Our friendly General/President next door gave a speech in which he claimed that an “iron curtain”:http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/06/1089000160510.html?oneclick=true is falling between the West and Muslims. He also made the assertion that the root of terrorism is illiteracy and poverty and not the madrassa education where a one sided view of the world is taught. “Robert Spencer”:http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/authors.asp?ID=1240 of “Jihad Watch”:http://jihadwatch.org/ has a “rebuttal”:http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14124.
bq. Musharraf is probably not familiar with numerous studies that indicate that the conventional wisdom he is purveying here is actually false. The idea that terrorists are desperately poor, uneducated, and easily enticed by the promise of a few dollars or a bit of manipulative religious twaddle that the cynical power elite purvey but don?t believe in themselves ? it flies in the face of the facts. Most recently, Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer, has found through extensive background studies of known Al-Qaeda operatives that most Islamic terrorists are, according to a Knight-Ridder report, ?well-educated, married men from middle- or upper-class families, in their mid-20s and psychologically stable ? Many of them knew several languages and traveled widely.? Sageman strongly ruled out the idea that terrorists were misfits and sociopaths: ?The data suggest that these were good kids who liked to go to school and were often overprotected by their parents.?
bq. Last March, the acting President of the radical Muslim party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Qazi Hussain Ahmad, threatened to launch nationwide protests if the curriculum in Pakistan?s Islamic schools (madrassas) were reformed to eliminate verses from the Qur?an that taught violent jihad. ?To combat this,? Qazi warned, ?a major jihadi campaign has become necessary.? He sent Musharraf a pointed reminder: ?the general should note that the country came into existence on Islamic ideology and it could survive on that basis alone.? That ideology is taught daily in many of Pakistan?s 27,000 madrassas. A significant percentage of these, according to Newsweek, ?steep their students in the doctrine of holy war and function openly as jihad enlistment centers.? [“Front Page Magazine”:http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14124]
July Surprise
Will Osama Bin Laden, Mullah Omar or Ayman Al Zawahiri be the surprise factor in the American Elections in November ?. It seems the Bush Administration is putting pressure on Musharraf to catch the the High Value Targets according to an article in “The New Republic”:http://tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&s=aaj071904
bq. But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), “The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections.” Introducing target dates for Al Qaeda captures is a new twist in U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism relations–according to a recently departed intelligence official, “no timetable[s]” were discussed in 2002 or 2003–but the November election is apparently bringing a new deadline pressure to the hunt.
bq. A third source, an official who works under ISI’s director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis “have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must.” What’s more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: “The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq’s] meetings in Washington.” Says McCormack: “I’m aware of no such comment.” But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston. [“TNR”:http://tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&s=aaj071904]
Terrorist Supporters
The North East Indian State of Tripura is one plagued by seperatist violence. These terrorists who use Bangladesh as a base recently “they kidnapped 42 traders”:http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=061404010617. Now the Govt. has discovered one of their supporters.
bq. The government in India’s north-eastern state of Tripura says it has evidence that the state’s Baptist Church is involved in backing separatist rebels. Nagmanlal Halam, secretary of the Noapara Baptist Church in Tripura, was arrested late on Monday with a large quantity of explosives. Mr Sarkar said that allegations about the close links between the state’s Baptist Church and the rebel National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have long been made by political parties and police. Now for the first time, he said, hard evidence supporting the allegations had been found. [“BBC”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/717775.stm]
According to “GlobalSecurity.org”:http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/nlft.htm
The National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) was formed in December 1989 for the purpose of seceding from India in order to create an independent Christian fundamentalist state of Tripura. The group was banned under the Unlawful Activies Prevention Act of 1967.
The Demise of Angkor Wat
In the sixth century AD, a new kingdom emerged in mainland South-East Asia. Based in Cambodia, it absorbed the Funan kingdom established by the brahmin Kaundinya and emerged as the Khemer kingdom of Angkor. Their kings chose names ending in -varman like the Pallava kings of Kanchi and constructed one of the largest Hindu temples outside India.
The temples of Angkor, built from 879 – 1191AD, when the Khmer civilization was at the height of its development, represent one of humankind’s most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements. From the great citadel of Angkor, the kings of the Khmer empire ruled over a vast domain that reached from what is now southern Vietnam to Yunan, China and from Vietnam westward to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 temples in all, are the surviving religious remains of a grand social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings – palaces, public buildings, and houses – were all built of wood and are long since decayed and gone.
The City of Angkor was also magnificient
They learned the metropolitan area extended far beyond Angkor Thom, the 700-year-old walled city that houses Angkor Wat. Angkor was home to about 750,000 people and covered some 1,000 square kilometers (385 square miles) $(O m(Buch larger than any other preindustrial development and similar to the shape and size of modern cities, Fletcher said.
“It’s like a Los Angeles. It’s not like Hong Kong,” he said. “Lots and lots of open space, big gaps around the houses, huge freeways, which are the canals in this case.” The city’s economy was based on rice, and rice paddies spread along dozens of canals, at least one up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) long. A network of reservoirs, canals, and bridges was created to move people and goods and to ensure there was enough water to grow rice. Angkor engineers even changed the direction that some rivers flowed in what essentially was “a human-built landscape for growing rice,” Fletcher said.
The general reason mentioned for the demise of this kingdom is an attack by the Thais in 1431. But now scientists think that the demise happened much before, due to the evils of urban societies, like ecological failure and infrastructure breakdown. They think it is important to study these reasons as it can provide lessons in dealing with problems many urban societies are facing today.
Fletcher, a professor at the University of Sydney, theorizes that population pressures and water woes made it harder to trade and communicate. People began migrating south toward the area around what is now Phnom Penh, where subsequent capitals were set up.
The growing population also forced people to venture into the nearby Kulen hills to cut down trees for fuel and to clear land for growing rice. That would have resulted in rain runoff carrying sediment down into the canal network, Evans said. “Anything that happened to that water management system would have had a great deal of consequence for all of the people,” he said. [ENN]
In another report from Cambodia, India has promised to donate $5.5 million for the restoration of the Ta Prohm temple at the Angkor Wat site.
The Ta Prohm is a magnificent temple-monastery complex built in the South Indian architectural style that once housed nearly 13,000 monks and other attendants. Angkor Wat is the largest temple area in the world..
Ta Prohm has been left by archaeologists in its original jungle-covered state, some of its walls cracked apart by tree roots, making it an exotic subject for photographers and a popular destination for tourists. It was built by one of the greatest Khmer Kings, Jayavarman VII, who also built Angkor Thom as his capital and the Bayon as his state temple where a mix of Buddhist and Hindu deities were worshipped. [Big News Network]
Srijith has great photographs of Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm
Saraswati Heritage Project: Scrapped ?
“The excavations at Adi Badri”:https://varnam.org/archives/000195.html in Haryana revealed a 300 AD Kushan site. “Excavations in Dholavira”:https://varnam.org/archives/000328.html in Kutch revealed one the world’s oldest stadiums and sign boards. These are two sites along the path of the mythical Saraswati river. These excavations would have revealed more about our past, and answered questions like: “Were the Harappans the Vedic people”:https://varnam.org/archives/000291.html ? Some eminent historians had already “opposed these excavations”:https://varnam.org/archives/000042.html as it was seen as an attempt to push the antiquity of Indian Civilization. But now there are indications that “The Saraswati Heritage Project” will be scrapped.
bq. A pet project of the then culture minister Jagmohan, officials now indicate that it would be certainly axed. Yet, those involved with the Rs 4.98-crore project feel if this is done, it would be grossly unfair and a setback to archaeology and academics. “The Saraswati Heritage Project was not part of any saffronisation progr-amme,” clarifies R S Bisht, project director and former joint DG of ASI.
bq. Instead, Bisht claims that the project is aimed at “settling the issues of different schools of thought” on the existence of the Saraswati. He says it is entirely based on scientific principles with stress on inter-disciplinary archaeological research in which the help of prestigious institutions like IITs and the Birbal Sahni Institution is being taken.
bq. So far, excavation has already been undertaken in 10 places � Adi Badri, Thanesar, Sandhauli, Bhirrana, Hansi (all in Haryana), Baror, Tarkhanwala Dhera, Chak 86 (all in Rajasthan), Dholavira and Juni Karan in Gujarat. The project’s action taken report claims that during the excavation, remains from the pre-Harappan, Harappan and even medieval times have been discovered. [“Times of India”:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/761548.cms]
Afghan Elections Postponed
Feuding warlords, “Taliban attacks”:https://varnam.org/archives/000439.html and political squabbling have affected Afghanistan elections. The elections that were to take place in September have now been postponed to mid-October.
bq. There is also intensive discussion in Kabul over whether to postpone parliamentary elections until next year as violence mounts, and the disarmament of militias and warlords has faltered. Youth and civil society groups have already called for elections to be postponed until next year to ensure greater stability and freedom for voters. Political parties which are only starting to form and register are largely in favor of a postponement too, officials said.
bq. United Nations officials and diplomats are concerned that without more disarmament of the warlords and their militias, there will be gross intimidation and interference in an early election, especially for parliamentary seats. The United Nations spokesman, Mr. Almeida e Silva, stressed that the organization was being guided by the time frame laid down in the Bonn agreements, which set elections for this year, but was also concerned to see commitments on disarmament and demobilization of militias, the surrender of heavy weapons and political freedoms met ahead of elections.
bq. Jean Arnault, the United Nation’s special representative in Afghanistan, told the Security Council in May that the Taliban and al Qaeda insurgency in southern Afghanistan was increasing, hindering voter registration and threatening the legitimacy of elections. Mr. Arnault said voter registration hasn’t been possible in three of the 34 provinces and has proven difficult in nine others.
If the elections do not happen in October, it may get postponed to next year as the mountain passes will get snow covered after October.
NNMA Privileges
bq. In a sign of growing concern over Islamic militants’ training camps in Pakistan, the Department of Homeland Security has ordered its inspectors at America’s largest airports to scrutinize all travelers of Pakistani descent _including U.S. citizens_ in an effort to catch terrorist trainees who might try to enter the United States, officials said Wednesday.
bq. In particular, agents are being told to look for signs of injuries that could have been received during paramilitary training such as rope burns, unusual bruises and scars…Most of the camps in Pakistan are thought to be overseen by militants who belong to fundamentalist Islamic organizations with links to Al Qaeda, the official said. He added that they were probably less sophisticated than the training operations that Al Qaeda oversaw in Afghanistan before the U.S.-led military campaign to destroy them in late 2001…Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. authorities and their counterparts in India were closely monitoring such camps. They contend that the camps have trained Islamic militants fighting along with Pakistan against India in the contested area of Kashmir. [“Los Angeles Times”:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pakwarn1jul01,1,6709170.story?coll=la-headlines-nation (regn reqd)]
These are the benefits of being the citizens of a “Non-Nato Major Ally”:https://varnam.org/archives/000365.html. It is not just the Americans. As Kamran Shafi writes
bq. In the end, and in light of the foregoing, let me give a short comparison of how the world looks at India and us. As of now, the Schengen States do not issue more than a three-month validity visa for those Pakistanis lucky to get one; Indians are allowed, hold on to your chairs, 10-year visas! So much for our front-line state against terrorism status; so much for our major non-Nato ally nonsense. [“Daily Times”:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_1-7-2004_pg3_3]
Afghanistan getting globalized
Thanks to the evil force known as Globalization, many people in Afghanistan are able to earn a living.
bq. Worldstock has been selling products made in Afghanistan since the summer of 2002. This spring, Byrne and Kanishka traveled to Afghanistan where they contracted with 1,450 artisans and placed orders for more than $150,000.00 worth of goods. According to Kanishka, “We ordered an assortment of exquisitely handcrafted Afghan rugs, embroidery, leather goods, and jewelry.” The first shipment of goods from Afghanistan will be available on Worldstock starting this week.
bq. Minister of Commerce, Mr. Mustafa Kazimi, said, “Fourteen-hundred more people in Afghanistan — 90% of whom are women — are able to earn a living and care for their families thanks to Worldstock. In addition to being the largest source of private employment in Afghanistan, Worldstock is also the largest source of employment for women in Afghanistan and the largest exporter of Afghan handicrafts.” [“Yahoo! News”:http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040629/latu084_1.html]
Terrorists and Separatists
In Kashmir, a major plan to carry out a series of assasinations and surprise attacks have been foiled.
bq. The detained people have been accused by the Kashmir police of plotting to mount daring “terrorist attacks” in several Indian cities as well as the Kashmir Valley. Among those held is a woman. “They were planning some high-profile actions in the city of Srinagar as well as in Mumbai, Pune and New Delhi such as assassinating important political leaders and the police brass,” Director General of Police (DGP), Gopal Sharma, said on Tuesday. In Srinagar, the suspects were preparing to ram an explosives-laden vehicle into a VIP’s motorcade, he said. Other police officers said Kashmir chief minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, was a probable target of the planned attack. [“Al-Jazeera”:http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CA121A64-2D9E-4B4A-A004-5E737DC28AB7.htm]
I don’t know if any other country will tolerate this. But in India, tax payers money is being used to protect separatists, people who want to split the country into two.
bq. Meanwhile, EXCELSIOR learned from highly placed authoritative sources that “extra-ordinary” security arrangements were being made for five protected separatist leaders in the wake of “very disturbing disclosures” by the slain militants. According to these sources, Government was also going to offer Police protection to the JKLF chief Yasin Malik, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq?s confidante Shahid-ul-Islam, Peoples League supremo Sheikh Abdul Aziz and hijacker-turned-activist Hashim Qureshi. However, it was not immediately clear whether these separatist leaders would accept the Police protection or turn down the same as usual. [“Daily Excelsior”:http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/04june30/news.htm#4 (via “Acorn”:http://www.paifamily.com/opinion/archives/000922.html)]
Clinton still charms
New York Times gave it a “bad review”:http://www.nirajweb.net/mt/niraj/archives/002576.html. Now the Economist too thinks the same.
bq. Alas, �My Life� is very far from being great, or even particularly good. The book is so long-winded and ill-disciplined that the genuinely good bits get lost in the verbiage. Mr Clinton regales us with tedious lists of conferences, meetings and campaign stops. The editors should be hauled over hot coals for failing to hold their celebrity author to higher standards. If they had devoted a fraction of the energy to editing this text that they did to marketing it, then the turkey might have had a chance to fly; as it is, it is destined to sit on the coffee tables of liberal America, lightly thumbed and quickly discarded. [“Economist”:http://economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2787887]
But that has not prevented thousands of people from “camping overnight”:http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2236129,00.html in front of bookstores to get an autographed book from the former President.
bq. Lori Smith, a 46-year-old advertising copywriter from Encino, was the first person in line, having shown up at 10:45 p.m. Thursday to beat the crowd. She was electric with anticipation as she waited for the doors to open. “I’ve never met him before. I’m just dying. I think I’m going to fall over backwards when I see him.” [“LA Daily News”:http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2236129,00.html]
The former President still remains a charmer.