Travesty after Travesty in the US Senate -- Smear MoveOn, Saber-Rattle on Iran -- Meanwhile Nuclear-Tipped Pakistan is in Danger of Falling to Al Qaeda & Its Allies
By Richard Power
Sen. Hillary Clinton has delivered a mixed performance in the latest travesties on the floor of the US Senate. She voted against pandering to the reich-wing on the condemnation of MoveOn, but voted for empowering its thirst to start a war with Iran. Of course, a vote for anything that has Joe Lieberman's name on it would be a mark against her; but with this particular vote on Iran, she has cancelled out most of the good she did herself and the country with her MoveOn vote.
Nevertheless, despite getting only one of these votes right, she still bested Sen. Barack Obama, who, embarrassingly, ducked both, and thereby made his claims of bold leadership seem hollow.
And while the US political establishment and the mainstream news media exploit the danger of Iran developing nuclear weapons to mask its PNAC-driven obsession with Iran's oil; in Pakistan, allies of those who perpetrated the slaughter of the innocents on 9/11 are advancing their plan to seize the government, and along with it, control of a nuclear arsenal.
Here are some excerpts from an extraordinary piece of journalism in the Asia Times, with a link to the full text:
Al-Qaeda has been in the process of a decisive ideological and strategic debate over the past few years. At times it developed fault lines that brought forward extremists in the organization, whom the Sunni and Shi'ite orthodoxy of the Muslim world calls takfiris.
This rise of the takfiris within al-Qaeda gave an unprecedented boost to its anti-establishment drive. This concept is based on the philosophies of 13th-century Muslim scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, who threatened to revolt against the Muslim sultan if he did not give up his neutrality toward the invading Tartars and eventually forced him to fight to defend Damascus. It also draws on General Vo Nguyen Giap's guerrilla strategy against French and US forces in Vietnam.
The aim of the takfiris now is to extend the current insurgency against the establishment in the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas of Pakistan into a large-scale offensive to bring down the central government or force the government to support their cause. ...
Bin Laden has always spoken out against the Western world, but in his most recent audio message last week, for the first time he urged Pakistanis "to fight against Musharraf, his army, his government and his supporters". This was the first endorsement of his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri's anti-establishment theory under which war should be waged first against the un-Islamic Muslim states before fighting infidel armies. In the past, Mullah Omar and bin Laden have always avoided stirring revolt within countries such as Pakistan. ...
The first phase involves armed opposition to the Pakistani forces in the two Waziristans. This has been going on for some years, and has proved successful, with the troops even being withdrawn at one point, leaving the militants in peace.
In the second phase, which has now begun, the militants are targeting isolated security posts and enemy personnel. This had a spectacular result recently, with more than 500 Pakistan Army soldiers being captured in different phases, mostly from the 7 Baloch Regiment (most of them were also released in phases).
At the same time, the insurgency has to spread. This it has done, into the adjoining Mohmand and Bajaur tribal agencies, as well as Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and Swat Valley in North-West Frontier Province. The intensity of the opposition will be raised to include large-scale attacks, centered in Swat Valley, which will be Waziristan's outpost of insurgency and from where the insurgency is planned to spread into the federal capital. ...
For the final stage, the ex-army planners aim to take the battle to Islamabad. The trigger for this will be presidential elections scheduled for next month in which Musharraf will run - and while still wearing his uniform. Syed Saleem Shahzad, Military brains plot Pakistan's downfall, Asia Times, 9-26-07
Click here for a Words of Power Archive of posts on 9/11, Terrorism, Etc.
Some Pakistan-Related Posts
[NOTE: There are many other references to the situation in Pakistan throughout the Words of Power archives. You can use the search engine to locate them. This selection is a just a representative sampling.]
GS(3) Thunderbolt 9-14-07: In Pakistan, the Dharma Repels an Attack; In Burma, the Dharma Sparks an Uprising
Hard Rain Journal 9-9-07: Response to Bin Laden, Bush, Zawahiri & Cheney -- 3 Heroes of Post-9/11 Era -- Mariane Pearl, Salman Rushdie & Pat Tillman
Hard Rain Journal 7-6-07: At The Red Mosque, Bloodshed; At Nalanda University, Hope
Hard Rain Journal 10-19-06: The Two Biggest Lies, An Update on the “War on Terror,” the Theft of US Elections, and the Fight for Net Neutrality
Hard Rain Journal 10-8-06: Has Far Is It From Pittsburgh to Pakistan?
Words of Power #15: Bring Me the Head of Osama, Nero Fiddles while the Planet Burns, Religion as the Crystal Meth of the People, & The Democrats' Plan
September 11th, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Pakistan, 9/11, Cheney, Bush, Iran, Terrorism,9/11, Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, MoveOn.org Richard Power, Words of Power
