REPLICATING ISRAEL? Rs 8,000 cr fraud hits Satyam.Kasab is a Pak national, says Pak media.Sensex sheds 749 pts on Satyam fraud.SC stays non-bailable warrant against Raj Thackeray.10 million to lose jo

January 8th, 2009

 

REPLICATING ISRAEL? Rs 8,000 cr fraud hits Satyam.Kasab is a Pak national, says Pak media.Sensex sheds 749 pts on Satyam fraud.SC stays non-bailable warrant against Raj Thackeray.10 million to lose job by March in export units

In pictures: Gaza conflict continues
Israel has continued its ground and air attacks in the Gaza Strip for a fifth day, after a week of bombing, in a bid to force Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets into Israel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7815566.stm

Israel’s top leaders mull ceasefire offer!Israel has killed more than 600 Palestinians in the fighting. School Children sheltered in UN School have been BLASTED and Indian Hindutva and FASCISM , habitula of GENOCIDE culture at home justifies it as United states of America does the same all in name of War Against terrorism meaning ETHNIC CLEANSING of Muslims worldwide! Is this going to be the super Highway of HINDU Indian Super Power? And WE have to have A GAZA CONFLICT against Pakistan!Equating the Palestinian militant group Hamas with the LeT terrorists who attacked Mumbai, the White House has said both were engaged in “despicable” acts in order to achieve their “political objectives.”  A media briefing dominated by Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip following the Hamas rocket attacks on the Jewish state, the White House spokesperson Dana Perino was asked if there were differences between Hamas terrorists and the terrorists, who are attacking from Pakistan against India.

“Obviously, they’re two different groups,” Perino said. “But I think at their base level they are despicable, evil human beings who use violence and murder in order to achieve political objectives,” Perino said.

“So, in that regard, they are the same,” she said in her reply.

How INTERESTED happens to be USA having signed the BIGGEST Defence DEAL with India is showcased in latest US DIPLOMACY involving South Asian geopolitics! Pakistan’s increasingly turbulent border region poses threats not just to the US mission in Afghanistan, but also to neighbouring India 
and the world beyond, according to President George W Bush’s national security adviser. Thus the biggest foreign-policy challenge awaiting President-elect Barack Obama isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan but Pakistan, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told the Wall Street Journal in an interview previewing a valedictory speech he plans to give on Wednesday

Both the Asian giants, the Sleeping dragon China as well selfstyled Super power failed MISERABLY to have any role in GAZA CONFLICT whereas With the U.S. applying scant pressure on Israel, the EU tries to step in to end the bloodshed. So far, little has been achieved!In the Gaza conflict, the European Union’s diplomatic efforts are fractured!With the U.S. caught in limbo between two presidencies, Europe is trying to fill the diplomatic void by assuming a greater role in the international effort to end the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.But a series of high-level official forays appears to have achieved little and once again laid the European Union open to criticism that it punches far below its weight in the diplomatic arena, if only because it can’t seem to decide who does the punching and how hard.

Meanwhile,Malaysia: More than 2,000 Muslim restaurants in Malaysia will remove Coca-Cola from their menus as part of a boycott of American  products in protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, officials said on Wednesday. American companies are being targeted becuase of the U.S. government’s support of Israel, which is carrying out a military offensive on Gaza that is says is aimed at stopping rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory. The nationwide boycott will be launched Friday by several Muslim groups after they seek God’s blessings at Friday prayers, said Ma’mor Osman, secretary-general of the Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association which is leading the campaign.

On the other hand,  Israel on Tuesday set a key condition for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying it would not agree to a truce unless it included Palestinians carry the body of a man killed in an Israeli air strike. (AFP Photo)
More Pictures
provisions to prevent Hamas from rearming.

“Preventing a Hamas arms buildup is the necessary foundation of any new calm arrangement. That is the make-or-break issue,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Regev said that was Olmert’s message in talks on Monday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called in meetings with Israeli and Palestinians leaders for a rapid Gaza ceasefire.

It was one of the darkest days in history of corporate India. Early this morning, B Ramalinga Raju - the founder of Satyam Computers, one of India’s largest IT companies - dropped a bombshell when he sent a five-page letter to the stock exchanges …Money Control reports!

In the last few days, two separate European delegations descended on the Middle East. One was led by the Czech Republic, which assumed the rotating presidency of the EU last week, and the other by the man who reluctantly gave up that post, French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Both delegations are urging a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that rules Gaza.

“Pressure should be exerted on all parties involved, including Hamas, in order for the guns to fall silent and peace to return,” Sarkozy said Tuesday in Damascus, the Syrian capital, after meeting with President Bashar Assad. “There is no military solution in Gaza.”

meanwhile BBC reports Israel has agreed “on the principles” of a ceasefire proposal, raising hopes of an end to its conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza.

“The challenge now is to get the details to match the principles,” Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said there were “positive signs but no agreement yet”.

The development came as Israel halted military operations in Gaza for three hours to aid humanitarian efforts.

The lull, which began about 1100 GMT and ended shortly after 1400 GMT, was the first of what an Israeli spokesman said would be a daily ceasefire to allow Gazans to “get medical attention, get supplies… whatever they need”.

News agencies reported that Gaza residents had rushed out into the streets during the lull to stock up on food and visit relatives in hospital.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7815929.stm

Replicating Israel? Blind Nationalism INCARNATED in rightist fascism parcticed by Brahaminical hegemony in India has been proved quite justified! The PLOT is Sugrically so much so PRECISE that the Omnipresent Omnipotent Indian Media Blacked out the most SENSATIONAL Newsbreak as BIGGEST EVER Defence deal is signed with United states of America. Now, latest development helps to sustain the War Hype continue. Ajmal Amir Iman ‘Kasab’, the lone terrorist captured during the Mumbai attacks, is a Pakistani national, a media report said on Wednesday, citing ‘preliminary investigation’ conducted by authorities in Pakistan. An unnamed ‘very senior government official’ told Dawn News channel that a preliminary investigation carried out by Pakistani law enforcement agencies had established that Kasab was a Pakistani national. The government is yet to take a decision on providing consular access to Kasab, the channel quoted official sources as saying. There was no official word on the development.

Gates estimates 2009 war costs at $136bn!

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Robert Gates says military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would cost almost $136 billion for the 2009 budget year 
that began October 1 if they continue at their current pace.

Speaking for neither his current boss, President George W Bush - nor his future one, President-elect Barack Obama - Gates told top lawmakers in a New Year’s Eve letter that the Pentagon would need nearly $70bn more to supplement the $66bn approved last year.

“This estimate is my personal assessment and does not reflect the position of the Bush administration or the incoming Obama administration,” Gates said.

The estimate would cover Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other elements of the global war on terror.

An official request for war funding is coming after a review by the Obama administration, Gates said.

Israel’s top leaders are meeting to discuss a cease-fire plan or whether to expand the Israeli offensive in Gaza. 
The meeting of the “security Cabinet” comes a day after France and Egypt sketched a proposal to stop the fighting. The initiative was spurred on by an Israeli mortar strike near a UN school that the UN says killed 40 Palestinians.

The US has endorsed the proposal. Israel has yet to give its response.

Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, say Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his top ministers will consider the proposal on Wednesday or whether to press ahead with the 12-day operation meant to stop rocket fire into Israel.

Give safe passage to Gaza refugees: UN

The United Nations on Wednesday asked neighbouring countries of Palestine to provide a safe passage to the civilians caught in the Israeli military offensive in the Hamas ruled Gaza strip.

“Those who are compelled to flee the Gaza Strip should be able to do so and to find safety and security in other countries according to international law,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

There has been no large-scale movement out of Gaza because of the Israeli blockade. However, Guterres urged that “all borders and access routes concerned should be kept open and safe, and Palestinians endeavouring to leave Gaza should not be prevented from doing so.”

He called for strict adherence to humanitarian principles in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where an already dire situation has been made worse by the Israeli offensive.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, told reporters that the humanitarian crisis is becoming “increasingly alarming,” with the people of Gaza going hungry, often lacking power, water and other basic services.

Amid the worsening humanitarian environment, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been struggling to carry out vital tasks such as distributing food and medical supplies.

“It is absolutely imperative that the immediate delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian victims of this conflict be facilitated, including access from Egypt and Israel,” he said.
PTI

SC stays non-bailable warrant against Raj Thackeray!

The Supreme court  on Wednesday stayed a non-bailable warrant issued by a Jharkhand court against MNS chief Raj Thackeray [Images] for his alleged statements and hate campaign against North Indians.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan also exempted Thackeray from his personal appearance in the Jharkhand court.

The apex court passed the direction on a petition filed by the controversial MNS Chief seeking transfer of the various cases filed in courts of Bihar and Jharkhand against him for his alleged statements and hate campaigns against north Indians.

Raj had also sought the transfer of these cases outside Bihar and Jharkhand to ensure a free and fair trial.

Poonch encounter: Army ready for final assault

Jammu: Army on Wednesday said that it was planning a final assault to neutralise the terrorists holed up in Bhati Dar in Poonch where an encounter between the ultras and security forces has been on for a week now.The operation has been “slow” in the area to minimise the casualties among the security forces, Lt Col A S N Acharya said here.The spokesman said that firing took place at two places in the area around 0630 hours and 0930 hours today and it was effectively retaliated by the troops.Bad weather and the hilly terrain of the area were acting as constraints for the army, he said, adding some food items and radio sets have been recovered since yesterday from the caves where the militants were holed up.
Presidentelect Barack Obama has described the US economy as “very sick” and predicted the situation will worsen! President-elect Barack Obama has warned Americans about the unparalleled prospect of “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come”, saying the exploding budget gap underscores the need for long-term reform of US finances.

“We’re already looking at a $1 trillion budget deficit or close to a $1 trillion budget deficit, and potentially we’ve got $1 trillion deficits for years to come,” Obama told reporters Tuesday after a meeting with his economic and budget team.

Indian Economy has been claimed to reach One Trillion Dollar Status as much as INFLATED as the FREEsenSEX 20k status! But the Congress spokesperson assures India INCs to PUMP THREE TRILLOION DOLLRS into the killer money Mochine. Media never questions the JUGGLERY as it suits it. THree Trillion would be pumped to BAIL OUT India Incs out of One Trillion Dollar! This is the FUNNIY Picture of our Risilient Economy as well as Polity. Three lac Corore have been pumped to feed the Genocide culture. The STimulation seems to be INFINITE like HINDU DIVINITY! The GIST is the BITTERMOST PILL that the India INCs and MNCS as well as Political Parties, Media, Intelligentsia and Policymakers have no option but to sing AMERICANISED fascist TUNNE as SURVIVAL Strategy!

10 million to lose job by March in export units!Ten million people in the export sector will be out of job by March this year, as Indian goods find fewer buyers in the international market which is battling the worst crisis since 1929.

“There will be 10 million job losses by March,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations president A Sakthivel said on Tuesday.

Indian exports, which account for just about 20 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, are a highly labour-intensive activity, employing 150 million people. Those in the handicrafts, textiles, knitwear, leather, and gem and jewellery sectors will be the worst affected.

As the countdown to a general election begins, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is keen to hit the ground running and feels that the twin issues of insecurity of life and livelihood will continue to resonate despite this manifesto not cutting much ice with voters in the recent state assembly polls. Party insiders disclosed that the BJP still wanted to build on the theme of terrorism and the widespread public insecurity that followed, especially after the Mumbai siege, and this explains its hurry to hit the campaign trail though the polls are at least three months away.

The party’s prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani, takes the lead by stepping out on a 120-day whirlwind tour of more than 200 constituencies early February.

Advani provided an indication of the party’s line in his new year message when he stated: “2008 has been a traumatic year for India both in respect of its economy as well as its security. The trauma has been mainly on account of the kind of government we have had in New Delhi.”

I have been insisting since the first Gulf War  ( I wrote a Intercative Novel in early nineties in Hindi, AMERICA SE SAVDHAN, be Aware of America and worte extensively on this topic. the novel had been published and read countrywide), that no Imperialist Power in the History of civilisation could escape from the Impact of War Economy. Recently, all throughour the RECESSION Global Melt Down , i have been explaining how misleading is the concet of SUBPRIME Crisis leaqding to unprecedented RECESSION! It has always been the crisis of WAR INdustry controlled by ILLMINITI and Zionism which esclated in all economies tagged with USCORE Economy. Thus, India could not respond despite so much so RISILIENCE Claims! FREE senSEX Shining INDIA and IMPORTED XXXXX Corporate Economy led by India INCs and MNCs is nothing but an INFLATED nasty Genocide weapon of Mass Destruction! United States of America is interested in in India mostly for Strategic reason. But it has been interested more as a Nation to capture the WEAPON Market in India, not in so called Consumer or retail market. because it has already been captured since Neo Liberalism and LPG introduced as we have no indigenous Production system and sold out all our Natural Resources! We have been AMERICANISED long before and have been diluted as PARASITES! USA did everything to appease Indian Brahaminical hegemony to CAPTURE the WEAPON and WAR Civil War markets in Asia!

But India becoming ISRAEL never supports US interests and Americanism would never allow it! At the SAME Time a Bollywood suitable SITUATION of ARMS Deal had to be created. IT HAS BEEN and the DEAL is SIGNED. The DEAL Process should not be exposed before imminnet Loksabha Polls as the ruling Hegemony has to mobilise its VOTE BANKS Multi ETHNICAL witout resolving the ethnic conflicts. rather ETHNIC Conflict helps to mobilise or polarise favourable vote bank Equation and it is the CHEMISTRY of HATE. Thus, Indians identifying themselves as HINDUS only never may be FEEL anything about the HUMANITY Bleeding in Middle east. Americanism does not allow.

Hence our Americanised   Friends committed to HINDUTVA and fascism has no OPTION but to cry WAR and HATRED. COMPLETE DEHUMANISATION! Complete personality Disorder.. Acute DEMENTIA and DEGENERATION! I feel sorry for the POOR GUYS who never know their DESTINY as VICTIMS!

Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Israeli tank hits UN school, 40 killed
Jerusalem: At least 40 people were killed and scores injured in an Israeli strike on a UN school in Gaza strip, the fourth such attack today, Palestinian medics said.

With this attack, the death toll since the launch of the offensive on December 27 rose to over 620.
Hundreds of Palestinian refugees had taken shelter at the school located in the northern town of Jabaliya when an Israeli tank shelled the building, they said.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli forces but they said they were looking into the reports.

People inside the building had taken refuge from the raging conflict in the territory. The toll quickly rose as rescuers struggled through the rubble.
Earlier in the day, Israeli jets hit three UN-run schools in which 10 people were killed.
Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships battled Hamas militants in all major Gaza towns as the country continued to reject appeals to halt the war.
The Israelis widened their offensive arc when its tanks rolled into the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.
In today’s fighting at least 22 people including four Israeli soldiers were killed and 50 others injured. All the four Israeli soldiers, all from the elite Golan Brigade were killed in a “friendly fire” when a tank, deployed as part of operation Cast Lead, accidentally fired a live round at their positions in an abandoned building in the Jabalya refugee camp.
So far a total of five Israeli soldiers have been killed in the conflict and a military spokesman in Tel Aviv said that among the Palestinian killed included 130 armed Hamas fighters. 

Fears mount of Gaza conflict spill over in Europe
By JOHN LEICESTER – 23 hours ago

PARIS (AP) — Government officials and Jewish leaders are concerned the conflict in Gaza may spill over into violence in Europe, with attacks reported against Jews and synagogues in France, Sweden and Britain.

Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, Monday night.

A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, was attacked Monday night by someone who “broke a window and threw in something that was burning,” said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. And on Sunday slogans, including “murderers … You broke the cease-fire,” were daubed on Israel’s Embassy in Stockholm.

In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon to Palestinian parents is alleged to have injured two young Israelis last week in a shooting police suspect could be linked to the Gaza crisis. Belgium ordered police in Antwerp and Brussels to be on increased state of alert” Tuesday after recent pro-Palestinian protests ended in violence and arrests.

France has Western Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities and a history of anti-Semitic violence flaring when tensions in the Middle East are high. In 2002, some 2,300 Jews left France for Israel because they felt unsafe. Even in normal times, anti-Semitic incidents are not uncommon.

President Nicolas Sarkozy warned in a statement Tuesday that France would not tolerate violence linked to the Gaza crisis. A day earlier, his interior minister said she was concerned about the prospect of contagion and met with the heads of the two main Muslim and Jewish groups and police officials to stress the need to “preserve national unity.”

Jews in the small Strasbourg suburb of Lingolsheim in eastern France woke up Tuesday to find graffiti with words like “assassins” spray-painted on the outside walls of their synagogue. The community filed a complaint for “degradation of a place of worship,” the mayor’s office said.

Damage to the synagogue in Toulouse was limited to a blackened gate. Police said unlighted gasoline bombs were found in a car nearby and in the synagogue’s yard. A local Jewish leader, Armand Partouche, said he believed the assailants fled when the building’s alarm went off.

Local authorities promised Tuesday to boost security for synagogues and other Jewish sites in the city, Partouche said.

“We really fear that anti-Semitism will spring up again and that the current conflict will be transposed to our beautiful French republic,” Partouche said.

French Muslim leader Mohammed Moussaoui condemned the attack, saying no motive could justify an assault on any place of worship.

Interior Ministry spokesman Gerard Gachet said police have not noted an increase in violence against Jews linked to the Gaza crisis. But he said tensions are likely.

In Britain, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish defense group, said it had seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since the start of Israel’s offensive against Gaza. The group said it recorded 20-25 incidents across the country in the past week — a sizable increase from 2-3 incidents usually reported to the group over the Christmas-New Year period.

Police are investigating an arson attempt Sunday on a synagogue in north London. Assailants splashed liquid on the door and set it on fire. Police would not speculate on whether the attack was linked to the Gaza crisis.

In another incident last week, a gang of 15-20 youths walked along the main street in Golders Green, a largely Jewish neighborhood in north London, shouting “Jew” and “Free Palestine” at passers-by, said Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner.

Associated Press Writers Jill Lawless in London, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Malin Rising in Stockholm, Robert Wielaard in Brussels and Audrey Sommazi in Toulouse contributed to this report.

Gaza conflict adds fire to crude prices
Ashu Sinha
Monday, January 05, 2009 (New Delhi)
The Israel Hamas conflict has now become the reason for the latest jump in crude oil prices. Despite the worldwide criticism against its attacks, Israel is going ahead with ground offensive.

That could give further impetus to crude oil as it heads back to the $50 mark.

As Israel continues to pound Palestine with 400 Palestine residents killed, its offensive against the Hamas has given crude oil speculators a reason enough to push prices up.

Crude oil prices jumped nearly 23 per cent last week, the highest percentage in 22 years and the middle-east conflict ensures that it continues to rise.

The reason being that traders see shortfall in supplies as conflict escalates and the battle is not just confined to the attacks on the ground.

Manouchehr Mottaki, Iranian Foreign Minister said, “The biggest mistake of the Zionist regime would be entering Gaza on the ground. They have to know that nothing will be left of them (if they attack Gaza from ground).”

However, Shimon Peres, President of Israel said that if there were somebody that could stop terror with a different strategy, they would accept it.

“We shall not accept the idea that Hamas will continue to fire and we shall declare a ceasefire. It does not make any sense,” he said.

As hundreds of Palestinian refugees marched through the streets of camps in south Lebanon, oil traders said that the prices could head up, just like they have every time there has been an unrest in the Middle East.
http://profit.ndtv.com/2009/01/05231515/Gaza-conflict-adds-fire-to-cru.html

All options open to dismantle terror groups: India

Reuters
Posted: Jan 07, 2009 at 1425 hrs IST
New Delhi: India will keep all options open to dismantle ‘terror outfits’ after the Mumbai attacks in November, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Wednesday.
“Even after 26/11 (the date of the Mumbai attacks) there is no serious attempt to dismantle the terror outfits and that is the major worry,” A K Antony said in New Delhi. “We will do everything to prevent this. For that we are examining all possible available options.”

Indians safe in Gaza
7 Jan 2009, 2209 hrs IST, PTI

Indians in the Gaza Strip are safe, though “concerned”,with the Indian mission in Tel Aviv constantly monitoring their situation since 
violence flared up in the coastal enclave twelve days ago, leaving more than 650 people dead, including almost a third of them children.

“The Indian mission has been in touch with us and it gives us a lot of strength. We are very concerned with the developments and hear gunshots and exploding shells all around us with some shrapnel even falling in our backyard, but are so far unharmed,” an Indian woman from New Delhi, now living in the Gaza city with her Palestinian husband and two children, said on conditions of anonymity.

“The mission has extended all help in case we want to leave Gaza but the thought of leaving my husband alone in this situation is scary. My children have Indian passports so they do not have any problems,” she said.

Another Indian woman from Kashmir, also married to a Palestinian, said she is afraid that she “may not be able to come back soon” if she leaves the territory now.

“Two of my three children do not have Indian passports, so I will have to leave them here with my husband which is not an option at the moment though it seems to be getting really hard with each passing day. I am worried about my kids,” she said.

Two nuns serving in Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charities have a moral dilemma with the thoughts of evacuating.

“We are very uncomfortable with the thought leaving all these handicapped children and old age people we work with in the middle of a crisis. We are staying,” sister Chalen, hailing from Kunnoor district, said.

“What option we are examining I can’t tell you now.”
Gaza’s Reality (Occupation 101 Movie Clip)
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=X0T3jMRNwV8
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/X0T3jMRNwV8&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/X0T3jMRNwV8&hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

Israeli Attack on Palestinian Family on Gaza Beach
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=5WaCJn4hdjc

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/5WaCJn4hdjc&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/5WaCJn4hdjc&hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

Is killing a Palestinian kid infront of his parents ok?
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj63KyuB1wA

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Cj63KyuB1wA&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Cj63KyuB1wA&hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

Video Israel Doesn’t Want You to See
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=tW1-_JmXQt0
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/tW1-_JmXQt0&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/tW1-_JmXQt0&hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

1.  Still photos of Israeli assault on Gaza civilians

    http://www.elfarra.org/gallery/gaza.htm
 
    WARNING:  EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING
 
 
2.  Raw video of Israeli bombing of Gaza marketplace
 
     http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21634.htm

Stop the Bombing – End the Siege of Gaza NOW!

January 6, 2008

The Canadian Peace Alliance is calling on all members and supporters to support existing demonstrations, or organize their own, this Saturday, January 10 to demand that the Canadian government call for an immediate end to the massacre in Gaza. We know that almost 600 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and thousands more maimed and wounded since the Israeli assault began, and many more will be killed as the humanitarian disaster worsens.

The Government of Canada has so far rejected calls for a ceasefire and is supporting the war crimes being committed by Israel in Gaza. As with the wars in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan, Stephen Harper has proven himself to be firmly in the camp of the war mongers of the outgoing Bush administration. This does not reflect the will of the majority of Canadians who want to see our country as an arbiter of peace rather than a country that supports the bombing of civilians.

Canadian Foreign Minister, Lawrence Cannon has blamed Hamas for starting this conflict by sending rockets into Southern Israel, yet the facts contradict this assertion. According to Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, “There was no substantial rocket fire from Gaza during the ceasefire until Israel launched an attack last November 4th directed at what it claimed were Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing several Palestinians. Also, it was Hamas that on numerous public occasions called for extending the truce, with its calls never acknowledged, much less acted upon, by Israeli officialdom.”

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been worsening since the Israeli blockade began 2 years ago. International agencies, including the United Nations, have condemned the blockade which has severely limited necessities such as medical supplies and food. The Harper government has been one of the most vociferous supporters of this collective punishment and was the first government to end humanitarian aid to the Palestinians after the election of Hamas.

Since the Israeli bombing began eleven days ago, the crisis has worsened. More than 80 per cent of Palestinians are without needed food aid and hospitals are operating on the thousands of wounded without anesthetics or even basic pain killers. Electricity and communications have also been targeted resulting in isolation and deprivation for the 1.5 million people of Gaza.

The current assault on Gaza is an aggressive war that violates international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention. Our government is now complicit in these war crimes. Canadians will not stand by while the conservative government supports the unilateral massacre of innocent people.

Demonstrations will be held throughout Canada this week. Click here for events listings.

Click Here to download the petition
Sign the PetitionHalt the Massacres in the Gaza Strip! Canada Must Demand an Immediate UN Investigation Into Israeli War CrimeTo All, if you would like to endorse the PH statement regarding Qana 3 massecare in Gaza, please email info@palestinehouse.com, thanksHalt the Massacres in the Gaza Strip! Canada Must Demand an Immediate UN Investigation Into Israeli War Crimes6th January 2009We, the undersigned, are outraged by the horrific massacre that occurred today in the Gaza Strip.Over 40 Palestinian civilians were killed after Israel bombed the United Nations Al Fahoura school in Northern Gaza. According to reports, Israel bombed this UN-operated school, located in the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing many civilians who had sought
 shelter from Israel’s continued bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip. The tactics of the Israeli Army, using heavy artillery, helicopter fire and massive bombs from fighter jets on the Gaza Strip has caused more than 640 deaths and 3,000 injuries, some people being maimed for life.The residents of the Gaza Strip are living in one of the most densely populated places on earth. For 19 months, Israel has blockaded the residents of Gaza from access to water, electricity, food, and medicine. Hospitals are relying on backup generators for electricity and rolling electricity cuts leave patients in jeopardy. The lack of resources has led to patient deaths as they wait for medical attention. Even before Israel began its military assault ten days ago there was a massive humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. We emphasize that the victims of this latest bombing join a long list of Palestinians killed in pre-meditated massacres by Zionist and
 Israeli forces over the last six decades. The names of these massacres - Deir Yassin, Kufr Qassem, Qana, Jenin to name a few - are etched in our collective memories as testimony to a people who have long endured the inaction of world powers to halt Israeli war crimes.This inaction must stop.Israel cannot be allowed to bomb with impunity a United Nations school in which men, women and children have sought sanctuary. The bombing of civilian populations is a violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. Israel must be held to account for this and other war crimes.We call on the Canadian government to demand that the UN begin an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Canadian government cannot remain silent any longer. Palestine House

Our spirit will not die

Here in Gaza, we citizens are starving and battling for survival. How can this possibly advance peace?
Sami Abdel-Shafi

Yesterday morning, I hurried up to the rooftop of my home to catch a glimpse of the sun rising. Columns of black smoke stretched sideways over Gaza’s horizon, eerily symbolising how Israel’s ground assault has already inflicted more indiscriminate suffering on ordinary people.
The Guardian, Monday 5 January 2009

Ba Salaam,
The link below is an interview with Phyllis Bennis who well places the Gaza massacre in its historical context.  Analyses of this sort are extremely important from the viewpoint of rebuking some confused and conservative positions which like the recent commentary by Ibrahim Kharish, Senior Fatah official (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/03/hamas-fatah-israel-west-bank) put the blame on Hamas for Israel’s atrocities.” Ibrahim Kharish stated thus: “We should have courage enough to say that this could have been avoided and that actually Hamas led to this. By taking our people and our land in Gaza under its control by force they are treating the people as hostages … Hamas is responsible for what is going on in Gaza, not only Israel.” This is exactly the position that George W. Bush and Stephen Harper have taken, a position which is tacitly shared by some opportunist elements in Canada who use an Islamic garb to pursue their goal of obtaining a seat in the Senate.
 
Best
 
Mehrdad F. Samadzadeh
 
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3058
US asks Arab nations for $300 Billion to fund auto bailout 01 Jan 2009 The report comes from Saudi Arabia’s Arab News: “According to reports published in Al-Seyassah, a Kuwaiti newspaper, and some other Gulf newspapers, the United States has asked four Gulf states for financial aid close to $300 billion to face the fallout of the financial crisis and help prevent its economy from sliding into a painful recession. Washington is seeking $120 billion from Saudi Arabia, $70 billion from the United Arab Emirates, $60 billion from Qatar and $40 billion from Kuwait.”

http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/us-asks-arab-nations-300-billion-fund-auto-bailout

“The battle…has to begin here. In America. The only institution more powerful than the U.S. government is American civil society. The rest of us are subjects of slave nations. We are by no means powerless, but you have the power of proximity. You have access to the Imperial Palace and the Emperor’s chambers. Empire’s conquests are being carried out in your name.”
Arundhati Roy

 

Reuters

2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, part of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, began on 27 December 2008 (11:30 a.m. local time; 9:30 a.m. UTC)[21] when the Israel Defense Forces launched what they called Operation Cast Lead (Hebrew: ???? ????? ??????, Mivtza Oferet Yetzuka), targeting the members and infrastructure of Gaza’s governing party, Hamas.[22][23][24] The conflict[citation needed] has been called the Gaza Massacre (Arabic: ????? ????) in the Arab World.[25][26][27][28]

A six-month truce between Hamas and Israel ended on 19 December 2008.[29][30][31] Hamas blamed Israel for breaching the truce[32][33] and for not lifting the Gaza Strip blockade, and Israel blamed Hamas for increased rocket fire directed at southern Israeli towns and communities.[34] Israel’s stated objectives in this conflict are to end Palestinian rocket fire and prevent the rearming of Hamas. Hamas demands the cessation of Israeli attacks and an end to the Israeli blockade.[35]

At least 225 people were killed on the first day of the Israeli attack.[36] By the first evening, Israeli Air Force fighter-bomber aircraft had bombed roughly 100 Hamas-run buildings and compounds (including police stations, prisons, and command centers) in four minutes during the first wave of the strike.[37][38] Israel also hit what it identified as Hamas-run institutions and bases in all of Gaza’s main towns, including Gaza City and Beit Hanoun in the north and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.[39][40][41][42][43][44] The attacks have also hit civilian infrastructure, including mosques and housing, with a great number of civilian casualties reported. Israel asserts many of these hid weapons and personnel, and that it is not targetting civilians.[45][46][47][48][49][50][51] The Israeli Navy has shelled targets in Gaza, instituting at the same time a naval blockade of Gaza, which has resulted in one naval incident with a civilian boat.[52][53][54][55]

Hamas has intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against Israel throughout the conflict, increasing the distance of attacks to as far away as 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the Gaza border, hitting civilian communities like Beersheba and Ashdod. These attacks have resulted in civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure. All schools in the area are closed.[56][57][58][59]

The IDF started massing infantry and armor units near the Gaza border and engaged in an active blockade of Gaza.[60] On 3 January 2009, a ground invasion began, with mechanised infantry, armor, and artillery units, supported by armed helicopters, entering Gaza.[61][62]

Both Israel and Hamas are under pressure for a humanitarian truce.[63][64] While Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak intially stated that this will be a “war to the bitter end”[65], Israeli defense officials have suggested as recently as January 6 that the operation could be “over in the next 72 hours”.[66] Hamas officials stated their openness to accepting a truce that ends the Gaza Strip blockade.[63]

International reactions to the conflict have either condemned the Israeli operation, Hamas’ attacks, or both. Many countries and organisations have called for an immediate ceasefire and have expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.[67][68] Israel has stated that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but is willing to open up limited areas in the Gaza Strip for humanitarian purposes.[69]The International Red Cross, United Nations and aid workers have reported of intolerable conditions and a deepening humanitarian crisis.[70]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932009_Israel%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict

The September 1993 Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements provided for a transitional period of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under a series of agreements signed between May 1994 and September 1999, Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank and Gaza. Negotiations to determine the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza stalled following the outbreak of an intifada in September 2000, as Israeli forces reoccupied most Palestinian-controlled areas. In April 2003, the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia) presented a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005 based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. The proposed date for a permanent status agreement was postponed indefinitely due to violence and accusations that both sides had not followed through on their commitments. Following Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT’s death in late 2004, Mahmud ABBAS was elected PA president in January 2005. A month later, Israel and the PA agreed to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments in an effort to move the peace process forward. In September 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip and withdrew settlers and redeployed soldiers from four small northern West Bank settlements. Nonetheless, Israel controls maritime, airspace, and most access to the Gaza Strip. A November 2005 PA-Israeli agreement authorized the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt under joint PA and Egyptian control. In January 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, won control of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). The international community refused to accept the HAMAS-led government because it did not recognize Israel, would not renounce violence, and refused to honor previous peace agreements between Israel and the PA. HAMAS took control of the PA government in March 2006, but President ABBAS had little success negotiating with HAMAS to present a political platform acceptable to the international community so as to lift economic sanctions on Palestinians. The PLC was unable to convene throughout most of 2006 as a result of Israel’s detention of many HAMAS PLC members and Israeli-imposed travel restrictions on other PLC members. Violent clashes took place between Fatah and HAMAS supporters in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and early 2007, resulting in numerous Palestinian deaths and injuries. ABBAS and HAMAS Political Bureau Chief MISHAL in February 2007 signed the Mecca Agreement in Saudi Arabia that resulted in the formation of a Palestinian National Unity Government (NUG) headed by HAMAS member Ismail HANIYA. However, fighting continued in the Gaza Strip, and in June, HAMAS militants succeeded in a violent takeover of all military and governmental institutions in the Gaza Strip. ABBAS dismissed the NUG and through a series of Presidential decrees formed a PA government in the West Bank led by independent Salam FAYYAD. HAMAS rejected the NUG’s dismissal and has called for resuming talks with Fatah, but ABBAS has ruled out negotiations until HAMAS agrees to a return of PA control over the Gaza Strip and recognizes the FAYYAD-led government. FAYYAD and his PA government initiated a series of security and economic reforms to improve conditions in the West Bank. ABBAS participated in talks with Israel’s Prime Minister OLMERT and secured the release of some Palestinian prisoners and previously withheld customs revenue. During a November 2007 international meeting in Annapolis Maryland, ABBAS and OLMERT agreed to resume peace negotiations with the goal of reaching a final peace settlement by the end of 2008.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gz.html
Bollywood bids Bush goodbye with a parting shot

 

Reuters

New Delhi: Barely two weeks before George W. Bush leaves the White House, Bollywood is ready with a farewell present — a film that takes pot shots at the outgoing U.S. president.

‘The President is Coming,’ set in Mumbai during Bush’s trip to India in 2006, tells the fictional tale of six Indians vying for a chance to shake hands with the visiting head of state.

Bush is a running theme in the film and so are ‘Bushisms’ — verbal slip-ups in his speeches — that have gained notoriety during his eight-year presidency.

“Bush is more of a sort of metaphor for the things that America represents — good or bad — but he’s also used as a bit of a punching bag because he’s an easy target,” said Kunaal Roy Kapur, the film’s 29-year-old director.

Shot in a mock documentary style, the English-language film depicts a series of farcical tests conducted in a room at the U.S. consulate to single out a young Indian worthy enough to meet Bush.

‘The President is Coming’, adapted from a play of the same name, opens in Indian cinemas on Friday, just days before Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20 as the first black U.S. president.

“It’s definitely a nice little goodbye present for Bush,” said Kapur.

WHO PLAYS BUSH?

There is no word yet on whether an actor plays the president’s role in the film, although the director has said he used different ways to deal with the problem, including using video footage of Bush.

Television promos for ‘The President is Coming’ showed a person wearing a rubber Bush mask and a business suit walking past various Mumbai landmarks.

Kapur said the film, made at a cost of about 30 million rupees (approximately $618,000), would have lost much of its charm if Bush had not been the incumbent U.S. president.

“The premise wouldn’t have been as much fun if any of the other presidents had been around,” the first-time director said.

“The whole fun of it is that it’s President Bush.”
Reuters 

India should learn to strike silently
 
B Raman

 

Nobody can question Israel exercising its right to self-defence, to protect the lives and property of its citizens from rocket attacks in Gaza by the Hamas, which has been going on for weeks and months now. As the deputy permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations — in a press interview after the US had refused to join in the condemnation of Israel’s action by the UN Security Council — said, ‘Israel, like all other members of the UN, has the right of self-defence. This right is not negotiable.’

Like Israel and other members of the UN, India too has the right to self-defence against acts of terrorism emanating from Pakistani territory and sponsored by the State of Pakistan. It has the right to retaliate against Pakistan and the duty to do so to protect the lives and property of its citizens.

The question is not whether we should retaliate. We should if we want Pakistan and the hordes of terrorists nursed by it to take us seriously. The question is, whether a direct military strike will be the wise and appropriate way of retaliating against Pakistan or whether we should do it through political and diplomatic measures, followed by deniable covert actions, if those measures do not make Pakistan change its ways.

For many years, Israel has been the victim of acts of terrorism by organisations such as the Hamas and the Hizbollah, sponsored mainly by Syria and Iran. Its retaliation has been directed against these terrorist organisations and not against their State-sponsors.

After the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and the Yom Kippur war of 1973, Israel has indulged in military strikes in the territory of a sovereign state and a member of the UN only on two occasions — against the Osirak nuclear reactor under construction in Iraq in the early 1980s, and against the Hizbollah’s infrastructure in Lebanese territory in 2006. In the past, Israeli armed forces have operated in Lebanese territory on other occasions too.

Isreal’s action against Osirak in Iraq was a success, but its action in Lebanon in 2006 against the Hizbollah was not. Despite its concerns over the nuclear sites in Iran producing enriched uranium, Israel has till now avoided any military strikes on these sites, despite public pressure from sections of the Israeli people to do so.

It did launch an attack on a suspected nuclear site in Syria last year, but as a deniable covert action and not as an admitted military strike. It has also indulged in covert actions against suspected Hamas operatives based in Syria.

It is able to indulge in openly admitted military strikes against the Hamas in Gaza because Gaza is not part of any sovereign State. In the past, Israel’s retaliatory military strikes have been against terrorist organisations posing a threat to its citizens and property, and not against the States sponsoring them. Its actions against States sponsoring terrorism have been in the form of covert actions and not direct military strikes.

Practically all States facing the problem of terrorism have a covert action capability, because it gives them a third option if political and diplomatic measures fail. Without this option, a nation has to rely only on military retaliation, which could be messy when used against a next door neighbour. When a nation doesn’t use military strikes and doesn’t have a covert action capability, the State-sponsor and the terrorists sponsored by it develop contempt for such a nation.

The US has bombed Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan in retaliation for their perceived anti-US acts, but it has never taken a similar measure against Cuba, its next door neighbour.

It has declared Cuba a State-sponsor of terrorism and constantly keeps trying to undermine its political stability and economy, but avoids direct military action against it, despite it being a superpower. America knows that military action against a neighbour could get messy.

It is hoped that the government draws the right lessons from its dilemma after the Mumbai terror strike and tries to revive our covert action capability, which was discarded more than a decade ago as an ill-conceived unilateral gesture to Pakistan.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retired), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, New Delhi [Images] and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/06raman-india-should-learn-the-art-of-silent-strikes.htm

Massacre of innocents as UN school is shelled

Obama breaks silence to express deep concern over civilian casualties

By Donald Macintyre and Kim Sengupta in Jerusalem
The Independent - UK
Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Hundreds of Palestinians had fled their homes for the refuge of the
al-Fakhoura school, hoping the blue and white flag of the UN flying over the
impromptu shelter would protect them from the Israeli onslaught. The UN had
even given the Israeli army the co-ordinates for the building to spare it
from the shells and air strikes raining down on the Gaza strip. But
yesterday afternoon tank shells exploded outside the school, sending
shrapnel into the crowds, killing at least 40 and wounding another 55.

It was the worst confirmed bloodshed of Israel’s attack on Gaza and sparked
outrage and condemnation around the globe, with the US President-elect
Barack Obama breaking his 11-day silence, the UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon
calling the incident “totally unacceptable” and Gordon Brown describing the
conflict as “the darkest moment yet for the Middle East”.

Within hours of the strike on the school, with the Palestinian death toll
topping 600 and pressure mounting on Israel to stop its crushing military
campaign, Egypt proposed an immediate ceasefire and talks with Israel and
Hamas on a long-term settlement, including an end to the Gaza blockade.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was in Cairo on the latest stop of a
two-day tour of the Middle East, said that his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni
Mubarak, was inviting “notably the Israeli side to discuss the issue of
border security without delay”.

Arriving in New York for an emergency UN Security Council meeting, David
Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, welcomed the statement by Mr Mubarak saying
it “underlined the fast-moving nature of events”. The world, Mr Miliband
told the Council, was witnessing in Gaza, “the horror of war piled upon
months of deprivation”.

At the meeting, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas voiced support for the
Sarkozy-Mubarak ceasefire initiative. The killings at the school in Gaza
confirmed the “heinous crime being committed against our people,” he said.

Israel had yet to respond to the initiative last night. However, a statement
was issued late in the evening announcing Israel’s willingness to set up a
“humanitarian corridor” into Gaza for the safe delivery of emergency
supplies “to prevent a humanitarian crisis” there.

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said Washington backed Mr
Mubarak’s ceasefire proposal. “We need urgently to conclude a ceasefire that
can endure and that can bring real security,” she told the Security Council.
“In this regard we are pleased by and wish to commend the statement of the
President of Egypt and to follow up on that initiative.”

With Israeli troops moving further south into the cities of one of the
world’s most crowded territories, the Palestinian death toll is beginning to
rival that in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Yesterday, the UN demanded an
immediate independent investigation into the latest school killings.

The emergency room of northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital was packed to
overflowing after the carnage. “We have become quite used to noises of
explosions but then they started bringing in all those who had been caught
in the attack and it was a very bad sight,” Dr Bassam Abu Warda told The
Independent.

“It was terrible, really terrible. We are living at a very difficult time
but even as doctors it is always hard to see children being hurt and we had
a lot of them today and we are not really equipped to deal with this type of
emergency here.”

Majed Hamdan, a photographer, said he rushed to the scene shortly after the
attacks, which happened just as many of the refugees had ventured outside
for fresh air. “I saw women and men - parents - slapping their faces in
grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor,” he said. “They knew
their children were dead.”

Gruesome footage on Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV showed medics starting to unload the
bodies of men who had been stacked up in the back of an ambulance, three
high, and were dragged out without stretchers. The blood-caked stumps of one
man’s legs bumped along the ground as he was pulled from the ambulance.

Responding to criticism of its hit on the school in the Jabalya refugee
camp, the Israeli military accused Hamas of “using civilians as human
shields”. It said that the results of its “initial inquiry” was that mortar
shells had been fired from the school at forces operating in the area and
that, “in response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar
fire”, and said that this was not the first time Hamas had fired mortars and
rockets from UNRWA school premises in Gaza. Two Hamas militants, Imad Abu
Askar and Hasan Abu Askar, were among the dead, the army said.

John Ging, the operations director for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which
runs the school, expressed his outrage. “Those in the school were all
families seeking refuge,” he said. “There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone
here is terrorised and traumatised … I am appealing to political leaders
to get their act together and stop this.”

Ahead of the Security Council session, there were signs of tension between
the White House and the US State Department. “We would like an immediate
ceasefire, absolutely,” a department spokesman, Sean McCormack, told
reporters before Ms Rice’s departure for New York. “An immediate ceasefire
that is durable, sustainable and not time-limited.” Minutes later, the White
House said this did not represent a shift in the US position.

Veering away from his mantra of “one president at a time”, Mr Obama said
“the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern
for me.” Gordon Brown said: “This is a humanitarian crisis. This is the
darkest moment yet for the Middle East and it affects the whole world.”

Al-Qai’da’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, made an internet appeal for
Muslims to “hit the interests of Zionists and Crusaders wherever and
whichever way you can”.

While the school killings represented the single biggest loss of life since
the Israeli offensive began on 27 December, details are emerging of other
incidents involving high numbers of civilian casualties. An Israeli human
rights agency, B’Tselem, and the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination for
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) independently released reports that more than 30
members of the same extended family had been killed on Monday during the
shelling of a building in the northern Zeitoun district of Gaza City.

With foreign journalists currently prevented from entering Gaza and with
mobile telephone use in Gaza intermittent, it is virtually impossible to
verify details of all casualties.

In Israel, the Hamas rockets have continued to land. At least five hit
Israeli soil yesterday, including one in Gadera, 28km (17 miles) from Tel
Aviv. A three-month-old baby was hurt.

The Israel Defence Forces says seven Israeli soldiers have died during the
offensive: one during the air strikes, three more since the ground invasion
began and, late on Monday, three were killed and another 24 wounded by a
tank shell in a friendly fire incident.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/massacre-of-innocents-as
-un-school-is-shelled-1230045.html

Gaza Strip
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Gaza Strip (Arabic: ???? ???? transliteration: Qi?a? Gazza/Qita’ Ghazzah, Hebrew: ????? ???? Retzu’at ‘Azza) is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea currently governed by Hamas. It borders Egypt on the south-west and Israel on the north and east. It is about 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometers (139 sq mi). The area is not recognized internationally as part of any sovereign country but is claimed by the Palestinian National Authority as part of the Palestinian territories. Since the June 2007 battle of Gaza, actual control of the area is in the hands of the Hamas de facto government.

Israel governed the Gaza Strip from 1967-2005. Pursuant to the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel maintains control of the strip’s airspace, territorial waters, and offshore maritime access, as well as its side of the Gaza-Israel border. This continued control has allowed the Israeli state, which opposes Hamas, to control the inflow and outflow of Gaza’s essential resources, including food.[citation needed] When food is in short supply, Gazans have taken in food supplied by World Food Programme workers in the area.[citation needed] Israel’s position is that reports of food or fuel crisis are “created and promoted by Hamas.” According to Israel, “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza” and Hamas purposely shuts down electricity and confiscates the fuel supplied by Israel to Gaza.[1]

Egypt governed the Gaza Strip from 1948-1967 and today runs the southern border between the Gaza strip and the Sinai desert, a border now famous for the breach in early 2008.

The territory takes its name from Gaza, its main city. It has about 1.4 million Palestinian Arab (or Gazan) residents.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip
Barack Obama says US economy is ‘very sick’
President-elect Barack Obama has described the US economy as “very sick” and predicted the situation will worsen.

By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 6:49AM GMT 06 Jan 2009

His comments came before a meeting with Congressional leaders in an attempt to get them to back the $300 billion measures aimed at people on lower and middle income, assuring opposition Republicans their views would be considered.

“The economy is very sick,” he said before meeting with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. “The situation is getting worse. … We have to act and act now to break the momentum of this recession.”

He said he expected that the latest US unemployment figures, due out later this week, would be sobering.

The complete recovery package would cost between $750 billion and $1 trillion [£630 billion] and include tax cuts for lower and middle income groups and relief for businesses over two years.

If passed, it would more than double the savings tax payers received in George W Bush’s tax reforms of 2001 and 2003. In real terms the cost would exceed that of the Vietnam War, which drained the treasury of $682 billion in current dollars, according to the Congressional Research Service

Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” aims to “create or save” three million jobs by 2011 and would include public works projects and support for states that are struggling to balance their budgets.

On his first day of work since moving his transition operation from his home city Chicago to Washington, Mr Obama paid an important visit to Congress, where he served in the senate for four years before his historic election as the first African American election winner in November. Mr Obama has made clear he intends to work closely with Capitol Hill.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4139542/Barack-Obama-says-US-economy-is-very-sick.html

Bush to host Obama, ex-presidents at White House
Washington: US President George W. Bush will host former presidents and his successor, Barack Obama, at the White House for a private meeting during lunch Wednesday, the White House said.

The meeting will mark the first gathering of all former presidents at the White House since 1981, spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Bush and Obama will hold a private one-on-one meeting before the expanded presidential gathering, she said.

Among the living presidents are Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with the current and future White House occupants Bush and Obama.

“President-elect Obama, I think, originally had the idea for this, but President Bush readily agreed, thought it was a great idea to get everybody together,” Perino said.

Perino said the five men will likely discuss life as a president and raising children in the White House, but said details of their discussions will not be made public.

“All of us would love to be flies on the wall and listening to that conversation, but these are leaders who only understand what it’s like to be in each other’s shoes,” she said.

While this is the first meeting of all former presidents at the White House in more than two decades, they have previously attended presidential funerals and ceremonies to inaugurate presidential libraries.

Source: DPA

Sensex sheds 749 pts on Satyam fraud!Shocked over how the financial manipulation went on in Satyam Computer Services for so long, industry said it was time corporate India stopped giving itself “self-congratulatory” awards and gave a hard look on deeper issues relating to corporate governance.

There are far too many “self-congratulatory awards being given out in terms of corporate governance and disclosures,” FICCI President Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
Mumbai The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Wednesday suffered the most this year by losing 749 points on panic selling by funds after Satyam Computer said profit had been inflated for years, raising concerns of dim third-quarter earnings by blue-chip companies.
The Sensex, which had gained over 688 points in the last four sessions of 2009, tumbled below the crucial 10,000 point level, losing 749.05 points to reach 9,586.88. It touched the day’s low of 9,510.15 and a high of 10,469.72 points, showing a wide fluctuation of nearly 960 points.

Satyam Computer crashed by Rs 139.15 or 77.69 per cent to close at Rs 39.95, after the Chairman announced the company had falsified accounts and assets for several years.

Amazingly, the company ADR on the US stock market — Nasdaq — closed higher by four per cent last night.

The declining Sensex recorded the biggest single-day loss in the past two months, after Satyam Computers Services, the country’s fourth-largest software developer, plunged around 80 per cent, the highest since getting listed in 1992.

The 50-share National Stock Exchange index Nifty tumbled by 192.40 points at 2,920.40, after hitting the day’s low of 2,888.20 points during the day.

Fuel prices may go down again: Deora

New Delhi India may cut fuel prices again, Oil Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday, a month after the government last lowered state-set rates for petrol and diesel.
“We are looking at reducing prices of petrol, diesel and LPG. We are trying. There is a possibility. I cannot give you any time frame,” Deora told reporters.

India cut gasoline prices by 10 per cent and diesel by 6 per cent in the first week of December, when it also announced other measures to lift wobbly markets in a slowing economy.

The likely cut in fuel prices, ahead of general elections due by May, will further reduce inflation, which has already fallen to a near 10-month low of 6.6 per cent.

Analysts say low inflation may fuel further cuts in central bank interest rates to help India’s $1 trillion economy, which is expected to grow about 7 per cent in 2008/09, slowing from a blistering 9 per cent in each of the previous three years.
Reuters

It is quite a SHAME that a powerful quarter in India supports the MSSACRE in GAZA. Prominent Bangla Daily Anand Bazaar Patrika published from Kolkata has an ENVIable position as it has been alwyas supporting LPG Mafia pleading Economic reforms for so called development and industrialisation. At the same time, the selfstyled CRUSADER of Bangla nationality across the border, supports most the Bush Regime. It supported US aggression in Iraq and Afganistan. No wonder, it supports the ISraeli Operation in GAZA having a stringest stance  in favour of WAR against Terrorism. The mainstream Media and even political parties have turned ZIONIST as they had always been Brahaminical!India as a Nation lost its reputation as the Leader of the Third world because it stands quite detached in the hour of HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHY! Rahre the Brahaminical hegemony ruling India and enslaving eighty five percent indigenous aboriginal people, tries its best to REPLICATE ISRAEL! As HAMAS is believed to be crushed in GAZA, the WAR Goddess of Blind Nationalism also wants SACRIFICE of INNOCENT people across the political border to WIPE OUT Muslim Terrorists in Pakistan!

But we have the most critical problem, ISRAEL never faced. The ZIONISTS run the governments and Economies of the World including United states of America . Israel is SOVEREIGN to act. Contrarily we are BONDED labour in the Peripherry ECONOMY Colonised by US Corporate Imperialism and we have to COMPLY with only US interets in south Asia. Knowing the inability of UPA government led by Italian Citizen Sonia Gandhi, the HINDUTVA forces have launched an all out Hate campaign against the Muslims and indigenous aboriginal people in India. Marxist
Hypocrites are also led by Brahaminical hegemony and they just complete the ritual condemning Israel. Hence, india and indian people lag behind all other third world countries resisting Zionist aggression worldwide!

 Militants exchanging heavy gunfire with security forces in Bhati Dhar jungles of Poonch are suspected to be from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group, army said on Wednesday, but did not specify any time frame for flushing them out.
“The holed up militants, who have been exchanging fire with the security forces for the last one week, seem to be from JeM based on the intercepts that we have got,” Brigadier General Staff Brig Gurdeep Singh told reporters in Mendhar.

Unlike operation ‘Sarp Nash’ in 2003 during which security forces had come across bunkers built by militants, Brig Singh said in the current operation, there were no such reports of bunkers being set up by the ultras in the forest area.

The militants were using natural caves with rocks around them as hideouts in the region, he said.

Replying to questions on the operation that began on January 1, he said, “it is not possible to specify as of now how long the operation will last.”

The officer said the undulating forest terrain in the region and the weather were acting as major constraints for the army in flushing them out.

What is happening in Gaza are extremely important because although the mass media is covering the story, and somewhat critical of Israel’s actions, in general they are telling only part of the story. The overwhelming majority of the people in the US and elsewhere assume — because the media hasn’t given them any reason to believe otherwise — that while Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians is an “over-reaction”, it was caused initially by Hamas’ unwarranted firing of mortars at Israel. They haven’t a clue as to why Hamas would do such a thing. They don’t know that Palestinians are fighting against an illegal occupation of their land.

India is upgrading its MiG-27 fighters to sharpen their strike capabilities, officials said on Wednesday, even as experts say the recent Mumbai attacks have exposed the country’s need to modernise its defence forces. Although the upgrade was planned well ahead of the attacks, officials said the defence ministry wants to speed up modernisation of its forces to tackle any future security threat. The upgrading comes at a time when tension runs high with Pakistan over Mumbai and India is saying it has all options open to deal with “terror outfits” in Pakistan.

In the country’s biggest corporate fraud involving about Rs 8,000 crore, iconic IT company Satyam was hurtling towards disaster following the shocking disclosure of accounts fudging by its founder Ramalinga Raju, who then quit as chairman - leaving an uncertain future for the company and its 53,000 employees.
By the end of the day, the fourth largest IT company lost a staggering Rs 10,000 crore in market capitalisation as investors reacted sharply and dumped shares, pushing down the scrip by 78 per cent to Rs 39.95 at BSE. The NYSE-listed firm could also face regulator action in the US. The government, regulator SEBI and the industry reacted with shock and anguish over the turn of events that could tarnish India’s corporate and raise vital issue like ethics, corporate governance and accounting and business practices.Acting in tandem, Corporate Affairs Ministry and SEBI announced that the episode would be probed and action taken against the perpetrators of the fraud that entails inflating profits and creating fictitious assets.
Just days after supporting the anti-terror measures in Parliament, chief ministers of various NDA constituents expressed their reservations over the new National Investigation Agency saying it would “disturb” the federal set-up of the country and sought tougher laws. The NDA parties, however, said they will support the Centre in its fight against terror.
Speaking at the Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security in New Delhi, BJP leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said, “By setting up the National Investigation Agency, the Central government now obviously wants to take over upon itself the responsibility of fighting terror by sidetracking the states.” He said the NIA has become a matter of “mazak” (joke) since it would take at least a month for the government to decide “which and what case to take up” once NIA starts functioning.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who belongs to JD-U, said consultations with states should have preceded enactment of the National Investigation Agency Act and other anti-terror laws. He wanted that NIA be barred from taking up any case not relating to terrorism without the consent of the state government.

“It appears the recent spurt in terrorist activities has led the Centre to rush through various legislations without adequate consultation with state governments,” he said.

“The anti-terror measures taken by Union Government after the Mumbai attacks were encroachment on state’s right and were against the federal structure of the country.” He said that there are many lacunae in the NIA Act and “states could have also been involved in the decision process before enactment of the Act.”

Kuldeep Nair writes quite clearly in the Telegraph:

BETWEEN THE LINES
- In terms of alliances, the US needs Pakistan more than India 
Diplomacy - K.P. Nayar
 
 
Clasped close 
There are many ways of preparing a balance sheet. A clever auditor will tell you, if you are a good client, how he can disguise a dismal accounting reality as an attractive investment prospect. The collapsed energy conglomerate, Enron, and its now deceased auditors, Arthur Andersen, are recent examples. What is true of accounting is equally true of diplomacy and statecraft.

As the Bush administration goes into the sunset, it is logical to seek a scrutiny of the balance sheet of Indo-US relations, especially in the outgoing president’s second term, when the world sat up and took note of a bilateral relationship that became important enough for the United Progressive Alliance government to stake its very existence on last year. Such a scrutiny has, indeed, become imperative because events since the November 26 terrorist attacks in Mumbai have exposed the myth of a strategic or natural alliance between India and the United States of America much like the Enron scam.

For this columnist, who has just returned from India to the ground realities of American strategic thinking, it is sad to see a government on Raisina Hill offering to go to Washington and to other world capitals, hat in hand, with “evidence” of terrorist designs on India from across the border with Pakistan.

If P.V. Narasimha Rao had been alive today, he would have told Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee that India’s fight against terror cannot be won by appealing to the goodwill of rulers in other countries — as the Union home minister, P. Chidambaram, will do in Washington later this week — but only by putting in place a bold agenda for dealing with the cross-border threat and implementing it with cold and steely calculation.

Rao would have been speaking from experience. In 1993, shortly after the serial bombing of Mumbai, his government managed to obtain irrefutable physical evidence of a Pakistani plot to blow up Mumbai. It can now be told that the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s external spy agency, obtained the evidence after Pakistan’s then president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, presented that proof in Pakistan’s supreme court during Khan’s epic battle against the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, whom the president dismissed in April 1993, a month after the Mumbai bombings.

Sharif challenged his dismissal under Pakistan’s controversial eighth constitutional amendment. Khan knew that his future as president was doomed if Sharif won the case in the supreme court. He urged the court to hold part of its proceedings in camera and then presented evidence at the secret session that Sharif, as prime minister, not only knew about the Inter Services Intelligence plot to bomb Mumbai using Dawood Ibrahim’s underworld network, but had also given his go-ahead to it.

Lawyers for the State argued at this in camera sitting of the court that Sharif was unfit to be prime minister because he nearly took Pakistan to war with India by allowing the risky serial bombing of India’s premier metropolis. The supreme court quashed Sharif’s dismissal, reinstated him in office and cancelled Khan’s orders for fresh elections. Eventually, of course, both the squabbling politicians were persuaded by the army to resign and fresh elections brought in Benazir Bhutto as prime minister.

Barring India, few countries then realized that Pakistan was already on its way to being the epicentre of global terrorism. Other States were yet to experience the consequences of a process of nurturing terror that General Zia-ul-Haq had started. Besides, terrorism in Pakistan was still State-controlled; it was aimed at bleeding India, and the ISI was then in total control of such State-sponsored acts of terror.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090107/jsp/opinion/story_10350288.jsp

Bush to host Obama, ex-presidents at White House
Washington: US President George W. Bush will host former presidents and his successor, Barack Obama, at the White House for a private meeting during lunch Wednesday, the White House said.

The meeting will mark the first gathering of all former presidents at the White House since 1981, spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Bush and Obama will hold a private one-on-one meeting before the expanded presidential gathering, she said.

Among the living presidents are Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with the current and future White House occupants Bush and Obama.

“President-elect Obama, I think, originally had the idea for this, but President Bush readily agreed, thought it was a great idea to get everybody together,” Perino said.

Perino said the five men will likely discuss life as a president and raising children in the White House, but said details of their discussions will not be made public.

“All of us would love to be flies on the wall and listening to that conversation, but these are leaders who only understand what it’s like to be in each other’s shoes,” she said.

While this is the first meeting of all former presidents at the White House in more than two decades, they have previously attended presidential funerals and ceremonies to inaugurate presidential libraries.

Source: DPA
exchange comes from a transcript of phone calls intercepted during the Mumbai attacks that was part of a dossier of evidence India handed Pakistan this week.

New Delhi says the evidence, which also included photographs of recovered weapons, data gleaned from satellite phones, and details from the interrogation of the lone surviving gunman, proves that the Mumbai siege was launched from across the border.

Pakistani authorities have dismissed the evidence as “a propaganda offensive” designed “to whip up tensions” in the region.

The transcripts, which were obtained by The Hindu newspaper, show that the 10 gunmen who carried out the attacks were in close contact with their handlers throughout the siege. India says the handlers directing the attacks that left 164 dead were senior leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group.

‘Look for govt official’

“There are three ministers and one secretary of the cabinet in your hotel. We don’t know in which room,” the handler told a gunman inside the Taj Mahal hotel at 1510 hrs IST on the first night of the attack on November 26.

“Oh! That is good news. It is the icing on the cake!” he said.

The handler told him to find the government officials “and then get whatever you want from India.” The handlers in Pakistan told another team of gunmen who had seized a Jewish center to shoot the hostages if necessary. “If you are still threatened, then don’t saddle yourself with the burden of the hostages. Immediately kill them,” he said.

He then added, “If the hostages are killed, it will spoil relations between India and Israel.”

“So be it, God willing,” the gunman replied.

Six Jewish foreigners, including a rabbi and his wife, were killed inside the Jewish center.

Be strong in the name of Allah
The gunmen were told several times not to kill any Muslim hostages. They were ordered, “Keep your phone switched on so that we can hear the gunfire.”

Later in the night, nearly 24 hours after the attacks began, the handlers urged the gunmen to “be strong in the name of Allah”

“Brother, you have to fight. This is a matter of prestige of Islam. You may feel tired or sleepy, but the commandos of Islam have left everything behind, their mothers, their fathers.”

Source: Associated Press

Inauspicious beginning, inglorious end
 
 
 January 06, 2009
For America and the world, it has been a rollercoaster ride with George W Bush [Images] at the White House. It is arguable if the Bush presidency represents the lowest point in the perception of America across the world, but what is not is that Bush has made his country, and the world, a far different one — some could even say, unsafe one — than it was on January 20, 2001.
Matthew Schneeberger, an American reporter at rediff.com’s editorial headquarters in Mumbai [Images], looks back on the 43rd president with wonder and amazement: How could things have gone so wrong?
——————————————————————————–
It’s safe to say that George W Bush — outside the most loyal of US Republican circles — is an unpopular president, never mind that India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] believes Indians simply love him.

During 2008, his approval rating in the US dipped below 30%, bottoming out at 19%, the lowest on record. Lower than then US president Richard M Nixon in his final days in office, when he resigned in disgrace following the Watergate scandal.

This contempt manifested itself in the November 2008 US presidential and congressional elections, when Democrats took back the White House and established decisive majorities in both Houses of the US Congress. Pundits have called it a clear voter mandate, some claiming that the massively unpopular Bush and those connected to him have damaged the Republican Party’s brand name for decades to come.

In 2008, Bush’s last full year in office, the US economy shed an estimated 2.4 million jobs, its worst single year loss of employment in over six decades.

Why India is upset with George Bush & Co

This figure provides an exclamation point to a year’s worth of bleak economic news and harrowing forecasts. Remember, when then president Bill Clinton [Images] left the Oval Office in January 2001, the unemployment rate was 4.2 per cent. Today, it’s at 7 per cent and, by all accounts, spiralling upward.

Moreover, in 2000, the year before Bush became president, the US government reported a $236 billion annual budget surplus. By 2008, that surplus became a record $400 billion or $500 billion deficit (no one knows for sure). Not to mention the nearly $1 trillion in bail-out money the government has earmarked for various collapsing businesses in the past few months.

In fact, under Bush’s eight-year stewardship, the federal deficit has almost doubled, from $5.6 trillion to $10.6 trillion. The dollar has been devalued. The financial sector is in crisis.

‘The US is perceived as hypocritical’

Some of Bush’s economic failures might be forgivable had he made major strides in the foreign policy arena. But today the US is mired in two expensive, protracted wars — Iraq and Afghanistan — and sustainable peace seems far-off in both countries. Globally, the perception of America has diminished, with Bush an easily identifiable symbol for the massive and growing anti-US sentiment in many parts of the world. Going to war in Iraq, virtually unilaterally and on dodgy intelligence, plus allegations of improper detainments at Guantanamo Bay and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, have raised questions about the US’s commitment to human rights.

And, every step of the way, with his folksy rhetoric and lack of gravitas, Bush has provided endless fodder for late-night comedians, political commentators, academics and the international media.

Last month, just when it seemed that Bush’s term might end quietly and without incident, an Iraq journalist hurled shoes and abuses at him in front of a worldwide audience, becoming an instant celebrity in the process. Photographs and videos of the incident will doubtless remain indelible images of the Bush presidency.

So how did we get to this point, where the US president — the ostensible leader of the free world — is disrespected in a most serious manner and the incident is considered funny and deserving?

What happened?

The presidency of George W Bush began on an inglorious note: he actually lost the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election.

Clinton’s vice-president and the 2000 Democratic Party nominee Al Gore [Images], seen here with Bush, garnered 50,999,897 votes to Bush’s 50,456,002, a difference of over 500,000 votes.

But because America determines her President through a group of 538 representative voters called the Electoral College, which essentially makes the contest a composite of 51 separate races (one in each of the 50 states plus one in Washington DC), by sweeping rural and less populous states, Bush was able to cobble together the Electoral College majority he needed for victory: 271 to Gore’s 266. Bush was just the fourth candidate to have lost the popular vote and yet still win the election.

Exclusive: The George Bush interview!

It helped that his brother Jeb Bush was governor of Florida [Images] (the state’s chief executive), the definitive state in the election. Had Gore won Florida — and he lost there by only a few hundred votes, a race so close that the US supreme court was forced to make a ruling — Bush would have never occupied the White House.

From the start, Bush was hounded by questions of legitimacy. Given the controversial circumstances surrounding his victory, many said he did not ’speak’ for the American people. As a supposedly ‘weak’ president (in electoral terms), he would need to be conciliatory in his dealings with Congress and other branches of government.

And, in fact, during his campaign, Bush had run as a so-called ‘Compassionate Conservative’ who wanted to be a ‘uniter’ rather than a ‘divider’.

In addition to traditional Republican promises like strengthening national defence and cutting taxes, he also made education core part of his platform, which helped him to siphon away many Democratic votes — education is generally a ‘Democrat’ issue. But it also suggested that Bush would be willing to comprise. Congressional Democrats hoped his narrow victory and non-partisan campaign rhetoric would translate into pragmatic, non-partisan governance.

They were sorely, sorely mistaken.

Part II: After 9/11, Bush suddenly had political capital

Image: A photograph from 2000 of George W Bush and his Democratic rival for the American presidency, Al Gore, during one of their presidential debates. Photograph: Reuters
http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/06-bush-inauspicious-beginning-inglorious-end.htm
 
Satyam’s Raju can get a 7-year jail term
January 7, 2009
 
Satyam Computer chairman B Ramalinga Raju can face seven years’ imprisonment in addition to monetary penalties for forging accounts, breach of trust and misappropriating funds.

“He (Raju) can be charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for falsification of accounts, cheating and breach of trust. These offences attract a maximum penalty of seven years,” said a senior partner of law firm Titus and Company, Diljeet Titus.

Expressing a similar opinion, senior Supreme Court advocate C A Sundaram said, “If the admissions (made by Raju in his resignation letter) are true, it is a very serious matter. It would be violation of (the) SEBI (code), Company Law and the IPC.”

Satyam Computer chairman Raju, in his resignation letter to the board, has admitted falsifying accounts and under-stating liabilities.

Another senior advocate and corporate law practitioner U K Chaudhary said the Satyam chief could be imprisoned for seven years under various provisions of company law. “Under section 628 of the Companies Act, which deals with misrepresentation of accounts, he could be punished for a maximum of 2 years along with penalty. However, the punishment term could be extended to seven years for producing false affidavits and other documents,” he said.

In addition to Raju, Titus said “action should also be taken against chief financial officers, finance managers, and legal and tax advisors for their complicity in this episode”.

Suggesting that the CBI should get into the case, he said if appropriate action is not taken, the Satyam fiasco would ‘make a mockery of the Indian enforcement mechanism’.

Text: PTI

26/11 aftermath: Options before Obama
 January 07, 2009 19:37 IST

The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama [Images] has two options to deal with the fallout of the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai [Images]: (1) To support, and to garner international backing for, Pakistan’s democratically elected leadership in order to enable it to act firmly against terrorist groups on its soil or (2) To designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism under United States law — a designation that will involve considerable sanctions on a country that the outgoing George W Bush [Images] administration had named a ‘major non-NATO ally’.

 

The contrasting policy options were made by specialist in South Asian Affairs Alan Kronstadt of the Congressional Research Service, in a report on 26/11 prepared by the CRS for the United States Congress.

 

The relevance of the document stems from the fact that the CRS is the policy research arm of the Congress. The House and Senate use the CRS to prepare extensive policy papers on issues of paramount importance; these reports then form backgrounders as relevant House and Senate committees discuss and frame necessary legislation.
The Kronstadt paper, extending to over 10,000 words and with exhaustive annotations, toes the generally accepted narrative in describing the attacks themselves. It is when discussing the fallout that the paper offers up original analysis and commentary.
Kronstadt defines US policy in South Asia as focused on preventing interstate conflict that could destabilize the region and lead to nuclear war, coupled with a more recent and inter-linked goal of fostering stability in Afghanistan.
From this, Kronstadt postulates that the to-do list for the 111th Congress, which will come into effect January 20, includes creating legislation that fosters greater US-India counterterrorism relations. And with regard to Pakistan, the report suggests that Congress needs to impose conditions on any further US assistance on quantifiable progress in the war against terrorism.
The report is scathing on the poor quality of India’s response to the immediate threat, pointing out that then Home Minister Shivraj Patil [Images] only ordered India’s elite National Security Guard commandos to the scene 90 minutes after the attacks began, and then through a series of bungles the commandos only landed on site 10 hours later, thus handing a tactical advantage to the militants. As a result, the report points out, two days elapsed between the initial engagement with, and final subjugation of, the terrorists.
Kronstadt goes into annotated depth to link the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [Images] to the attacks, and to underline the theory that the Jamaat-ud-Dawah is no more than the LeT flying under an assumed name, following its banning in the wake of the attack on India’s Parliament.

Interestingly, while the LeT-JuD link is being denied by Pakistan, Kronstadt points out that Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan’s current Ambassador [Images] to the United States, has in recent times commented upon Pakistan’s “state sponsorship of jihad against India” and has described the LeT as “backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services.”

 

The reports cites a 2005 book by Haqqani in which the diplomat writes that earlier in the decade, the Inter Services Intelligence provided significant “severance pay” to jihadi leaders in return for their promise to “remain dormant for an unspecified duration.”

Kronstadt writes: ‘Among the alleged recipients of this ISI largesse were the LeT’s Mohammad Hafeez [Images] Saeed and Masood Azhar, chief of the Pakistan-based, FTO-designated Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).’

 

Discussing the motivation behind the attacks, the report cites sources to suggest that it marks an escalation of the “war for Pakistan”: ‘an ongoing and essentially civil-level battle to determine whether Pakistan will be a moderate or an extremist state.’
The report also suggests that the attack is part of a “goal-oriented” effort to advance an overall strategy to defeat the US military and restore Taliban [Images] rule in Afghanistan — a strategy the LeT is assumed to have bought into.
It also suggests that LeT’s current goals transcend the Kashmiri separatism that has been its primary motivation, and are aimed at crippling the Indian state and conducting global war against a perceived “American-Zionist-Hindu” axis.
Arguing that the US intention of engaging with India more deeply in counter-terrorism is now established policy, the Kronstadt report says the Mumbai incident has elicited vocal calls for taking such cooperation to the next level.
While admitting that mutual distrust exists between the intelligence communities in both countries — exacerbated by recent clandestine US efforts to penetrate Indian intelligence agencies — the threat of Islamic terrorism spurs the need for more robust bilateral intelligence sharing and other official exchanges, including on maritime and cyber security.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/07mumterror-2611-aftermath-options-before-obama.htm

 

Where are groups that call themselves “human rights advocates” (like Human Rights Watch), who constantly publicize their critiques of countries like Cuba and Venezuela, but are silent on atrocities from Gaza to New Orleans to Oakland?
klw

Oscar Grant, young father and peacemaker, executed by BART police

 

Demand justice for Oscar Grant Wednesday, Jan. 7, 3-7 p.m., Fruitvale BART Station, Oakland
by Davey D
 
Oscar Grant, 22, murdered in cold blood by BART police just two hours into the new year, was the loving father of a 4-year-old daughter, a fact he told the police just as he was shot. He worked as a butcher at Farmer Joe’s Marketplace.

By now everyone has seen the horrific videos of an Oakland BART police officer shooting an unarmed Black man, Oscar Grant, while he lay face down on the ground and was fully cooperating. The man who was killed execution style was the father of a 4-year-old girl and was considered a peacemaker. In fact moments before he was shot he was pleading with his friends who were all cuffed up to calm down and be cooperative with police. Grant was seen begging the police officers, who had pulled tasers out and pointed them at the heads of his friends, not to shoot.

For reasons unknown to us, the police officer pushed Grant to the ground. One officer kneeled on his neck while the other officer pulled out a gun and shot him point blank in the back. The bullet went through his back, hit the ground and bounced back up and pierced his lung, killing him.

The police then ran around and terrified witnesses by taking away their cell phones and video cameras for “evidence.” The video, which was shot by a witness named Karina Vargas and has been seen by everyone on KTVU, was also going to be confiscated, except her train started moving as police attempted to snatch away her camera. The cops obviously did not see the other video cameras buzzing away.

What went down this New Year’s morning is a very disturbing sight and it has the entire city of Oakland on edge. Adding insult to injury is the refusal of BART police to acknowledge any wrongdoing. Police Chief Gary Gee says the tapes are inconclusive and he has thus far refused to even release the name of the police officer who is now on paid leave.

We have also come to find out that the young men along with Oscar Grant were snatched off the train by BART police who did not know whether or not these young men were involved in any sort of altercation. In short, it could’ve been any one of us pulled off the train that night.

Following is an interview broadcast Tuesday, Jan. 6, on Hard Knock Radio on KPFA 94.1 FM:

Davey D: I was listening to a number of speeches and old news clips that went all the way back to the murder of Bobby Hutton here in the city of Oakland and was remembering the harassment and the beat-down that Tupac Shakur got and going through just this long list of Black males who have been killed unceremoniously by the police department right here in the city all the way up to last year or the year before when everybody was down on protesting for the Jena 6 - and Gary King, 20 years old, was shot and killed in the back by an Oakland officer right here on 54th and Martin Luther King.

And this is just something that is ongoing and I guess the challenge before us in the aftermath of the execution of Oscar Grant, 22-year old father who was a peacemaker trying to get everybody to calm down - his friends, the police - who was seen on videotape around the world not struggling, cooperating, who was seen on videotape around the world, his face on the ground, his hands behind his back, as an officer shot him point blank, killing him.

And then that officer who our tax dollars are supposed to make sure that he protects and serves didn’t even have the courage to hold a press conference and say this is who I am and say his name. The last I heard he hadn’t even been interviewed. And then shame on the other officers around the Bay Area that saw this thing.
 
At a press conference Sunday called by John Burris, the family’s attorney, Oscar Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, and his daughter’s mother, Sophina Mesa, comforted each other. – Photo: Dan Honda, Oakland Tribune

And we have people protesting all around the country and people upset, including our guests that we are going to talk to. You didn’t see any of them (other police officers) having a press conference to say, “Wow, we are appalled at the behavior of one of our own.” It’s something to think about.

In the studio this afternoon we have Evan Shamar, one of the individuals who was outraged enough to get a number of people to go down to the BART headquarters to protest what was going on, and on the phone line with us is another activist in the community, Dereca Blackman from Leadership Excellence. First of all welcome to the show.

Evan, I want to start off with you. What went through your mind as a young Black male when you saw this and where have things gone since you’ve seen this videotape and gotten word of what went down?

Evan: Just to premise my thoughts, no horror film can ever compare to the images which we saw. I want to start off by saying, a young developing human life was deemed insignificant by the ones sworn to protect and serve, to uphold justice, and the police wonder why they’re forced to carry around the stigma that we correspond with corruption.

They perpetuated this stigma to our reality and now we are left with Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old father - he’s just a memory now - and we’re supposed to swallow the fact that it may have been an accident. Well, I’m here to tell everybody, on behalf of everybody’s outrage, that we’re not going to swallow it; we’re not going to take it. This is not going to stop. We don’t want to see this officer put on administrative leave, we don’t want to see this officer terminated or fired, we will not stop until we see this police officer put on trial in an American courtroom for first degree murder.

Davey: That’s real talk right there. You know, talk about the type of exchanges that took place when you all went down to headquarters.

Evan: You know, we went down there; we were very peaceful. We had a small amount of people at first; then after a while people joined in and supported our efforts. The police were actually the most combative ones there if you really want to get down to it.

Davey: Combative in what way?

Evan: In the sense that they were trying to tell us to disburse, that we couldn’t be there when we even had a permit to be there. They were using physical force part of the time. I was actually a victim of one of the police officer’s physical force.

Davey: What did he do, put his billy club on you or … ?

Evan: One of the police officers actually … I got approached by a group of three officers and of course I was intimidated given the circumstances of what had happened. Three of them walked up to me and told me, “Sir, you’re going to have to get out of here” and one reached for his billy club and then reached for something. I don’t know what he was reaching for. The other one just took his forearm and positioned it as though it was a weapon and basically rushed me and threw me into somewhat of a bush. Now I didn’t fall but he rushed me.

Davey: Wow, and this is happening during the protest?

Evan: This is at the protest that we had organized that took place the day before yesterday.

Davey: Dereca Blackman, you’ve been an activist from Detroit all the way up here to the Bay. This movie we’ve seen so many times, what do you think we should do? The community that is outraged, what steps do you think they should start taking to move beyond the usual things that we’ve done in the past, which has been protesting and asking for some sort of redress from the mayor and government officials. That seems to not have changed, at least in our lifetimes. What do you think needs to happen next?

Dereca: Thanks again, Davey, for taking a lead on this issue and making sure that everybody has good information and thanks to Evan for putting together the rally for tomorrow. I think a lot of times when we talk about rallies and protests, people get frustrated because they don’t see it as part of a long-term solution. These are short-term solutions and they’re not going to solve long-term problems.

I think part of the issue is that long-term solutions require a variety of approaches and they require consistency. And we as a people have to look not just at what’s happening with this particular case, we need to look at what’s been a process that has continued to happen. And when you had John Burris (attorney for Oscar Grant’s family) on the other day, he was talking about some of the laws that have been passed that have facilitated this problem.

So we’re raising questions right now about police confiscating people’s cell phones for taking picture and videos of what was happening. What’s the legality behind that and how do we prompt ACLU and others to make a comment to those kinds of things happening.

What’s happening with the police officers’ union such that they’ve been able to pass measures and laws that allow them to not be interviewed so that they have time to get their story together? So now all of a sudden we’re hearing that he thought he was reaching for his taser. But they had days to get that story together as opposed to being interviewed on the spot about what happened.

So these are some of the things that we have to push back against. And we have to be vigilant. I think that this is a unique moment in history because all of us, whether it was through the election of Ron Dellums as mayor of Oakland or whether the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States came with a level of hope that we might have some integrity as individuals who would hold people accountable when things like this happen.

This is the moment. I think the legacy of Mayor Dellums in this city is right here on the line right now because if he doesn’t have the integrity to confront this issue - and it’s not necessarily about what he has the power to control. He has influence as a statesman and a local and national leader to make this issue of police accountability and police brutality relevant and important and discussed locally and nationally. He can make that happen.

And likewise, we need to take this issue all the way to the inauguration festivities and make sure police brutality becomes a part of the national agenda. I was mad about Abner Louima. I was mad about Amadou Diallo. I was sad at Gary King. I was sad at Sean Bell. Now I’m just tired, now I’m just fed up and we have to move with certainty - not just on short-term solutions but on long-term vigilance - to watch, monitor and maintain as laws are passed to facilitate the taking away of our rights.

Davey: That’s the voice of Dereca Blackman. Let me ask you, Evan, first of all before I get to my question, if you can let everybody know what is going on tomorrow, so if anybody who is listening if you could take down a piece of paper and pencil and write down this information so you can join the protests that are going on tomorrow. A lot of people have been wanting to know how they can plug in.

Evan: All right, so tomorrow we have a protest that’s going to take place from 3 to 7pm. We’d like everybody to get there at 3:00 at the Fruitvale BART Station where the victim was executed by the BART police officer. That takes place at 3 p.m. at Fruitvale BART and we will be set up in front of the vigil that has been set up by the friends and family. We ask that everybody come out with ambition, with vigor and with a voice.

Davey: Bring your cell phones and video cameras since the police made it a point to try …. Well, they took a number of cell phones is the reports we’re getting that might be under the auspices of having evidence. We would like everybody who comes out to the protest to be a citizen journalist …

Dereca: We just got a message, Davey, that some folks were down at Fruitvale today just to check things out and the police asked them if they had permits. So we already have an issue escalating right now that they are already blocking our rights to organize and peacefully protest. And we will be peaceful tomorrow and we want to make it clear that we do have a right to peacefully protest and we’re already having a strategy session around this issue of permits. We will rally tomorrow.

Evan: I actually sat down with, I was in City Hall yesterday and today for about three hours and I was trying to get this rally permitted. And they didn’t blatantly reject it but they gave me the run-around.

Davey: Let me ask you this: Here you are a young man in the city who is organizing people. You seem bright and you seem to be the type of individual that folks in power say we need more of. You know, you’re not somebody who is adding to the crime rate and the statistics or any of these things.

Have you heard from the city officials? Did Mayor Dellums look and see, “Hey, that’s somebody who was like me when I was a young man, trying to fight the power, so to speak”? Did you get any phone calls or encouraging conversations? Have people reached out to you to say we want to support you?

Evan: I haven’t. In fact, I’ve just been getting what I consider just discouraging information. I’ve actually gone down to the Mayor’s office where I was escorted out for bringing up the execution of Oscar Grant. They acted as though they didn’t want to speak about it.

I mean they’re not even trying to say ANYthing about what took place. This is just egregious and they’re not even saying anything. I mean we’re supposed to swallow that they’re sorry, that the officer may have gone for his taser? This officer went to something called a police academy, (had) extensive training that trained him on how to handle himself in a stressful situation, and now he’s trying to say that it was an accident?

You’re trained so that accidents don’t happen. We can’t let accidents cost human beings their lives. This man Oscar Grant was a father of a 4-year-old child and now that child doesn’t have a father to sleep with her at night. This is just ridiculous and we will not sit back and let this type of action by the ones who are sworn to protect and serve slide. We will just not sit back and let this happen. We will be on the front line.

Dereca said it best when she said this is the moment. Dereca, you are absolutely right. This IS the moment. We are on the front lines and it is time to stand our ground. We will not go quietly into the night. We are going to stand up for what is right and we will get justice for Oscar Grant.

Davey: That’s very sobering remarks. I want to thank you for coming in and sharing this with us. Dereca, any last comments that you would like to make to give people marching orders, some things to consider? We ask people to bring cell phones, to make phone calls to their local representatives, congressmen, assemblymen, mayor, whoever, and invite them to this rally and show up themselves and make sure that, as the old saying goes, the whole world is watching.

Dereca: Absolutely, so I think there are a number of things that people can do: We want to stay on top of our prosecutor; we want to make sure that this case is fully prosecuted. We want to continue to contact BART and talk to them about having an interview with this officer right away. We want to make sure that there’s a civilian review board. There will be a number of strategies that will be talked about at the rally tomorrow.

But I also want to say that this is not the only rally. This case has been picked up on the national media; it was on the front page of the CNN website. And I just got word that Harry Belafonte is going to be coming for another rally next week, so this is the first rally but there will be another one next Wednesday at a place to be determined.

So this is not just a rally, people. This is a movement that we’re asking you to come out, sign up and be a part of this. You can be a part of this in an ongoing way. We’re starting in Oakland but we’re taking this all the way to the White House.

Davey: We appreciate that. Evan Shamar, I would like you to make the connection to the very real tragedies that are taking place right now halfway around the world in a place called Gaza, in the Middle East. And we have a lot of our comrades and fellow activists and friends and allies that have been protesting since the days before Christmas for almost the same type of executions that seem to be routinely taking place (here).

Many innocent people are losing their lives on behalf of our tax dollars. Do you make the connection to the types of conversations that are going on overseas with what is taking place all too often with us and the police in cities like Oakland?

Evan: Absolutely, I like to refer to what’s going on overseas as just a blatant all-out massacre compared to what we have here that I consider to be a genocidal crockpot. What’s taking place here is it’s a slow-cook. We’re being eradicated slowly, one by one.

But what’s going on in Gaza is just disgusting. I can’t even really speak on it because I’ll get so …. It’s something that instills a certain level of disgust in me. I can’t talk about it all the time. But I definitely can make the correlation between the two. As I said, what we have is here is a genocidal crockpot and what’s going on in Gaza right now is a pure massacre.

And we’re actually going to be out on Saturday as well at the Civic Center protesting what’s going on over there because the bottom line is these are human beings. The human experience is a beautiful experience, and we can’t just deem it insignificant for no reason. I mean, I was talking to my buddies a few days ago about how many human beings have lived on planet Earth. There’ve been 120 billion human beings who have lived on planet Earth.

Let everybody have their turn. It’s our turn to have this experience. Don’t deem it insignificant - for your greed, for your corruption. Let us live. Let us live our lives. What’s going on in Gaza, what’s going on in Oakland, what’s going on all over the world, we have to put our foot down. We have to put our fists in the air in unity and say, “No more!” We won’t take this. It’s not a Black thing. It’s not a white thing. It’s not a yellow thing. We need to come together and stand up for what is right. And together we can do this.

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