The terrorists born and bred under the patronage of the Pakistani military which was pursued as a strategic interest has now attacked the PNS Mehran naval base and destroyed 2 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft (bought from the US as strategic interest against India).  Ironical how one strategic interest is conflicting with the other.

After being kicked in the butt by the US who unilaterally took action to kill Bin Laden in Abbotabad, now Pakistan has run to its other “all-weather” friend China.  What is funny is how Pakistan has no qualms prostrating itself in front of anyone who can give it alms.  There is no shame or determination to take the country on the path of economic development or spine demonstrated by successive governments.

The begging is what takes the cake.  After leeching off almost $15 billion from a naive American government post 9/11 in the guise of “war on terror”, they have run to their other friend, China who has over the decades not even given $500 million in aid.   In an effort to pitch one superpower against the other, Pakistan is now trying to threaten US that if it doesnt stop the attacks on its soil, it will run into the willing arms of its rival, China.

Pakistan is like the country who keeps a gun to its own head and threatens everyone else.  Its high time the US government calls its bluff and cuts off all aid.  Then see how long Pakistan can sustain itself.  You will soon see the Pakistanis grovelling on all fours and coming back apologising.

One is confused if one should sympathise with the thousands of innocents being killed in Pakistan by suicide bombers and other terrorist acts.  The Indian government’s constant harping that a peaceful and stable Pakistan is in our own interest is nothing but hogwash.  A stable and peaceful Pakistan is nothing but a bigger headache for India than one that is broken up into a few pieces and let all the pieces either live in peace of fight amongst themselves.

The earlier the Indian government realises the folly of engaging the Pakistani government or its masters (their Army & ISI), the better it is for them.  I rather the Indian government put their energies in building better relations with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar & Sri Lanka.

For starters, how about throwing open our economy to the above mentioned 5 countries for free trade.  Its time we stopped behaving like a big brother in the neighborhood and display our large heartedness to these countries who are more worthy of our time, money and friendship.

Above pictures courtesy: NDTV

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Another phase in life.  Hope to pull through this period of transition successfully.

Meanwhile read so many books and iam yet to find any time to write their reviews.  In the past month have finished reading the following books

The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins

Mobs, Messiahs and Markets – William Bonner & Lila Rajiva

Good to Great – Jim Collins

Cultures of the World – Austria

Moscow – Eyewitness Travel

Currently am reading  Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid.

Above picture courtesy: Neptune Library

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After the leak of more than 90,000 secret documents on the Wikileaks website, more and more sordid exposure of the Pakistani leadership are coming to light.  It was always known that the rogue intelligence agency of Pakistan, the ISI, was hand in glove with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Lashkar-e-Toiba and many other terrorist organisations fomenting teror in India.

But what takes the cake is the ignorant America feeding the Paki army so that it can fund the terrorists which in turn stab the American and other NATO troops currently in Afghanistan in the back.  The same money that the Americans provided the Pakistani government is now being fed by the ISI and Pakistani Army back to the Al Qaeda backed terrorists who are in turn killing the American soldiers.

I wonder how the American citizens are tolerating their government feeding the same scums who are killing their soldiers. Any civilized government would have re-looked at the horrors of the backstabbing that Pakistan has been doing to their soldiers…but not the US government.  The game of strategic reach that the US likes to play so much has stretched its resources so badly that the US economy is on the verge of a collapse.  Still, it refuses to learn from its mistakes.

Inspite of the evidence put forth by the intelligence, that the biggest snake in the hole is nothing but the Pakistani Army/ISI, the Americans seem to have no qualms sharing the same bed with them.  Pakistan has mastered the art of holding a gun to its own head and threatening to kill itself.  Its time the Americans call their bluff.

If the Americans want to withdraw from Afghanistan in 3-4 years as they predict, its best for them to rein in the Pakistani Army/ISI and strengthen the Afghan govt’s hands in developing a strong defence against not only the local insurgents but also the Army/ISI.

As for India, the best thing for it to happen would be the breakup of Pakistan.  I have always believed that a strong and economically stable Pakistan is a bigger headache for India than one which is broken up into pieces.  I love Manmohan Singh and really appreciate the hard work he is putting in trying to find a peaceful solution with Pakistan.  But he doesnt realise that he is barking up the wrong tree and that Pakistan is like the dog whose tail will always be curled.  No matter what we cant straighten it.  Its not a civilized society and probably we need to wall off the borders between the two countries and cut all strategic, business and people to people ties.

According to Canada’s former ambassador to Afghanistan, Chris Alexander…

Gen. Kayani is saying he wants to call the shots in Kabul. To do so, he is prepared to support the principal outfit launching suicide attacks in Afghanistan’s cities. He is backing the Islamic Emirate’s effort to wreck an Afghan-led nation-building process.

The Pakistan army under Gen. Kayani is sponsoring a large-scale, covert guerrilla war through Afghan proxies – whose strongholds in Baluchistan and Waziristan are flourishing. Their mission in Afghanistan is to keep Pashtun nationalism down, India out and Mr. Karzai weak.

It has nothing to do with Islam, whose principles they trample; indeed, the flower of Afghanistan’s ulema (religious leaders) have been among their victims. Gen. Kayani and others will deny complicity. But as the WikiLeaks material demonstrates, their heavy-handed involvement is now obvious at all levels.

To understand the context of this fraught relationship, read a report called The Sun and the Sky: The Relationship of Pakistan’s ISI to Afghan Insurgents, by Matt Waldman, a former Oxfam policy adviser now at Harvard. It is a chilling tale. When the scale of this complicity is fully exposed, it will rank high on the list of modern scandals.

The USA seems to have no qualms cutting off all funding to Iran, North Korea and any other country that doesnt toe its line.  But when it comes to Pakistan, it strangely behaves like an Ostrich who buries its face in the sand.

Tunku Varadarajan hits the nail on the head when he says…

We are now at a crossroads with Pakistan, a point at which we need to pull out old words from the Bush playbook. It is time to state to them—to state, in particular, to Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, the Pakistan army’s chief of staff—that Pakistan is either with us, or against us. There can be no caveats, no exit clauses, no fine print, no weasely handwringing about Pakistan’s need to retain “strategic balance” in Afghanistan.

Some more articles on the leaked documents

On WikiLeaks, Pakistan and Afghanistan; the tip of an old iceberg

Above pictures courtesy: Pakistanisforpeace & omjiyadav

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While dealing with terrorist supporting countries like Pakistan, an aggressive covert assassination program can go a long way in controlling the terrorism perpetrated by Pakistani supported terrorists on India.  Taking out select leaders of the rogue intelligence agency, ISI sponsoring the terrorism and leaders of JuD, LeT etc should be actively considered by India.

After the disastrous policy by the ex-Prime Minister IK Gujral who shut down the Counter Intelligence Teams of R&AW, its time India flexed its muscles.  A few targeted killings will send a strong message across to our neighbours that their transgressions will not be tolerated anymore.  The only way to stop terrorism is to increase the cost on the sponsors.  They slap you and you gouge out both their eyes and bash their face up badly.  That’s how you respond to terrorism and not by getting apologetic about it.

But it needs leaders with guts and conviction to take up such measures.  Do we have any of them?  Our leaders are either busy dividing us on caste, religion, region etc or sucking up to minorities.  Anyone out there who can implement these measures?

According to a report in the Telegraph, the group, which included a woman, entered the hotel dressed as businessmen and tennis players, and managed to strangle Mabhouh inside his room. The assassins arrived in Dubai carrying French, German, Italian and Swiss passports, and checked into different hotels, says the report. They used fake names like Gail Folliard, Kevin Daveron and Peter Elvinger.

They met later at a shopping mall, and communicated with each other before that via a ‘command centre’ in Austria, says the report. Traveling under the alias of Mahmoud Abdul Ra’ouf Mohammed, Mabhouh was spotted at the Dubai airport by a member of another surveillance team, who had waited hours for him.

Meir Dagan – The current head of Mossad

After he checked into the al-Bustan hotel, one of the hit squad dressed as a tennis player accompanied him in the lift, and followed him to his room, the daily said. The information was then passed on to Elvinger, the group’s leader, who promptly checked into the room across the corridor from Mabhouh, says the Telegraph.

Soon, another surveillance team arrived to keep a check on the target, who left the hotel half an hour later. The group tried to take advantage of his absence and attempted to break into his room, while the woman and Daveron kept a look out for other guests. The police have not released footage of what happened next, but the assassins somehow managed to force or fool Mabhouh into opening his door, and suffocated him, said the paper. They then locked the door from inside and left.

The team left Dubai on different flights over the span of the next 12 hours, and fled to various destinations including Frankfurt, Hong Kong and South Africa [ Images ], said the Telegraph. Mabhouh’s dead body was discovered over twelve hours later, and his killers, ‘a professional team that is highly skilled in these kinds of operations’, were thousands of miles away by that time, said the daily.

Read the full article here

And now, Dubai has threatened to issue an arrest warrant against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu if Mossad’s complicity in the assassination is proved.   It would be good for Dubai to first explain as to what the leader of a global terrorist organisation was doing in its country?  It would be better for even Britain who is now blowing hot and cold against Israel to see why most of the terror plots in the world today are being hatched on their own soil and why most of the terrorists seem to have some connection with Britain?

Countries like Britain and Dubai seem to be in the crosshairs of global terrorism and it would be good for these respective governments to get their houses in order before pointing their fingers at others.  As for Mossad, its job is to keep its people and country safe.  And to chase down anyone who hurts their people/country and kill them like dogs.  Three cheers to Mossad for a job well done.

Some good reading on Mossad in the Telegraph paper here – “Mossad’s license to kill“.  How i really wish our so-called external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) would grow some balls and do their job properly than being caught with their pants down.

Above pictures source:  FPP & Wikipedia

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The seventh dossier was passed to Pakistan a few days ago.  Am sure it went into the dustbin as usual.  In spite of all evidence passed, Pakistan refuses to admit its complicity in the attacks.  Even if it does, there is nothing much to do about it.

The Pakistani army and its rogue intelligence agency, ISI have the official policy of using terrorism as an instrument of strategy against its neighbours. Too bad, it has finally spiralled out of control and Pak itself is under constant bombardments from the monster it created.

Not to mention, the Afghan – Pak border has become such a hotspot for the terrorists that the Americans are regularly using drones to bomb the hell out of the place.   To take out one terrorist, the US drones kill 100.  Pathetic ratio, no doubt.   It only makes it easy for the jehadis to indoctrinate the suffering people.   More terrorists are born, the cycle continues.

Till the US comes to its senses and crushes the evil nexus of the Pak army, ISI and the jehadi factory, they are in for a long haul in Afghanistan and there is not going to be any peace in the neighbourhood.

Previous entries on the Bombay attack – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Above picture source: IBNLive

The fire that Pakistan so used to burn India has finally engulfed its own house.  Sad, but there is not much being learnt by Pakistan even when every city of it is being bombed by the monsters they helped create to spread terror in India and Afghanistan.

Has Pakistan learnt anything from this horrific events in the past 10 odd days when close to 300 people have been killed in a wave of violence?  Nothing much seems to have change according to this article.

Times might be tough for the ordinary people of Pakistan, but business has never been better for the traders of Gun Alley. Here, less than 50 miles from British forces in Afghanistan, across lawless terrain deep inside Pakistan’s border, all that an Islamic militant could ever want for jihad is freely available.

In the weapons section of Smuggler’s Bazaar – a medieval market where heroin, fake identities and killers for hire can be found for less than the price of a second-hand car – guns, bombs and suicide belts are also in ready supply.

At this market on the outskirts of the frontier town of Peshawar – a dusty, violent place of narrow alleys and murderous intrigue, within 90 minutes’ drive of the capital Islamabad – the discerning Holy Warrior can choose from AK-47s, mortars, anti-tank missiles and assorted explosives for suicide bombs.

Every item of hardware on sale in these mud-walled shops is in perfect working order. If you want proof, the traders will willingly give you a demonstration of their firepower.

And that’s not all. Terrorists can buy military secrets here, extracted from laptops looted during ambushes on Nato convoys travelling through the treacherous Khyber Pass. Many outline Nato operations against Taliban targets in terrifying detail.

Replicas of Nato military uniforms are also on sale. Over cups of sweet tea, Islamic militants arrive here from all over Pakistan and Afghanistan to buy the means to achieve their barbaric aims.

Pictures source: Boston Globe.  More pictures at the website.

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Is it just co-incidence or is there too much that is not being read into it?  With Pakistan fast spiralling into a deep abyss, are India and US practising for the time when the threat of the Pakistani govt being run over by the Taliban comes true?

Is the close co-operation a signal that the governments of both sides accept the fact that Pakistan is fast losing its fight against the Taliban and the ISI propped up terrorists.  Maybe the governments know something that people in general dont know. Maybe its an exercise to practise how to decamp with Pakistani nuclear weapons in case of a runover of the Pakistani government by terrorists.

Finally the monster created, nurtured and propped up by successive Pakistani governments against India is coming back to bite the master itself.

Like the saying, “the one who digs a hole for the other falls into it himself first”. How true.  Not a good sign for India to see its neighbour descend into chaos, but there is nothing much India can do other than exasperate at the happenings in the neighbourhood.  The chickens have come home to roost.

How long the Pakistani government and its army will bury its head in the sand like an Ostrich before they understand that the monster they created is finally too big for them to control and is hell bent on destroying their own country.

It was Pakistan’s Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who declared that Pakistan will eat grass, but will make a nuclear bomb.  Looks like the time to eat grass has come.  Finally.

All pictures source:  LiveFist Visit that website for lots of pictures, videos of the Indo-US exercises.

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Also, why name the bridge after Rajiv Gandhi? What did he do to deserve the name on the bridge?  Was he the mason or the engineer or the company that executed the project? Havent we had enough of the Gandhi names adorning everything in the country?  Is there no one in the billion odd citizens of India who can be honoured with their name on the bridge.  Anyway, why cant we stick with the original name of the bridge, Bandra Worli Sealink (BWSL)?

Couldnt the sycophants of Congress not find a single person from the hundreds dead in the terrorist attack last year whose name could be adorned to the bridge? Does the UPA have any plans to change India’s name to Gandhistan or Rajivistan?

I would support any move by the government that would name all our public toilets after Rajiv or Indira Gandhi.  That would be one project i would be happy to see named after the Gandhi family.  How about Rajiv Gandhi Shauchalaya or Smt Indira Gandhi Toilet ?

Why doesnt the sycophant Congress workers plan something on this matter? Am sure their dear madam, Sonia Gandhi wont object to something so noble.

Above pictures source:NDTV

Skyscrapercity link to the BWSL project here

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Travelled via a garbage dump of an airport called the Chennai airport, a so called ISO 9001 certified airport which they so proudly display on the airport.  But from the floor with lousy and dusty tiles to leaky and stinking toilets to a new domestic arrival hall where the aircon is set so low that its enough to freeze you to haphazardly placed tubelights in the cielings. The Chennai airport is the best example of a pathetic government and its abject apathy towards its citizens and the infrastructure.

If this is what the Airports Authority of India (AAI) can provide, its high time, the Chennai airport is handed over to some private company.  When you travel from the sleek, ultra efficient, modern and brilliant Hyderabad airport, Chennai airport reminds you of some village in the remote part of India.  Even the Chennai central railway station is the same, smelly and dirty.  Often making me wonder which moron named Chennai a Metro city.

People cutting queues while showing off their official powers, indifferent authorities, misplacing luggage, airport employees who steal stuff from your luggage, ripping off your hard earned money while paying for food is how you can describe the Chennai airport.  Just outside the airport you have a huge congregation of people waiting everytime as if some superstar is arriving.  With cars, buses, two wheelers and everything in such close proximity of the airport, its just a matter of time before you might hear about a terrorist attack there.  The policemen / women just go about their motions as if they are in la-la land.

And then look at the issues in our elections starting tomorrow, the Samajwadi Party has an agenda to get rid of English and Computers.  Meanwhile, the moron called Mulayam Yadav has both his sons studying in an english medium college. The same is the case with his chamcha Amar Singh.

Some moron wants to gift colour TV and another one free rice as if the national exchequer is their father’s property. The Election Commission should come out with a ruling that the party promising freebies in the manifesto should foot half of the bill for the freebies, then we can see the fun.

So, who do you vote for?  The openly communal BJP which talks and commits hatred against a section of people or who dont follow their Hindutava (dunno what kind of tava it is) manifesto or Congress who has perfected the art of playing divisive politics or the Communists who are nothing but agents of the Communist Party of China or the scores of uneducated and criminals with enough murders and rapes in their resume so as to be called legends in their fields?

You make the call.  Meanwhile, do go out and vote. Vote against divisive, communal, casteist, socialist parties and people with criminal records against their name (oops, that rules out most of the leaders of all parties).

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