Friday, October 30, 2009

Secret Team ousts Afghan President Karzai's brother as CIA: Why now?

from : signs of the times (int.)

Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti & James Risen.
New York Times
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:59 EDT

© EPA
Above: Mr. CIA. Below: Mr. UNOCAL
Kabul, Afghanistan - Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.'s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's home.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America's war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.

The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate America's increasingly tense relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an American puppet. The C.I.A.'s practices also suggest that the United States is not doing everything in its power to stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a major source of revenue for the Taliban.

Comment: The US may not feel so inclined to "stamp it out" because the CIA created the lucrative $50Bln Afghan drug trade. Even US Senate hearings reluctantly admitted that the US was responsible for "inadvertently creating" this situation.

This was done partly to fund its counter-terrorism units disguised as 'Taliban' resistance or 'Jundullah' or 'Uighur' agents provocateurs, all following the same model of fake terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. It's a pattern that repeats: Afghanistan's heroin production was zero before the CIA moved in with its trained jihadists in the 1980s. The Taliban committed a significant 'crime' of economic warfare against US interests when it rose to power and decimated opium production in 2000. Now Afghanistan produces double the world's demand for heroin.

That the CIA has been paying its puppet regime to publicly manage the booming Afghan heroin industry since the US invaded the country 8 years ago may come as a surprise to the New York Times, but it's long been reported by qualified eye-witnesses like former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray. In fact, it is interesting that this should be publicised now, at a time that would be most damaging to his brother President Hamid Karzai. His boss, it seems, is unhappy with his performance and is preparing to make him redundant.


More broadly, some American officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed Wali Karzai, the most powerful figure in a large swath of southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, undermines the American push to develop an effective central government that can maintain law and order and eventually allow the United States to withdraw.

"If we are going to conduct a population-centric strategy in Afghanistan, and we are perceived as backing thugs, then we are just undermining ourselves," said Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the senior American military intelligence official in Afghanistan.

Ahmed Wali Karzai said in an interview that he cooperates with American civilian and military officials, but does not engage in the drug trade and does not receive payments from the C.I.A.

The relationship between Mr. Karzai and the C.I.A. is wide ranging, several American officials said. He helps the C.I.A. operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists. On at least one occasion, the strike force has been accused of mounting an unauthorized operation against an official of the Afghan government, the officials said.

Mr. Karzai is also paid for allowing the C.I.A. and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city - the former home of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's founder. The same compound is also the base of the Kandahar Strike Force. "He's our landlord," a senior American official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Karzai also helps the C.I.A. communicate with and sometimes meet with Afghans loyal to the Taliban. Mr. Karzai's role as a go-between between the Americans and the Taliban is regarded by supporters of working with Mr. Karzai as valuable now, as the Obama administration is placing a greater focus on encouraging Taliban leaders to change sides.

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment for the story.

"No intelligence organization worth the name would ever entertain these kind of allegations," said Paul Gimigliano, the spokesman.

Some American officials said that the allegations of Mr. Karzai's role in the drug trade were not conclusive.

"There's no proof of Ahmed Wali Karzai's involvement in drug trafficking, certainly nothing that would stand up in court," said one American official familiar with the intelligence. "And you can't ignore what the Afghan government has done for American counterterrorism efforts."

Comment: An interesting paramoralistic admission: "Hey, our man doesn't do drugs! Besides, even if he does, he makes up for it by helping us rid Afghanistan of terrorists." This official may not be aware that the heroin trade is synonomous with "the counterterrorism efforts." Recall that counterterrorism is a paralogical euphemism for undercover intelligence units embedded within the military blowing people apart then blaming it on the legitimate resistance fighters. For these kinds of operations to remain below the radar of public awareness, it helps to leave no paper trail leading back to officialdom. So black market drugs are a useful currency for funding black operations.


At the start of the Afghan war, just after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, American officials paid warlords with questionable backgrounds to help topple the Taliban and maintain order with relatively few American troops committed to fight in the country. But as the Taliban has become resurgent and the war has intensified, Americans have increasingly viewed a strong and credible central government as crucial to turning back the Taliban's advances.

Comment: The Taliban circa 1999 and 2000 was a strong and credible government! It was repressive and no paragon of transparent governance, but it's brief regime was actually momentary respite from stateless anarchy in which warlords ruled like a mafia. Yes there have been signs that the US will welcome the return of certain tribal chiefs in a form of pseudo-Taliban (Taliban-lite?), provided the new and improved Taliban condones the CIA's heroin factories and refrains from improving the welfare of Afghanis. The PTB like Afghanistan just the way she is, thank you very much.


Now, with more American lives on the line, the relationship with Mr. Karzai is sparking anger and frustration among American military officers and other officials in the Obama administration. They say that Mr. Karzai's suspected role in the drug trade, as well as what they describe as the mafia-like way that he lords over southern Afghanistan, makes him a malevolent force.

Comment: Again, this is the status quo in Afghanistan, suggesting that the Obama administration is leaking this in preparation to oust the Karzai brothers. One clan out, next one in: the American democratic model.


These military and political officials say the evidence, though largely circumstantial, suggests strongly that Mr. Karzai has enriched himself by helping the illegal trade in poppy and opium to flourish. The assessment of these military and senior officials in the Obama administration dovetails with that of senior officials in the Bush administration.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money are flowing through the southern region, and nothing happens in southern Afghanistan without the regional leadership knowing about it," a senior American military officer in Kabul said. Like most of the officials in this story, he spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the information.

Comment: Ah the cloak of anonymity; very useful where complicity in crimes is concerned. It's hardly a secret that the country is awash in drugs given that we have known about it for years. The evidence against the President's brother is "largely circumstantial" because of the difficulty in singling anyone out for involvement in the drugs trade in a lawless territory that literally runs on guns and heroin. Everyone's in on it. Most of all operatives of American intelligence, private contractors and military personnel who know that nothing happens in the entire region without the Secret Team knowing about it, and instigating it.


"If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck," the American officer said of Mr. Karzai. "Our assumption is that he's benefiting from the drug trade."

American officials say that Afghanistan's opium trade, the largest in the world, directly threatens the stability of the Afghan state, by providing a large percentage of the money the Taliban needs for its operations, and also by corrupting Afghan public officials to help the trade flourish.

The Obama administration has repeatedly vowed to crack down on the drug lords who are believed to permeate the highest levels of President Karzai's administration. They have pressed him to move his brother out of southern Afghanistan, but he has so far refused to do so.

Other Western officials pointed to evidence that Ahmed Wali Karzai orchestrated the manufacture of hundreds of thousands of phony ballots for his brother's re-election effort last August. He is also believed to have been responsible for setting up dozens of so-called "ghost" polling stations - existing only on paper - that were used to manufacture tens of thousands of phony ballots.

"The only way to clean up Chicago is to get rid of Capone," General Flynn said.

Comment: The only way to clean up Afghanistan is to get rid of the American forces of occupation.


In an interview, Ahmed Wali Karzai denied any role the drug trade and that he takes money from the C.I.A. He said he received regular payments from his brother, the president, for "expenses," but said he did not know where the money came from. He has, among other things, introduced Americans to insurgents considering changing sides. And he has given the Americans intelligence, he said. But he said he is not compensated for that assistance.

"I don't know anyone under the name of the C.I.A.," Mr. Karzai said. "I have never received any money from any organization. I help, definitely. I help other Americans wherever I can. This is my duty as an Afghan."

Comment: Given the nature of the CIA's embedded role within the US military, and how sometimes whole units of the US military are CIA operations from start to finish (created by the Secret Team and often operating undercover for decades), it's perfectly conceivable that Karzai was on the CIA's payroll and had no idea about it. If we take him on his word that he is a "dutiful Afghan", and that he was largely obedient to his American superiors we naturally wonder what he has done to upset his masters.


Mr. Karzai acknowledged that the C.I.A. and special forces stay at Mullah Omar's old compound. And he acknowledged that the Kandahar Strike Force is based there. But he said he had no involvement with them.

A former C.I.A. officer with experience in Afghanistan said the agency relied heavily on Ahmed Wali Karzai, and often based covert operatives at compounds he owned. Any connections Mr. Karzai might have had to the drug trade mattered little to C.I.A. officers focused on counterterrorism missions, the officer said.

"Virtually every significant Afghan figure has had brushes with the drug trade," he said. "If you are looking for Mother Teresa, she doesn't live in Afghanistan."

Comment: This underscores the obvious: Karzai and his brother the President are being demoted and their "involvement in the drugs trade" is just the cover story. They appear to have served their usefulness.


The debate over Ahmed Wali Karzai, which began when President Obama took office in January, intensified in June, when the C.I.A.'s local paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, shot and killed Kandahar's Provincial police chief, Matiullah Qati, in a still-unexplained shootout at the office of a local prosecutor.

The circumstances surrounding Mr. Qati's death remain shrouded in mystery. It is unclear, for instance, if any agency operatives were present - but officials say the firefight broke out when Mr. Qati tried to block the strike force from freeing the brother of a task force member who was being held in custody.

"Matiullah was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mr. Karzai said in the interview.

Counternarcotics officials have repeatedly expressed frustration over the unwillingness of senior policy makers in Washington to take action against Mr. Karzai - or even launch a serious investigation of the allegations against him. In fact, they say that while other Afghans accused of drug involvement are investigated and singled out for raids or even rendition to the United States, Mr. Karzai has seemed immune from similar scrutiny.

For years, first the Bush administration and then the Obama administration have said that the Taliban benefits from the drug trade, and the U.S. military has recently expanded its target list to include drug traffickers with ties to the insurgency. The military has generated a list of 50 top drug traffickers tied to the Taliban who can now be killed or captured.

Senior Afghan investigators say they know plenty about Mr. Karzai's involvement in the drug business. In an interview in Kabul earlier this year, a top former Afghan Interior Ministry official familiar with Afghan counter narcotics operations said that a major source of Mr. Karzai's influence over the drug trade was his control over key bridges crossing the Helmand River on the route between the opium growing regions of Helmand Province and Kandahar.

The former Interior Ministry official said that Mr. Karzai is able to charge huge fees to drug traffickers to allow their drug-laden trucks to cross the bridges.

But the former officials said it was impossible for Afghan counternarcotics officials to investigate Mr. Karzai. "This government has become a factory for the production of Talibs because of corruption and injustice," the former official said.

Some American counternarcotics officials have said they believe that Mr. Karzai has expanded his influence over the drug trade, thanks in part to American efforts to target other drug lords.

In debriefing notes from Drug Enforcement Administration interviews in 2006 of Afghan informants obtained by The New York Times, one key informant said that Ahmed Wali Karzai had benefited from the American operation that lured Haji Bashir Noorzai, a major Afghan drug lord during the time that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, to New York in 2005. Mr. Noorzai was convicted on drug and conspiracy charges in New York in 2008, and was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year.

Habibullah Jan, a local military commander and later a member of parliament from Kandahar, told the D.E.A. in 2006 that Mr. Karzai had teamed with Haji Juma Khan to take over a portion of the Noorzai drug business after Mr. Noorzai's arrest.

Note :comments made by "www.sott.net" !

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

GOLDSTONE TELLS MOYERS / ISRAEL GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES

from : http://blogs.salon.com

Judge Richard Goldstone, photo by Robin Holland

Bill Moyers interviews Judge Richard Goldstone

Highly respected Judge Richard Goldstone, who is both a Jew and a Zionist, rightfully condemns Israel's policy of collective punishment of a people under effective occupation, destroying their means to live a dignified life as well as the trauma caused by the kind of military intervention the Israeli government called Operation Cast Lead: Allen L Roland

The highly anticipated Goldstone human rights report has exposed Judge Goldstone to both universal acclaim as well as some strident and bitter criticism ~ mainly from the Israeli far right ~ however, late last week, the UN's Human Rights Council officially endorsed his findings.

With that in mind Bill Moyers had a classic 20 minute must see interview with Dr Goldstone last week which was fair, impartial and most revealing ~ because Goldstone comes across as extremely fair in his analysis as well as honest and meticulous in his findings.

His report accused both the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. While condemning Palestinian rocket attacks, the report's harshest language was rightfully reserved for Israel's treatment of civilians in Gaza.

This interview took place at the same time the United Nations is calling on Israel to immediately halt forced evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, warning that as many as 60,000 people there may be at risk of forced evictions, demolitions and displacement. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32736&;Cr=Jerusalem&Cr1=

Here is the Moyer 20 minute Journal interview and transcript as well as some pertinent excerpts;

BILL MOYERS: " Your report, as you know, basically accuses Israel of waging war on the entire population of Gaza."

RICHARD GOLDSTONE: " That's correct."

BILL MOYERS:
" I mean, there are allegations in here, some very tough allegations of Israeli soldiers shooting unarmed civilians who pose no threat, of shooting people whose hands were shackled behind them, of shooting two teenagers who'd been ordered off a tractor that they were driving, apparently carrying wounded civilians to a hospital, of homes, hundreds, maybe thousands of homes destroyed, left in rubble, of hospitals bombed. I mean there are some questions about one or two of your examples here, but it's a damning indictment of Israel's conduct in Gaza, right? "

RICHARD GOLDSTONE:
" Well, it is outrageous, and there should have been an outrage. You know, the response has not been to deal with the substance of those allegations. I've really seen or read no detailed response in respect of the incidents on which we report. "

BILL MOYERS:
" Why is that? "

RICHARD GOLDSTONE:
" Well, you know, I don't know. I suppose people hate being attacked. There's a knee-jerk reaction to attack the messenger rather than the message. And I think this is typical of that. And of course, a lot of the allegations, I certainly don't claim anything like infallibility. But I would like to see a response to the substance, particularly the attack on the infrastructure of Gaza, which seems to me to be absolutely unjustifiable."

Goldstone made an important point, during the interview, when he reminded Moyers that Gaza is not a nation state and alluded to the very important point that no civilian population can be expected not to strike back at illegal settlements built on occupied territory ~ which is obviously, as reported, still going on.

This may very well be wishful thinking ~ but the Obama Administration should support the Goldstone report which urges Israel to investigate its military's documented misdeeds. It should also not equivocate regarding the Goldstone recommendation that the UN Security Council refer the matter to the International Criminal Court ~ if Israel fails to comply.

Here's the video and transcript ~ http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10232009/watch.html

Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/10/29.html

Freelance Online columnist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews and speaking engagements ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Allen Roland’s weblog: http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/
Website: www.allenroland.com
ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY



The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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US, NATO Forces Rely on Afghan Warlords for Security

from : http://www.commondreams.org

by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.

U.S. and other NATO military contingents operating in the provinces of Afghanistan's predominantly Pashtun south and east have been hiring private militias controlled by Afghan warlords, according to these sources, to provide security for their forward operating bases and other bases and to guard convoys.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has acknowledged that U.S. and NATO ties with warlords have been a cause of popular Afghan alienation from foreign military forces. But the policy is not likely to be reversed anytime soon, because U.S. and NATO officials still have no alternative to the security services the warlords provide.

A report published by the Center on International Cooperation at New York University in September notes that U.S. and NATO contingents have frequently hired security providers that are covertly owned by warlords who have "ready-made" private militias which compete with state institutions for power.

The report cites examples of major warlords or their relatives or allies who have been contracted for security services in four provinces.

In Uruzgan province, both U.S. and Australian Special Forces have contracted with a private army commanded by Col. Matiullah Khan, called Kandak Amniante Uruzgan, with 2,000 armed men, to provide security services on which their bases there depend. That case was reported in detail in April 2008 by two reporters for The Australian, Mark Dodd and Jeremy Kelly.

Col. Khan's security force protects NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) convoys on the main road from Kandahar to Tarin Kowt, where more than 1,000 Australian troops are based at Camp Holland, according to the The Australian in April 2008.

Col. Khan gets 340,000 dollars per month – nearly 4.1 million dollars annually - for getting two convoys from Kandahar to Tarin Kowt safely each month. Khan, now police chief in Uruzgan province, evidently got his private army from his uncle Jan Mohammad Khan, a commander who helped defeat the Taliban in Kandahar in 2001 and was then rewarded by President Karzai by being named governor of Uruzgan in 2002.

The Australian Defence Force claimed to The Australian that Col. Khan is paid by the Afghan Ministry of Interior to provide security on the main highways of Uruzgan province. The Australian military had previously refused to confirm or deny Australian payments to Col. Khan.

CanWest News Service's Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda reported in November 2007 that the Canadian military had hired a "General Gulalai" to provide security for an undisclosed forward operating base. Gulalai is a warlord in southern Afghanistan who drove the Taliban out of Kandahar in 2001.

The same reporters revealed that Col. Haji Toorjan, a local warlord allied with Kandahar governor and major warlord Gul Agha Sherzai, was hired to provide security for Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar City, where Canada's provincial construction team is located.

Blanchfeld and Mayeda found that the Canadian military had given 29 contracts worth 1.14 million dollars to a company identified as "Sherzai", suggesting strongly that the former governor of Kandahar, who had become governor of Nangarhar province, was the owner.

The Canadian military refused to confirm whether Gul Agha Sherzai is indeed the owner.

In Badakhshan province, Gen. Nazri Mahmed, a warlord who is said to "control a significant portion of the province's lucrative opium industry", has the contract to provide security for the German Provincial Reconstruction Team, according to the NYU report.

The report suggests that the U.S. and NATO contingents are spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on contracts with Afghan security providers, most of which are local power brokers guilty of human rights abuses.

In addition to Ahmed Wali Karzai, it names Hashmat Karzai, another brother of President Karzai, and Hamid Wardak, the son of Defence Minister Rahim Wardak, as powerful figures who control private security firms that have gotten security contracts without registering with the government.

Two anonymous United Nations sources cited in the report estimate that 1,000 to 1,500 unregistered armed security groups have been "employed, trained, and armed by ISAF" and "Coalition Forces" for security services. As many as 120,000 armed individuals are estimated by the U.N. sources to belong to about 5,000 private militias in Afghanistan.

Most Afghan warlords are widely reviled, mainly because the private armies they continue to control carry out theft and violence against civilians without any accountability.

In his initial assessment last August, Gen. McChrystal referred to "public anger and alienation" toward ISAF, of which he is commander, as a result of the perception that ISAF is "complicit" in "widespread corruption and abuse of power".

That remark suggests that McChrystal, who had carried out the Special Forces' policy of relying on Afghan warlords for security in the past, was now expressing concern about its political consequences.

Jake Sherman, a co-author of the NYU report, was a United Nations political officer involved in the effort to disarm warlords from 2003 to 2005. He is sceptical that U.S. policy ties with the warlords will be ended.

"I don't see how U.S. and other contingents could sustain forward operating bases without paying these guys," said Sherman in an interview with IPS.

Beyond their continuing dependence on the warlords for security services, Sherman sees another reason for keeping them on the payroll. If the U.S. and NATO military commanders tried to cut their ties with the private militias, Sherman said the warlords "would actually become a security threat".

Sherman recalled that during his period working for the United Nations in northern Afghanistan, local police were hired to guard a World Food Programme warehouse in Badakhshan. After a rocket attack on the warehouse, an investigation quickly turned up the fact that the police themselves had carried out the attack to pressure the U.N. to hire more guards.

The present U.S. and NATO dependence on warlord armies is rooted in the policy of the George W. Bush administration in the early years after the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The Central Intelligence Agency put the commanders of the forces who had defeated the Taliban on the payroll and gave them weapons and communications equipment to help U.S. counterterrorism squads locate any al Qaeda remnants in Afghanistan.

The commanders used the U.S. support to consolidate their political control over different provinces or sub-provincial areas. Human Rights Watch observed in a June 2002 report on the new relationships forged between the United States and the warlords, "While the U.S. government does not view this policy as actively supporting local warlords, the distinction is often lost on Afghan civilians who see coalition forces openly interacting with the warlords."

Larry Goodson of the National War College, who participated in the 2002 process called the Loya Jirga under which the first post-Taliban Afghan government was established, told IPS he had recommended from the beginning a "de-warlordisation" process, in which "we took nasty, sleazy characters and turn them into less nasty, sleazy bosses."

But the warlords were kept on the payroll, Goodson recalls, mainly because the troops controlled by the former commanders were seen as "force multipliers", in a situation where foreign troops were in short supply.



The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Islamabad: Americans Dressed as Afghans Caught With Illegal Weapons and Explosives

from : pakalert (blog) (pakistan)

2009 October 28

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ISLAMABAD – FOUR American citizens were caught red-handed by Capital Police in the early hours of Tuesday for photographing sensitive buildings. All four were dressed in traditional Afghan outfits and were found to be in possession of illegal weapons and explosives

According to details, police personnel deployed here at Nawaz Chowk, sector F-8, intercepted two suspicious vehicles in the early hours of Tuesday. During the search, police recovered weapons from their custody. The riders of these vehicles were found to be American citizens. They were all dressed as Afghans.

The number plates on both vehicles (IDM 2030 & LG 501) were found to be fake. The police personnel called for backup when the Americans refused to allow them to search the car. High Ranking Capital Police officials reached the site within minutes and had the vehicles searched, recovering 2 M-16A1 rifles, 2 handguns and 2 hand-grenades.

The police held the American citizens in custody for an hour before the Interior Ministry interefered and had them released without charge even as preliminary investigation was being carried out.

Interior Ministry Covering Up For US Mercenaries And Terrorists

15304659_dec9999702In 2005, Iraqi Police arrested and locked up TWO British operatives in Basra who were dressed in local Arab gear, shooting at innocent civilians in a busy market with automatic rifles and driving a vehicle laden with explosives, intended to go off in the middle of the busy market. British tanks tore into the prison and rescued both these men. In Pakistan, it seems all the Americans need to do is make a call to the Interior Ministry and have their terrorists released.

PKKH Editorial

There have been several incidents during the last few months of foreigners carrying illegal arms in the federal capital. Some foreigners were found not only carrying illegal weapons, but also threatening, harassing and frightening the public in Islamabad. The law enforcement agencies have been particularly efficient in tightening security measures around the city as a response to citizen complaints.

In the most recent incident, four American nationals who were disguised as Afghans were caught with illegal arms on Tuesday at a posh sector of Islamabad inhabited mostly by senior Pakistani diplomats and politicians. The police personnel intercepted two suspicious vehicles and recovered illegal weapons from in posession of the Americans in both vehicles.

The Americans were also seen taking photographs of buildings around the area while some videos of sensitive locations in Islamabad were also found with them. During the preliminary investigation, the Americans falsely claimed that they were US Marines – and were taken to the police station for further investigation. After the personal intervention of those high up in the Interior Ministry, the Americans were allowed to leave without being charged. Some sources disclose that the US Embassy officials intervened in the matter by contacting higher-ups of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry and had the culprits freed.

The Interior ministry, when approached for comments on this story, affirmed once again that there existed no law in Pakistan that might allow any foreigner or diplomat, including Americans, to move on busy roads of federal capital with illegal arms.

It was not the first incident of such kind in the Federal Capital where foreigners were picked up by police for posession of illegal arms. It has become almost a norm that police intercepts foreigners violating national laws including posession of illegal weapons, and are freed after Pakistani “influentials” come to their rescue.

Some days ago, police officials deployed at a security check post in Islamabad stopped two Dutch personnel and recovered sophisticated weapons including hand grenades, bombs, and sophisticated guns from their custody. The police lodged a formal complaint, however, no action was initiated on directions of Interior Ministry and the matter was hushed.

William Ven and Tomas Smith were the two Dutch men caught roaming around with sophisticated weapons, bombs and hand grenades in a blue BMW, registered number of which was IDL 4191. Sources on the condition of anonymity reveal that both officials were working for the notorious Blackwater Co. (Xe) and were almost certainly out on an assassination mission, target of which is still unknown. Sunny Christopher, a U.S. embassy official who was following the blue BMW was out there to provide cover.

Before the security agencies could confirm their connection with Blackwater (Xe), the interior ministry again came to their rescue and saying that the men were ‘Dutch embassy officials’ – which appears to be an attempt to cover up Blackwater’s questionable activities on the media. During the past few weeks the local media had been particularly vocal on the Blackwater issue and this incident would have further fueled calls for action against the various US-linked private security companies operating on Pakistan soil involved in suspicious activities. What’s not so surprising is that no probe was done with the alleged ‘Dutch diplomats’ and no explanation or apology was offered.

Both dutch men were released a while later after the U.S. embassy intervened, and were put on the next flight out of Islamabad immediately.

What is particularly alarming is that such incidents continue to occur in the nation’s very own capital city while government in their attempts to temporarily ‘settle’ the matter issues hollow statements. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, has stated on many occasions that no foreigner would be allowed to carry illegal arms. “The violators would be dealt with an iron hand,” he adds.

However the Americans have relentlessly continue to violate the the law of the land and no iron hand strikes – and in fact the violators are given a safe passage each time.



The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

America's Drug Crisis: Brought to You by the CIA

from : signs of the times (int.)

Dave Lindorff
Counterpunch
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:43 EDT

Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb in the downtown of your nearest city, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose, just imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: "Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work."

Kudos to the New York Times, and to reporters Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen, for their lead article today reporting that Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghanistan's stunningly corrupt President Hamid Karzai, a leading drug lord in the world's major opium-producing nation, has for eight years been on the CIA payroll.

Okay, the article was lacking much historical perspective (more on that later), and the dead hand of top editors was evident in the overly cautious tone (I loved the third paragraph, which stated that "The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raises significant questions about America's war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House." Well, duh! It should be raising questions about why we are even in Afghanistan, about who should be going to jail at the CIA, and about how can the government explain this to the over 1000 soldiers and Marines who have died supposedly helping to build a new Afghanistan). But that said, the newspaper that helped cheerlead us into the pointless and criminal Iraq invasion in 2003, and that prevented journalist Risen from running his exposé of the Bush/Cheney administration's massive warrantless National Security Agency electronic spying operation until after the 2004 presidential election, this time gave a critically important story full play, and even, appropriately, included a teaser in the same front-page story about October being the most deadly month yet for the US in Afghanistan.

What the article didn't mention at all is that there is a clear historical pattern here.

During the Vietnam War, the CIA, and its Air America airline front-company, were neck deep in the Southeast Asian heroin trade. At the time, it was Southeast Asia, not Afghanistan, that was the leading producer and exporter of opium, mostly to the US, where there was a heroin epidemic.

A decade later, in the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, as the late investigative journalist Gary Webb so brilliantly documented first in a series titled "Dark Alliance" in the San Jose Mercury newspaper, and later in a book by that same name, the CIA was deeply involved in the development of and smuggling of cocaine into the US, which was soon engulfed in a crack cocaine epidemic - one that continues to destroy African American and other poor communities across the country. (The Times role here was sordid - it and other leading papers, including the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times - did despicable hit pieces on Webb shamelessly trashing his work and his career, and ultimately driving him to suicide, though his facts have held up. For the whole sordid tale, read Alex Cockburn's and Jeffrey St. Clair's Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press) In this case, Webb showed that the Agency was actually using the drugs as a way to fund arms, which it could use its own planes to ferry down to the Contra forces it was backing to subvert the Sandinista government in Nicaragua at a time Congress had barred the US from supporting the Contras.

And now we have Afghanistan, once a sleepy backwater of the world with little connection to drugs (the Taliban, before their overthrow by US forces in 20001, had, according to the UN, virtually eliminated opium production there), but now responsible for as much as 80 percent of the world's opium production - this at a time that the US effectively finances and runs the place, with an occupying army that, together with Afghan government forces that it controls, outnumbers the Taliban 12-1 according to a recent AP story.

The real story here is that where the US goes, the drug trade soon follows, and the leading role in developing and nurturing that trade appears to be played by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Your tax dollars at work.

The issue at this point should not be how many troops the US should add to its total in Afghanistan. It shouldn't even be over whether the US should up the ante or scale back to a more limited goal of hunting terrorists. It should be about how quickly the US can extricate its forces from Afghanistan, how soon the Congress can start hearings into corruption and drug pushing by the CIA, and how soon the Attorney General's office will impanel a grand jury to probe CIA drug dealing.

Americans, who for years have supported a stupid, blundering and ineffective "War on Drugs" in this country, and who mindlessly back "zero-tolerance" policies towards drugs in schools and on the job, should demand a "zero-tolerance" policy toward drugs and dealing with drug pushers in government and foreign policy, including the CIA.

For years we have been fed the story that the Taliban are being financed by their taxes on opium farmers. That may be partly true, but recently we've been learning that it's not the real story. Taliban forces in Afghanistan, it turns out, have been heavily subsidized by protection money paid to them by civilian aid organizations, including even American government-funded aid programs, and even, reportedly, by the military forces of some of America's NATO allies (there is currently a scandal in Italy concerning such payments by Italian forces). But beyond that, the opium industry, far from being controlled by the Taliban, has been, to a great extent, controlled by the very warlords with which the US has allied itself, and, as the Times now reports, by Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's own brother.

Karzai, we are also told by Filkins, Mazzetti and Risen, was a key player in producing hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots for his brother's election theft earlier this year. Left unsaid is whether the CIA might have played a role in that scam too. In a country where finding printing presses is sure to be difficult, and where transporting bales of counterfeit ballots is risky, you have to wonder whether an agency like the CIA, which has ready access to printers and to helicopters, might have had a hand in keeping its assets in control in Kabul.

Sure that's idle speculation on my part, but when you learn that America's spook agency has been keeping not just Karzai, but lots of other unsavory Afghani warlords, on its payroll, such speculation is only logical.

The real attitude of the CIA here was best illustrated by an anonymous quote in the Filkins, Mazzetti and Risen piece, where a "former CIA officer with experience in Afghanistan," explaining the agency's backing of Karzai, said, "Virtually every significant Afghan figure has had brushes with the drug trade. If you are looking for Mother Teresa, she doesn't live in Afghanistan."

"The end justifies the means" is America's foreign policy and military motto, clearly.

The Times article exposing the CIA link to Afghanistan's drug-kingpin presidential brother should be the last straw for Americans. President Obama's "necessary" war in Afghanistan is nothing but a sick joke.

The opium, and resulting heroin, that is flooding into Europe and America thanks to the CIA's active support of the industry and its owners in Afghanistan are doing far more grave damage to our societies than any turbaned terrorists armed with suicide bomb vests could hope to inflict.

The Afghanistan War has to be ended now.

Let the prosecution of America's government drug pushers begin.

A note about Sen. John Kerry: Kerry (D-MA), who went to Afghanistan to press, for the Obama administration, to get his "good friend" President Karzai to agree to a run-off election after Karzai's earlier theft of the first round, has played a shameful role here. Once, back when he still had an ounce of the principle that he had back when he was a Vietnam vet speaking out against the Indochina War, Kerry held hearings on the CIA's cocaine-for-arms operation in Central America. Now he's hugging the CIA's drug connections.


The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Bush bribed reporters to ask specific questions

from : http://www.sheilacasey.com

Bush The Wall Street Journal editorialized today about the revelation that Obama was looking for specific reporters to call on in the White House press corps:

About half-way through President Obama's press conference Monday night, he had an unscripted question of his own. "All, Chuck Todd," the President said, referring to NBC's White House correspondent. "Where's Chuck?" He had the same strange question about Fox News's Major Garrett: "Where's Major?". . . .

The President was running down a list of reporters preselected to ask questions. The White House had decided in advance who would be allowed to question the President and who was left out. . . .

We doubt that President Bush, who was notorious for being parsimonious with follow-ups, would have gotten away with prescreening his interlocutors.

Former President Bush not only pre-screened his questioners, at least one of them was offered a ride on Air Force One if he asked the question the White House wanted asked.

Although this story was related to me in 2006, I have held back on revealing it, as my friend Dermot Bennett was still a working journalist at the time. Now, sadly, Dermot is too sick to work and not expected to recover. His career will not be harmed by this revelation.

Dermot was a correspondent with Agence France Press. He related this story to me (rough paraphrase):

I was sitting in the back of the White House briefing room when Tony Snow approached and asked me "How would you like to ride on Air Force One?" I said "love to," and Tony said "Okay, when the President calls on you, please ask this question."

And he told me what they wanted asked.


I put my hand up and Bush called on me by first name "Dermot." I asked exactly the question they gave me and later was told who to contact to arrange for a trip on Air Force One.

Dermot then asked me (Sheila): "So, you want to go on a ride with me on Air Force One?"

I hate Bush and didn't want to be near him, so declined.

Yet more evidence--as if we need it--that our press is utterly corrupt. The goings on in the White House briefing room amount to little more than mutual masturbation.

Obama now appears to be equally afraid of unscripted questions. New boss, same as the old boss.



The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Namibia: Uranium Takes Erkki to Finland


from : http://allafrica.com

Jo-MarÉ Duddy

21 October 2009


NAMIBIA'S uranium riches have attracted the attention of yet another major nuclear power player: Finland.

Mines and Energy Minister Erkki Nghimtina arrives in Finland today, where he will not only meet with Economic Affairs Minister Mauri Pekkarinen and Foreign Trade and Development Minister Paavo Väyrynen, but will also visit the Teollisuuden Voima Oyj's Olkiluoto nuclear power plant.

Finland has four nuclear reactors in two power plants. A fifth will be completed in 2012.

Namibia overtook Russia as the world's fourth biggest uranium supplier last year, with ten per cent of the global uranium market share.

So far this year, Namibia has already signed an agreement on cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy with India, paving the way to sell uranium oxide to the country.

The agreement also allows for India to train personnel and set up nuclear power plants in Namibia, who intends generating its own nuclear power by 2018.

Uranium also featured high on the agenda with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and entourage of 300, including Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Sergei Kiriyenko, chief of Russia's nuclear energy authority Rosatom, visited Namibia in June this year.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Finland yesterday issued a statement saying Nghimtina will visit the country until Friday.

"Finland and Namibia will enhance their co-operation in the mining and energy sector," it said, adding that "the development of the mining sector in Namibia requires major energy investments."

During this time, "Nghimtina will get acquainted with Finnish technology within the fields of energy efficiency, renewable sources of energy and mining technology and meet executives of Finnish companies representing these sectors."

He will also visit the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Geological Survey of Finland, where he will be introduced to the activities of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority Finland.

The programme also includes a visit in the Rauma region, where Minister Nghimtina will get acquainted with the activities of the Chamber of Commerce of Rauma and its member companies and visit Teollisuuden Voima Oyj's Olkiluoto nuclear power plant, the Finnish Ministry said.

Olkiluoto, where Areva is currently building the world's largest prototype nuclear reactor, was supposed to be Finland's prime example of new generation nuclear power, driving the so-called Nuclear Renaissance in the country.

However, it is at least three and a half years late and billions over budget. The project has also been plagued with accusations of safety violations, the website olkiluoto.info reports.



The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Saturday, October 24, 2009

CBS Reveals that Swine Flu Cases Seriously Overestimated

from : signs of the times (int.)


Dr. Mercola
Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:56 EDT

CBS News Washington Unplugged: H1N1 Cases Exaggerated?



Dr. Mercola Interviews Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the National Vaccine Information Center

Part 1:

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Shoes fly as Bush tells audience, 'I did not sell my soul'

from : signs of the times (int.)

John Bryne
The Raw Story
Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:54 EDT

A day after an effigy of the Grim Reaper stalked his speech in Edmonton, Canada, former President George W. Bush was on the defensive over his personal salvation.

Speaking to a $400-a-seat crowd in Montreal, Bush told the roughly 1,000 attendees that his presidential decision making was principled and moral.

"I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul," Bush said.

bush effigy
© n/a


Outside his speech, the scene was anything but calm. A throng of protesters burned a flaming effigy of the former president, who's taken his stump speech on the road across Canada. He'll speak in three Canadian cities over a period of as many days.

Did he have regrets? an audience member asked.

"I spend a lot of time thinking about Katrina, and whether I could have sent in the federal troops right away, even though it was against the law," Bush replied. He added he regretted the "Mission Accomplished" banner that accompanied him during a speech on an aircraft carrier after the early stages of his invasion of Iraq.

Protesters outside had more concrete opinions. A protest organizer encouraged Bush opponents to bring old shoes, in reference to an Iraqi who threw a shoe at the President during a speech late in his presidency.

Speaking to the Vancouver Sun, an immigration lawyer who was among the protesters said Bush was responsible for numerous deaths in the Middle East.

Bush is culpable for "cynically causing a war that is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction," lawyer William Sloan was quoted as saying.

"He set back international law into the 1700s," Sloan added, "violating every convention possible and seeming to revel in it."

Five protesters were reported to have been arrested.

In Edmonton, where Bush spoke earlier this week, a protester toted a representation of the Grim Reaper, which boasted a sign saying, "GWB I am your biggest fan" and "Thanks for 8 great years."

The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where Bush spoke in Montreal, is also known for a popular peace anthem: John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."


The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Thursday, October 22, 2009

EU 'foreign minister' Javier Solana: Israel is a member of the European Union

from : signs of the times (int.)


Voltaire.net
Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:37 EDT

© Electronic Intifada
For the second consecutive year, Israeli President Shimon Peres has convened an imposing conference: Facing Tomorrow (Jerusalem, 20-22 October 2009) where 3,500 people were registered.

Among the key speakers were British ecologist Baron David Mayer de Rothschild; Skype CEO Josh Silverman; the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales; spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (who teaches transcendental meditation to Iraqi leaders) and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy.

The list of political speakers notably comprised Susan Rice (US Ambassador to the UN), Gjorge Ivanov (President of Macedonia), Stjepan Mesić (President of Croatia), Radosław Sikorski (Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs), José Maria Aznar (former Spanish Prime-Minister), Tony Blair (former British Prime-Minister), Leonid Kuchma (former President of Ukraine). France was represented by Anne-Marie Idrac (Foreign Trade Minister).

But it was the round table on "Changing the crisis into opportunity" that created the sensation. The participants were artificial intelligence specialist Raymond Kurzweil (member of the US Army Science Advisory Board), French essayist Bernard-Henri Levy, jurist Ruth Gavinson (former member of the Winograd Commission) and diplomat Javier Solana (former NATO Secretary-General and, currently, high-ranking representative of the European Union.

A very fit Solana declared: "Allow me to say that Israel is a member of the European Union without being a member of its institutions". He added that Israel is an "integral part of all EU programmes", contributing with its eminent know-how in leading technologies.

He pointed out that while not being a candidate, Israel has closer ties to the European Union than even those countries which are poised for membership. He assured the audience that Brussels was doing its utmost on the Iranian issue. He concluded by saying that Israel was not responsible for the sluggish pace of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which was simply due to a problem of methodology.


The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Monday, October 19, 2009

Venezuela is no tyranny

from : venezuelananalysis (venezuela)

As Latin Americans witness the return of dictatorship – with Honduras suffering political executions, widespread repression and condemnation from human rights organisations about curtailing of press freedoms – it seems a strange time for the media to repeat opposition allegations that Venezuela is becoming a tyranny.

Venezuela is far from the "dictatorship which has a facade of democracy" described by General Raúl Baduel, who has been accused of corruption. What kind of tyranny oversees a 70% increase of participation in presidential elections, as Chávez has, or the government holding 13 free and fair elections in 10 years?

Of course, Venezuelan society and democracy is imperfect. One example is that corruption remains a very real problem. Opponents have tried to use this issue to disparage the government, though it pre-dates the Chávez era. It is therefore ironic that when measures are taken to tackle it, as is the case in legal prosecutions, these are cited as examples of a clampdown on political freedoms. Many Chávez-supporting politicians are under investigation and it paints a distorted picture to focus only on prosecutions against those opposed to Chávez.

Taking the two most prominent cases of those aligned with the opposition. With Baduel, the military prosecutors investigating the disappearance of more than $18.6m in 2006 and 2007 while he was minister of defence have decided to prosecute. He has had all the rights to a defence lawyer and transparent trial, yet so far his defence has not produced any evidence to counter the charges of corruption.

Manuel Rosales, infamously a signatory to the decree backing the 2002 military coup against Chávez, is one of the most notorious cases. He has allegedly been unable to show the source of millions of dollars in assets both in Venezuela and abroad. He fled to Peru and requested political asylum, but being given asylum by Peru is not proof of innocence. Recently Bolivia nearly broke diplomatic relations with Peru for granting asylum to three ministers from a previous government charged with responsibility for the October 2003 massacre in which 67 people were killed by the Bolivian army.

What cannot be said of Venezuela is that the right to protest is threatened. This year alone, the opposition have staged dozens of marches free from state harassment. On numerous occasions opponents and marchers have been invited to address the nation from the National Assembly.

In contrast, it was only 20 years ago that protests were met by brutal repression in Venezuela, with the Caracazo massacre by state security forces leaving 276 dead according to official figures and up to 3,000, according to claims, once mass graves were uncovered.

The opposition's hostile views of the Chávez government dominate the Venezuelan media. But that is not the reason why some radio stations were recently closed. These were operating illegally without proper licences and continued to refuse to comply with the law. More than 200 radio stations, most of which identify with the opposition, that were also operating irregularly but did renew their franchises continue to operate freely.

Respect for democracy is intrinsic to the particular model being followed by the Chávez government. It does not resort to violence – it wins elections. In contrast, it is noteworthy that the notable elements of the Venezuelan opposition have broadly sympathised with the illegal de facto government of Micheletti in Honduras. Maybe in Honduras we have a serious glimpse of what "democracy" would have been like in Venezuela had its violent attempts to overthrow Chávez been successful?



The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

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Iran vs.U.S. and Britain (after Guard bombing )

from : http://www.reuters.com/

Iran threatens U.S. and Britain after Guard bombing



By Hashem Kalantari and Hossein Jaseb

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed on Monday to "retaliate" against the United States and Britain after accusing them and neighboring Pakistan of backing militants who blew up six Guards commanders.

Iranian media say the Sunni Muslim insurgent group Jundollah (God's soldiers) has claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province, which killed 42 people in all.

The incident threatened to overshadow talks between Iran and global powers in Vienna on Monday intended to tackle a standoff about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iranian security officials had presented documents indicating "direct ties" from Jundollah to U.S., British and, "unfortunately," Pakistani intelligence organizations, the ISNA news agency said.

"Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus, and there will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them," Jafari was quoted as saying.

Jundollah, which has been blamed for many attacks since 2005 in the desert province bordering Pakistan, says it is fighting to end discrimination against Sunni Muslims by Iran's dominant Shi'ites. Its leader is Abdolmalek Rigi.

Jafari said Rigi and his plans were "undoubtedly under the umbrella and the protection" of U.S., British and Pakistani organizations, though he limited the threat of retaliation to the United States and Britain.

"TRAINED BY U.S. AND BRITAIN"

Iranian television quoted General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Guards' ground forces, whose deputy was killed in the bombing, as saying:

"The base of the terrorists and rebels has not been in Iran. They are trained by America and Britain in some of the neighboring countries."

The United States, Pakistan and Britain all condemned the bombing, the bloodiest attack in Iran since the 1980-88 war with Iraq, and denied involvement.

"We reject in the strongest terms any assertion that this attack has anything to do with Britain," said a spokeswoman at Britain's Foreign Office. "Terrorism is abhorrent wherever it occurs."

The bombing of a mosque in Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, reportedly also claimed by Jundollah, killed 25 people in May.

The poor and remote province, mostly populated by Sunni Muslims, borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan and has frequently been the scene of clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and heavily-armed drug smugglers.

The victims of the bombing in the city of Sarbaz included a number of tribal chiefs who were due to hold a meeting with the Guards to promote Shi'ite-Sunni unity.

The incident raised tension between Iran and major powers before talks at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On the agenda in Vienna was a proposal that Iran send low enriched uranium abroad to be enriched further and then returned to be used in a reactor where Iran produces medical isotopes.

The meeting of Iranian, Russian, French and U.S. officials started shortly after state-run Iranian television said Iran would not deal directly with France since it had failed to deliver "nuclear materials" in the past.

It was not immediately clear what effect this would have on the talks.

NEW CLAMPDOWN?

Analysts say Iran's governing hardliners may use the bomb attack as an excuse to further clamp down on moderate opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election in June sparked huge opposition protests.

A study by the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment published on Monday said Jundollah's existence showed that Iran's control over Sistan-Baluchestan was precarious, adding:

"It also shows the limits to Islamic unity within the Islamic Republic itself. This deals a blow to the credentials of the revolution and the international revolutionary aspects of (the late Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini's doctrine," it said.

"The great paradox is that Iran, which has been active in support of different Islamist movements outside her own territory after the revolution, is now faced with serious armed opposition within her own borders."

The Guards force, whose influence has increased since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, played a key role in suppressing the street protests after the election.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered cooperation in fighting terrorism and extremism in a letter to Ahmadinejad.

"We are ready to cooperate with Iran in countering these threats," he wrote, according to press service.

Ahmadinejad urged Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in a telephone call to help find the perpetrators of the attack, Iran's IRNA news agency reported.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told the Daily Times newspaper: "Pakistan is not involved in terrorist activities ... we are striving to eradicate this menace."

Pakistan has backed armed Sunni Muslim groups in the past, particularly in Afghanistan.

Relations between Iran and Pakistan have been generally good in recent years and the neighbours are cooperating on plans to build a natural gas pipeline. But Iran has in the past said Jundollah members have been operating out of Pakistan.

Some analysts believe Jundollah has evolved through shifting alliances with parties including the Taliban and Pakistan's ISI intelligence service, who saw it as a tool to use against Iran.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran and Augustine Anthony in Islamabad; Editing by Kevin Liffey)



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