US barricades itself into self-imposed siege! Ominous beginning for New Year 2010!

The air is still thick with reverberations of the murderous blast in Karachi and the free-for-all loot and plunder that followed it on the tenth of Muharram. Numerous questions are begging satisfactory answers, while a full-blown blame game fills the air.
As if this was not enough to cloud the New Year right at the start, there materialised a sudden spate of target killings in the city, centered on Lyari, with dozens of ordinary citizens falling victim to target killings. Both long-time allies in the Government of Sindh and at the Center - PPP and MQM - are blaming each other for the broad daylight killings, including one barbaric beheading.
PPP-MQM relations, already deteriorating for the past many months due to poles-apart positions of the two parties on the future of the City Government in Karachi, provided the backdrop to the recent bad blood between the political allies.
In answer to MQM's demand that the Army be called in to control the situation, the Sindh interior minister, thundered that action will not then be limited to Lyari. Efforts are under way to salvage the alliance as so often before. Another matter in a different sphere of our national activity, which is attracting anxious attention, is the shortly due detailed judgement of the Supreme Court on the NRO.
It is being written by Justice Ramday who incidentally retires today (12 January 2010). But the CJP's recommendation for appointing him as an Ad Hoc Judge of the Supreme Court is said to be pending with President Asif Zardari, already a very worried and anxious man in view of the implications of the Supreme Court's orders pertaining to the NRC cases.
AMERICA SHUTTING ITSELF DOWN! America has imposed yet more stringent conditions on air travellers from 14 countries following an alleged attempt by an educated Muslim young man of Nigerian background to blow up an American plane headed for the US from Lagos. American officials are blamed for serious lapses, which formed the backdrop for the potentially disastrous mishap.
The main burden of the new measures to enhance safety, however, has taken the form of travellers from 14 countries having to henceforth suffer a "virtual strip search" at US airports, apart from other scrutiny procedures to match. You have guessed right that the 14 countries named include nearly all the Muslim countries of the world situated in an area stretching from Pakistan and Afghanistan in the east, all the way to Algeria in West Africa, a space of some 8,000 kilometers across the globe! The only non-Muslim country in the list is Cuba.
The measures have been criticised by civil liberty groups as racial profiling and in the final analysis, unconstitutional and ineffective. What is not realised, however, is the fact that as long as America does not become mindful of the real reasons for the deep dislike in which it is held by Muslims across the globe, attacks on its interests will continue.
This is not to condone the attacks which kill innocent people, but only to highlight that America is hated by tens of millions across the globe due to the suffering and torment it routinely and deliberately inflicts on Muslims around the world: in Palestine (uprooting Palestinians to create Israel), in Iraq (aggression "justified" by claims which were proved to be patent lies since fully exposed), in Afghanistan (on a wild goose chase), in Pakistan (through drone attacks killing innocent people by the hundreds), in Somalia (by encouraging Ethiopia to invade it) and now starting operations in Yemen.
The new security measures will increase by a factor of hundreds (maybe thousands), the resentment ordinary people will feel as they are subjected to hours' long delays at airports, as well as the humiliation of a body search by prying and intrusive hands. It is in such an environment of pervasive hatred that the germs of terrorism are born and thrive.
America appears to be unmindful of the fact that the restrictions of this kind are a two-edged sword and have an unpleasant, both-ways impact. They impose an increasing burden on American money and manpower resources, already stretched to the limit by corruption in its economy and adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Somalia and Yemen.
By such Draconian measures, America is increasingly putting itself under a self-imposed siege and is itself getting a taste of the deprivation of freedom imposed in the recent past on dozens of Asian and African countries, through colonisation and exploitation of every kind which has been a prerogative of the West.
Americans now fly in fear of a disaster occurring in mid-flight. Americans across the globe are frequently issued advisories to take care and not to venture out without urgent reason. Welcome to the world of fear and terror, America!
NAWAZ SHARIF: TRUE-TO-TYPE Nawaz Sharif has at long last moved. He visited Balochistan on a party organisation agenda and then went to Karachi to visit Boulton Market - the site of the recent bomb blast, arson and looting. With much fanfare, the party had suddenly remembered about two months back that it needed organising and, true to form, total responsibility for it was placed on the party chief and not on any committee to be formed for the purpose.
Another two months were to elapse before Nawaz Sharif returned to the subject and, true to form again, the party chief chose to start top down. Aging Ghous Ali Shah was replaced by Salim Zia as Sindh party chief. Then another month or so was to pass before his attention turned to Balochistan and, with much fanfare again, it was announced that former Balochistan governor Abdul Qadir Baloch and Baloch leader Sardar Sanaullah Zehri have joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif thanked the two leaders, on the occasion saying their decision would make the party stronger in Balochistan. Thus yet once again, in these developments in both Sindh and Balochistan, the PML-N lives up to its reputation as a leaders' party.
There was no reported effort towards mobilising support at the grass roots level, no campaign to explain and publicise the party vision, objectives and policies (ever heard about these?) and no news at all about elections in the party at any level.
All we hear are statements that the party will not scuttle democracy, that the present government will be allowed to serve its full term and endless discussions in TV in which blames are exchanged and past alleged misdeeds by Nawaz Sharif or his party denied or defended in great detail and with great fervour. There is no effort to make inroads into rural Sindh, which is the party's Achilles' heel.
One good political statement that has come out from Nawaz Sharif during the week was to the effect that he was not as keen, as made out by the PPP people, on the removal of the 17th amendment restriction on a person being appointed as PM for a third term. Abolition of the 17th amendment, said NS, even with the third-term constraint retained, would make him happy if the rest of the amendment is abolished. Please note PPP leaders in general and Governor Salmaan Taseer in particular!
IN THE LION'S DEN Perhaps the biggest blow dealt to date to the American dream of subduing Afghan resistance was struck on 29 December 2009, when a CIA base in Afghanistan - the holy of holies in terms of security - was penetrated by one, who was ostensibly working for CIA, the powerful, biggest-ever, clandestine-operations-specialist, super-secret American organisation.
Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal Al Balawi hated America for its anti-Muslim policies and actions and struck when he saw his long-awaited chance to deal a deadly blow aimed at CIA's very heart. In the suicide attack, 7 CIA agents (who probably represented much of CIA's knowledge and prowess in Afghanistan) as well as a Jordanian intelligence officer working for CIA were killed.
A mere double cross should not have caused great surprise as such incidents have occurred within the Afghan police and the Afghan military, supposed to be fighting the Taliban after receiving training by the Americans. Only the day before, an Afghan soldier had killed a US serviceman and wounded two Italian soldiers at an army base in western Afghanistan.
But what makes this incident highly significant and the first of its kind was that it took place at the nerve center of CIA operations in Afghanistan. After this, no place in Afghanistan can be considered secure for the US interests any more.
I quote from an Associate Press report gleaned from the Internet: ISTANBUL - The Turkish wife of a Jordanian doctor, who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, says her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defne Bayrak, the wife of bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his hatred of the United States had motivated her husband to sacrifice his life on December 30, in what he regarded as a holy war against the US Bayrak also said Friday, "I think the war against the United States must go on."
LOSING CREDIBILITY DEFENDING ANOTHER Presumably taking cue from Asif Zardari's suddenly fire-and-brimstone speeches, many PPP stalwarts have also started a verbal onslaught - strong and abusive - against named and unnamed people. Finally, not to be outdone, the otherwise reasonable and affable Qamar Zaman Kaira, Information Minister also launched a blistering attack on unnamed members of the Judiciary and the Army.
He "rejected" what he called "selective trial" of the PPP and, "demanded accountability of the judiciary and the generals, as well those who aided dictatorships in the past".
In the heat of the fiery rhetoric, not quite his style, Kaira appeared to have quite forgotten the fact that taking miscreants - past and present - to court to answer charges against them was the responsibility of the present day government, of which he was an honourable minister.
So who exactly was he blaming for lack of action against past wrongdoers, whether of the judiciary or the military? To be fair, however, talking to newsmen later Kaira admitted his faux pas, which is more than what many PPP die-hards are capable of. Why not take care not to make a fool of oneself in the first place?
HERE COMES COMIC RELIEF Amidst tensions caused by the unending bloodshed of ordinary people, a war on the frontier, political uncertainties, charges of corruption against many high ups in politics, amidst all this frenzy and disarray, the one and only Salmaan Taseer, oblivious to everything, continues to provide comic relief. His latest oracular nuggets include the prediction that Gilani would be PM for another term. That should take us to 2018. Then would follow two (or did he say three) terms of Party Chairman Bilawal.
That would be well past the quarter century mark. Nawaz Sharif should therefore not worry too much about the present third term constraint for the PM position! Only a few days ago, Governor Taseer was advising President Asif Zardari to resign only in 2018. So come 2019, with Bilawal Zardari beginning his reign as Prime Minister in his first spell, the Presidency would be without a Salmaan Taseer prophecy occupant.
How about Salmaan Taseer himself in person then, as President to fill the position, maybe even for the life-term? Joking apart, with a droll and nuisance-value person like Taseer foisted on the PML-N government in Punjab as Governor, how can Information Minister Kaira, in all reasonableness, hold out the possibility, as he has recently done, of PML-N rejoining PPP at the center as a coalition partner?
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