S. State Department was unwilling to acknowledge the threat and legally define Boko Haram as a terrorist organization, despite its overt and calculated efforts to terrorize Nigeria and its neighbors, including international targets like the U.N. headquarters. Failure to do this denied U.S. authorities one of the key tools required to counter the group’s activities.

Many social welfare organizations and prominent activists have been warning of the group’s threat and calling for its official designation by the State Department since 2009. A timely designation would have given agencies such as the FBI, CIA and the Justice Department the resources to focus on disrupting and countering the terrorist group’s financial support network. If the requests for this designation from Congress and experts had been answered sooner by the State Department, these young girls might have completed their high school exit exams instead of being kidnapped by terrorists.

Why did the U.S. wait so long to designate Boko Haram as terrorists?

Despite the serious implications of instability and violence in Nigeria and the region, the State Department repeatedly deferred to the Nigerian government’s request that the group not be designated so as not to discourage investment in what is now the largest economy in Africa, rather than allowing U.S. national interests – and common sense – to take precedence.

Point of thought bu the Editor: Since ages common man all around the world has been made to shut up because we have no right to speak or stand up. Organizations as Boko Haram tap in the weakness of the overall society and economic downturn to hire people in to their organization, and then they all fight in the name of jihad or are used for covert operations by various agencies. US interest in Nigeria's economy prevented them for long designating Boko Haram as terrorists. Why? Is investment a greater value indicator than human life?
*Why can't powerful agencies like FBI, CIA stop this menace of abduction or pick leads of such adverse happenings through their intelligence network?

What is America’s relationship with Nigeria?

Nigeria is the United States’ largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa. It remains a top producer of oil sold in the United States and is one of the largest contributors of U.N. peacekeepers worldwide. Given the ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe with Russia, a secure and stable oil supply from Nigeria will be a critical component of European energy security.

What should the U.S. do next?

The Obama administration would be naïve to think that once the #BringBackOurGirls story leaves the media limelight, so will the threat of Boko Haram. French President Francois Hollande has offered to hold a regional security summit with Nigeria and surrounding nations to discuss partnership and coordination opportunities going forward. Nigeria has accepted the invitation. The U.S. should support France’s efforts and accept an invitation to the summit.

Before the girls were kidnapped, the U.S. was already training and professionalizing a small number of Nigerian forces, in particular helping to stand up Nigeria’s own “Army Special Operations Command.” These types of training and partnership opportunities that help professionalize the Nigerian security forces should be expanded.

Outside of military and security support, the U.S. should also look at opportunities to help the Nigerian government advance economic freedom, focusing on more inclusive growth and dynamic job creation in northern Nigeria. This would help create greater economic opportunities and build trust with the Nigerian government, undermining Boko Haram’s ability to recruit and act with impunity in the north.

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"Beginning of the end of terror":

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram will mark a key turning point in the battle against “terror in Nigeria”.

“I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria,” Jonathan told delegates at the World Economic Forum, thanking Britain, China, France and the United States for their offers of help to rescue the hostages.

The four world powers have pledged varying levels of expert help to track down the girls whose April 14 mass abduction from Chibok in north-eastern Borno state has sparked global outrage.

Jonathan’s comments echoed those of US President Barack Obama , who stated that the Chibok kidnappings “may be the event that helps to mobilize the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organisation that’s perpetrated such a terrible crime”.

Jonathan had hoped that the World Economic Forum would highlight Nigeria’s economic progress and its recent emergence as Africa’s top economy, but the headlines have remained focused on Boko Haram.
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Written and Compiled by:

KANWAL ABIDI

*Political Analyst & Journalist

*Tweets @KANWALanalyst

Saturday, 10 May 2014

Chameleon Circus on 5/11

Political Pandora Around The Chowk on 5/11

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We as citizens of Pakistan - are forced to witness the grand show of the “chameleon circus” on 5/11 and on the other side, we are left wishing for a magical genie to save us from our endless miseries. Saga of melodrama does not demand political wisdom here, but the “rule of law” that there is “no law!”

With serious threats to our national security and uncontrolled chaos being ratchet up at every corner – the least, we can demand is a peaceful Sunday to gather our senses to face the gruesome week ahead. But, here on Sunday 5/11, the political “Pandora box” is open to take on the show – where we can just wait and see the chameleons’ putting on a mask to conceal their true faces.

Good news by Hamza Shahbaz that on 5/11 there will be no load shedding. Isn’t it amazing when these leaders adjust the watts according to their “power threshold?” Is this a real blessing to the citizens to have no load shedding that day or a “Catch 22” situation to trick people to keep people in doors?

Former President Asif Ali Zaradari rescued his party in the “name of democracy” by stating - that they do not favor any protests on roads - which challenge the “pious military bells”. Now I can see how Zardari steered his full 5 years democratic term. I will indeed, praise his political wisdom for adopting the stance of a Pious Chameleon for playing on the back foot ranch, by saying “though we oppose the rigging, but we still accept government mandate - in the name of democracy!”

One of the loudspeaker players is Diesel Chameleon – who is fast moving his locomotive to wave hand to the government that hold my hand or else your carriages will be thrown off the track. Maulana’s one smile, one frown face is just good for a public speaking rally, with no real meaning inside his own mosque!

On the other hand, the Red Chameleon will be hitting off “The Chowk” by announcing a train march from 20^th June 2014 and by shaking the sleeping youth on the note - “do not count the blessings of load shedding bestowed by Model Chameleon Brothers - but drive a locomotive faster than Diesel!”

The two great chameleons, Canadian Captain and White Captain - are surely to move only paid workers on roads – as they have played poorly with the emotions of disheartened youth.

Orchestrated rallies are not won on the roads through emotions, but - political wisdom, which sadly no chameleon has demonstrated so far. And if there was any true leader – then “no containers” can stop the inner revolution.

The hearts are dis-orchestrated already, due to the melodrama staged by Taher ul Qadri’s container, where he perked inside warmly, leaving his public to the nature’s mercy. Whether containers are hidden out in some Margalla Hills, through video link, Master of No Politics – Taher ul Qadri, shall hopelessly flash the “white paper” to the public - whose manifesto is written by some invisible hand.

On the other hand, the “White Chameleon” - has left no hope in the minds of wise! Bringing the 13 pointer “charter of demand” to The Chowk – Imran Khan is either on a false hope or a paid voyage to pull the roller coaster in the red zone. After derailing of his own KPK trusted political colleagues – he has proved himself to be on the highest rank of chameleons’. His recent boycott of a private news channel has stamped him as Master of Drama Politics!

Taher ul Qadri and Imran Khan, both want to play the ring master role of chameleon circus at the chowk or off the chowk – but, fact remains that public in general is disoriented from either.

The famous quote of Ch Nisar, the official "Interior Chameleon" - that “Islamabad is safe” should be rephrased as “Islamabad is cave” for all these ring masters who want to change their political stance driven by ulterior motives rather than common man welfare.

Interesting notion behind this circus commotion – is Article 6 has been embedded, which shall take away the General Chameleon from Karachi to overseas, leaving the Khwaja Chameleons awestruck in this circus.

Whereas, the enchanted bells will leave us deaf in the name of unending peace talks – the Suo Motto Chameleon (ex CJ SC) will be secretly laughing on the magnetic inks and the buzz on the "gone with the wind elections". He would be stepping on a frontal launch pad - by passing his cap to Junior Chameleon (Arslan Iftikhar) who is coming soon to a theatre near you!

5/11 will pass and another day will start! No protests can solve the dilemmas of common man who is awaiting justice. 9/11 laid an edifice for Caucasians’ to enter Afghanistan – so let us pray that 5/11 does not challenge the democracy - as no one wants “boots on the ground”.

We all have come to the conclusion - that no pious military bells can catch the main Article 6 traitor, but the Suo-Motto hero – whose shrewd thumb has made everyone zero - shall continue to haunt the "Benches Chameleons" without "bars".

Let us pray that our Sunday 5/11 remains dedicated to the script of “holy chameleon circus” and nothing like 9/11 is seen or whispered as another Tahrir Square.

...................................................................(please give ur feedback, thank U)

Written By:

KANWAL ABIDI

- Karachi

* Political & Speech Analyst / Journalist*

Tweets @KANWALanalyst

Sunday, 13 April 2014

Hillary Clinton's Shoe Drama

36-year-old Alison Michella Ernst “appeared to be in an agitated state but aware of what she had just done,” according to a Las Vegas Police report.

Ms Ernst is accused of bypassing security at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, and walking quickly toward a rope line about six rows from the front of a conference audience where Mrs Clinton was giving a speech to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

The Democratic senator's keynote address was part of a country-wide tour giving paid speeches to industry organizations and Democratic Party groups.

As Mrs Clinton was speaking, Ms Ernst reached into a purse, removed an orange and black shoe and threw it overhand toward the stage – but Mrs Clinton ducked and was not struck.

Startled, Mrs Clinton joked: "Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque du Soleil?"

"My goodness, I didn't know that solid waste management was so controversial," she quipped as the audience applauded.

As Mrs Clinton is the spouse of former President Bill Clinton, she has lifetime protection from the Secret Service.

Authorities said Ms Ernst did not have a conference pass and was not supposed to have been in the ballroom, which was filled with more than 1,000 people.

Ms Ernst was handed a misdemeanour disorderly conduct summons following the incident.

If found guilty of violating a county ordinance by throwing the shoe at the senior politician, Ms Ernst could be punished with a year-long jail sentence.

It is not yet understood if Ms Ernst had a lawyer, and she was not immediately available to comment.

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Editor's Note:

By: KANWAL ABIDI
*Political Analyst & Journalist

This incident raises important points:

1) Reveals security lapses that the lady did not had a conference pass and managed to enter the premises and throw the shoe at Clinton.

2) Leaders in US are becoming a public resentment

3) Hmm,... how about to gain cheap publicity Hillary Clinton had hired herself to throw shoe at her. Otherwise, any sane person could read that she came up to the front row and took her shoe off - while the Secret Service was sipping coffee:-)

4) Hillary Clinton enjoys life time protection from Secret Service

Saturday, 12 April 2014

DRONE WAR and CIA

Delays in Effort to Refocus C.I.A. From Drone War

Research & Written By: KANWAL ABIDI

*Political Analyst/Journalist (Pakistan)

In the skies above Yemen, the Pentagon’s armed drones have stopped flying, a result of the ban on American military drone strikes imposed by the government there after a number of botched operations in recent years killed Yemeni civilians. But the Central Intelligence Agency’s drone war in Yemen continues.

In Pakistan, the C.I.A. remains in charge of drone operations, and may continue to be long after American troops have left Afghanistan. And in Jordan, it is the C.I.A. rather than the Pentagon that is running a program to arm and train Syrian rebels — a concession to the Jordanian government, which will not allow an overt military presence in the country.

Just over a year ago John O. Brennan, the C.I.A.’s newly nominated director, said at his confirmation hearing that it was time to refocus an agency that had become largely a paramilitary organization after the Sept. 11 attacks toward more traditional roles carrying out espionage, intelligence collection and analysis. And in a speech last May in which he sought to redefine American policy toward terrorism, President Obama expanded on that theme, announcing new procedures for drone operations, which White House officials said would gradually become the responsibility of the Pentagon.

*But change has come slowly to the C.I.A* says CIA nominated director

“Some might want to get the C.I.A. out of the killing business, but that’s not happening anytime soon,” said Michael A. Sheehan, who until last year was the senior Pentagon official in charge of special operations and now holds the distinguished chair at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center.

A number of factors — including bureaucratic turf fights, congressional pressure and the demands of foreign governments — have contributed to this delay. At the same time, Mr. Brennan is facing a reckoning for other aspects of the C.I.A.’s role at the forefront of the secret wars the United States has waged since 2001.

The declassification of a scathing report by the Senate Intelligence Committee about the agency’s detention and interrogation program will once again cast a harsh light on a period of C.I.A. history Mr. Brennan has publicly disavowed. The Justice Department has been drawn into a dispute between the agency and the committee, and is looking into a charge by Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s chairwoman, that the agency broke the law by monitoring computers of committee staff working on the report.

Before taking charge of the C.I.A. last March, Mr. Brennan had spent four years as Mr. Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, a job that put him in charge of the targeted killing operations that became a signature of the Obama administration’s approach to terrorism. It also made Mr. Brennan — who before working for Mr. Obama had spent 25 years at the C.I.A. — a powerful influence on a president with no experience in intelligence.

American officials said that in that role Mr. Brennan repeatedly cautioned Mr. Obama that the C.I.A.’s counterterrorism mission threatened to attenuate the agency’s other activities, most notably those of penetrating foreign governments and analyzing global trends. During his confirmation hearings, Mr. Brennan obliquely criticized the performance of American spy agencies in providing intelligence and analysis of the Arab revolutions that began in 2009, and said the C.I.A. needed to cede some of its paramilitary role to the Pentagon.

“The C.I.A. should not be doing traditional military activities and operations,” he said. But now Mr. Brennan is in charge of a counterterrorism apparatus that has steadily grown in budget, manpower and influence for more than a decade. While officials said that Mr. Brennan has pushed for more resources to counter traditional adversaries like Russia and China, as well as newer threats like cyberwarfare, the agency’s Counterterrorism Center, known as the CTC, remains a powerful force both inside the agency and on Capitol Hill.

“I think that most of the C.I.A. is behind the changes, but the CTC community has grown dramatically since 9/11 and is fighting to keep its turf,” Mr. Sheehan said. “And, they’ve been somewhat successful in that regard, especially with the drone programs.”

Influential lawmakers from both parties have fought to protect the C.I.A.’s role in the drone wars and prevent the proposed shift of the bulk of drone operations to the Pentagon.

Both Ms. Feinstein and Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, have urged Mr. Brennan to push back against the White House policy announced last May, citing what they regard as the Pentagon’s poor performance in lethal operations outside of Iraq and Afghanistan.

A number of bungled drone strikes carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command in Yemen led the government there in recent months to temporarily ban drone strikes by the military, which are launched from an American base in Djibouti.

Officials said that the ban, not previously reported, came after a military drone strike in December killed a number of civilians who were part of a wedding procession in a desolate region south of Yemen’s capital, Sana.Meanwhile, the C.I.A. continues to wage its own drone war in Yemen, launching the unmanned planes from Saudi Arabia.

In Pakistan, where the C.I.A. also is in charge of the drone program, the pace of strikes has declined sharply, and there have been none since the government in Islamabad formally entered peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a group that tracks drone strikes.

But American officials said that the drone program there could continue for years, and Pakistan’s government has long insisted that it be run by the C.I.A., not the American military. This was one of the terms of the deal reached a decade ago between the Bush administration and Pervez Musharraf, then the president of Pakistan, who said he would allow armed drone strikes in the country’s tribal areas only if they were conducted as a C.I.A. covert action and not acknowledged by either country. For Pakistan to agree to any changes in this arrangement, the United States would most likely have to agree to integrating Pakistan’s military into the drone operations.

A White House spokeswoman said there had been “no change in policy” since President Obama’s speech last May announcing changes to the targeted killing policy. “The plan is to transition to these standards and procedures over time, in a careful, coordinated and deliberate manner,” said Caitlin Hayden, the spokeswoman. “I’m not going to speculate on how long the transition will take, but we’re going to ensure that it’s done right and not rushed.”

It was during the string of revolts across the Arab world several years ago that concerns first surfaced that the years of focus on targeting terrorists had undermined the C.I.A.’s ability to forecast and analyze global events. In Egypt, the agency had few sources beyond Omar Suleiman. The country’s intelligence chief and one of the agency’s closest partners in the Middle East, Mr. Suleiman was not about to give the C.I.A. an honest assessment of the fragility of President Hosni Mubarak’s government.

Editor's EPILOGUE:

Whatever the impact of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, the fact lies that the problems emanating from "Durand Agreement" has infiltrated in the colonization of Taliban - which poses a serious threat to Pakistan and its bordering Afghan region.
It is in American interest both military (to curb their defence budget) and for Obama administration not to launch drone strikes - in order to win the hearts of Asians. But as soon as skies are clear - we all will see the drones flying over our heads. Its all the matter of diplomacy to overturn the tables of military forces to strike Muslim world!
CIA shall remain and assume its stance on "Drone War" whether following the parliamentary role or kicking back Pentagon - the fact is innocent people shall keep dying as and when the "drone" shall strike back again!