Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Saturday, July 20, 2013
The doctrine of the Indian secret agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is based on the principle of waging continuous secret battles through its agents. Since its creation in 1968, RAW has assumed a significant status in formulation of Indian foreign policy.
While waging their secret battles, RAW’s agents have their presence in almost all regional countries, implementing various tactics of psychological warfare. In this context, M. K Dhar in his book, “Open Secrets, India’s Intelligence Unveiled” points out, “RAW’s operations against the regional countries are conducted with great professional skill and expertise, which include the establishment of a huge network inside the target countries. It has used propaganda, political dissent, ethnic divisions, economic backwardness and criminal elements to foment subversion and terrorism to weaken these states in conssonance with Indian regional ambitions.” However, application of these nefarios designs vary from country to country as RAW’s secret batlles in the following countries proves.
Sikkim was the easiest prey for RAW and India annexed it in mid-1970s. The King of Bhutan has been reduced to the nominal position by acting upon Indian dictates.
Under a well-orchestrated plan of RAW, on November 30 1988, 400 well-trained mercenaries infiltrated and stormed the capital of Maldives. Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi reacted promptly by sending about 1600 combat troops who flushed out the attackers from the streets. In this way, Maldives was totally brought under Indian influence.
Sri Lanka offers an unprecedented example of incursion by RAW’s agents as violence kept on going in the country for a long time. In this regard, Jain Commission revealed that since 1981, RAW established 30 training bases in India for clandestine support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), some of whom were already on the payroll of this agency. In the recent past, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that rights and safety of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka should be upheld.
For many years, India has openly been meddling in Nepal’s internal affairs by contriving internal strife through RAW in order to destabilize the successive governments and prop up puppet regimes. In 2001, RAW had played a key role in the massacre of nine members of the Royal family of Nepal, when the former King tried to drift away from Indian hold.
In the recent past, Indian-backed monarchy in Nepal was abolished after a long struggle of the Maoists who won the elections in April 2008. Now Nepal’s leadership has forsaken India and has tilted towards China whom New Delhi considers its strategic rival in Asia. But despite the victory of the Maoists, Nepali Congress and the former had been unable to reach a deal on power-sharing. Availing the opportunity, RAW’s agents who were well-penetrated in Nepali Congress and various government departments have been manipulating the situation so as to create lawlessness to bring Nepal back to Indian influence.
In the recent past, RAW-supported Tibetans in Nepal have held protests against China’s rule over Tibet. In this regard, on March 10, 2008 when anti-government protests by Buddhist monks had erupted in Tibet, flaring in nearby provinces. Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet who has lived in exile in India along with his 120,000 followers has been tacitly encouraged by RAW’s secret warriors—enabling him to mobilize armed groups and international support to create instability in Tibetan regions of China.
As regards Bagladesh, surprisingly, RAW had also created insurgency force: The Shanti Bahini (Fighters for Peace). The agency has been involved in training rebels of Chakma tribes (Hindu and Buddhists tribesmen) and Shanti Bahini to carry out subversive activities in Bangladesh.
In August 17, 2005, RAW’s elusive masterminds rocked various districts of Bangladesh with 370 explosions. Indian security agencies and media advised the central government to force Khaleda Zia to clamp down on Islamic fundamentalist outfits. A study of the post-blast behaviour of New Delhi indicated that those blasts were conducted by Indian intelligence agency, RAW to destablize a pro-China Bangladesh.
So far as Pakistan is concerned, the country has become a special target of RAW’s secret battles. In this connection, fundamentalist Hindus give credit to Indira Gandhi who in the late 1970s gave RAW a new role to suit her Indira Doctrine specifically asking it to undertake covert operations in Pakistan. RAW mobilised all its resources by exploiting political turmoil in East Pakistan in 1971 which it had created through its agents. Nevertheless, its intrigues culminated in the dismemberment of Pakistan.
At present, New Delhi has established more than 200 foreign offices and training camps in Afghanistan where RAW’s intelligence officials with the help of Khad and tactical support of CIA are doing their utmost to weaken Pakistan by sending weapons to the separatist elements in Balochistan and particularly to the insurgents of FATA regions. In Wakhan, a religious Madrassa of the Indian Muslim clerics is functioning under the patronage of RAW and Mossad. Very young boys including Afghans, recruits are mostly from Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan. Thus more than 20,000 ideologically motivated terrorists are intermittently being infiltrated into troubled spots of Pakistan. Posing as volunteers, they join the Taliban militants to fight against Pakistan’s security forces. These miscreants also conducted a number of suicide attacks, bomb blasts and targeted killings in Pakistan, killing a number of innocent persons and personnel of the security forces. In Kurram Agency, RAW’s Afghan agents were also actively involved in the sectarian conflict. However, their main plot is to create chaos in our country.
Even in Afghanistan, acting upon the old policy of divide and rule, it is owing to the tactics of RAW that Muslims are killing the Muslims either they belong to Afghan forces or Taliban.
The campaign of RAW’s battles sharpens as violence takes some other dimensions in case of Kashmir. As regards the current phase of Indian state terrorism, it began on August 12, 2008 when Indian forces killed Hurriyat Conference leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz in the occupied Kashmir. At present, indefinite curfews, crackdowns and killings by the Indian security forces keep on going against the non-violent mass uprising of Kashmiris. More than 1000 innocent people have been killed by the Indian forces so far. Nevertheless, since 1989, Indian military troops backed by RAW’s clandestine moves have been using all inhuman methods of ethnic cleansing to disturb the majority population of the Kashmiris.
In the recent years, hundreds of unidentified graves with at least 2000 bodies have been discovered in the Indian-held Kashmir. These Kashmiris were tortured to death by RAW.
One of the important roles of RAW is to thwart Sino-Pak strategic relations. In this context, fast growing economic power of China coupled with her rising strategic relationship with the Third World has irked the eyes of Americans and Indians. Owing to this jealousy, support of the US to India for a permanent seat in the U.N. Security Council and US-India nuclear agreement are part of American desire to make India a major power to counterbalance China in Asia.
Nevertheless, Beijing and Islamabad cannot neglect their common defence when their adversaries are following a covert strategy. In this respect, Pakistan and China have signed a number of agreements to enhance bilateral cooperation in diverse sectors including energy, telecommunication, trade and space technology. China also agreed to supply nuclear reactors to Pakistan.
China will also be able to use the Karakoram Highway and ports of Gwadar (which links C. Asia) and Karachi for transporting its goods to the Middle East and Africa.
It is mentionable that on April 18, 2008, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had openly claimed that “some external forces were trying to weaken Pak-China strategic ties by creating misunderstandings.”
Nonetheless, in New Delhi, it does not matter who is at the helm of affairs, policy of manipulation and subversion in neighbouring states through RAW’s secret battles in order to extend Indian regional hegemony, continues unabated.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Russia’s Anti-Piracy Law Triggers Blackouts and Protests
- July 20, 2013
Following
years of pressure from the United States and entertainment companies,
Russia has passed new legislation aimed at cracking down on
Internet-based copyright infringement.From August 1 a new law will see copyright holders filing lawsuits against sites facilitating copyright infringement. Site owners will be required to remove content and links to content within 72 hours, or face their entire domain being blocked at the ISP level pending the outcome of a court hearing.
However, it’s not just ‘pirate’ sites that are concerned at how this will play out. Internet giants including Google and Wikipedia have voiced concerns that they are facing an impossible mission to police their operations for infringements carried out by their millions of users.
The new law has the potential to chill online innovation in the name of protecting rightsholders, critics argue, and should be repealed as soon as possible. Moving towards this goal, opponents of the law are planning protests to mimic the great U.S. SOPA revolt of 2012.
The first part of the protest is aimed at drawing attention to the potential side-effects of the law, i.e the blocking of entire websites on copyright grounds.
To
this end there will be a SOPA-style blackout on August 1 which is
expected to gather support from thousands of websites, many running a ‘blackout’ script.For those without a website who still want to make their voices heard, a petition calling for the law to be repealed has so far achieved 43,500+ signatures towards its 100,000 target.
In addition to Internet-based activities, offline or ‘AFK’ protests are being organized by the Pirate Party of Russia.
“Initially the authorities of Moscow denied us in holding a meeting at the place we proposed (Triumphalnaya square), but now we have reached a compromise with them. Similar meetings will be held in St. Petersburg, Tomsk, and other cities,” Pirate Party of Russia press secretary Natalia Malysheva told TorrentFreak.
“Blocking websites without a trial violates the presumption of innocence,” the party add. “The law does not address the systemic problems of copyright and its tightening will lead to a violation of the rights of Internet users. Therefore, this law should be repealed.”
The Moscow demonstration, set to take place against a backdrop of non-copyrighted music, will also provide workshops on the use of encryption technologies including VPNs and TOR
Genetic rice lawsuit in St. Louis settled for $750 million
July 20, 2013
Bayer CropScience agreed here late
Friday to pay up to $750 million to farmers in Missouri and four other
states to settle lawsuits over contamination of the U.S. rice supply by
LibertyLink genetically modified rice in 2006.
“It was a devastating blow to a lot of rice farmers, and I’m tickled to death that we’ve finally reached a settlement
where Bayer for the first time has offered to make it right to these
farmers,” said St. Louis lawyer Don Downing, who was co-lead counsel for
the plaintiffs.
“I think it sends a signal to those who develop genetically modified seeds that they need to keep those seeds very carefully contained until they’re approved for human consumption,” Downing said.
But, he added, “We were very careful all
along … not to say that these lawsuits are anti-GMO
(genetically-modified organisms) because many of our farmers use GM
crops.”
Bayer, based in Germany, released a
statement that read, in part, “Although Bayer CropScience believes it
acted responsibly in the handling of its biotech rice, the company
considers it important to resolve the litigation so that it can move forward focused on its fundamental mission of providing innovative solutions to modern agriculture.”
When it was discovered in the rice
supply, LibertyLink had not yet been approved for sale for human
consumption. Rice futures plunged, and Japan and European countries
banned the import of U.S. rice.
The first of what would eventually grow
to more than 400 lawsuits representing 11,000 plaintiffs were filed
within weeks. Many were eventually consolidated in federal court here.
LibertyLink rice has since been approved but has not been commercially marketed.
LibertyLink corn, soybeans and canola are on the market, Bayer spokesman Greg Coffey said.
All farmers in Missouri, Arkansas,
Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi who planted long grain rice in 2006-10 —
not just those who sued in state or federal court — can participate in
the settlement, said Downing and co-lead counsel Adam J. Levitt. It also
includes landowners who allow others to farm their land, but does not
include importers, exporters, rice mills and others.
Under terms of the settlement, farmers who planted at least 85 percent of the roughly 2.2 million acres of rice during those years must sign up or Bayer can walk away from the deal.
Bayer said it has already “established appropriate provisions” for the settlement.
The settlement is broken down into three
“pots” of money. The first, and the easiest to get, offers $310 an acre
to compensate farmers for market losses and is available to those who
had long grain rice planted in 2006-10, with lesser amounts for farmers
who only planted in some of those years.
The second pot is for farmers who
planted either of two rice varieties in 2006, Clearfield 131 or
Cheniere, that were most affected by the contamination. Many of those
farmers had to leave fields fallow, plant lower-value crops or spend
money cleaning equipment of contaminated rice, plaintiffs’ lawyers said. Farmers will have to show receipts documenting their planting of those varieties.
The third pot is for those who feel that they lost more, and requires more documentation, lawyers said.
Friday’s settlement comes after a series
of so-called “bellwether” trials set up to allow representative cases
to proceed to trial and to give all sides a signal of what could come in
pending cases.
Asked about compensation,
Levitt said that lawyers had private fee agreements with the clients
who sued. A “leadership team” of lawyers like Levitt and Downing and
others who took on additional duties and expenses will receive additional money, he said.
In December 2009, a federal jury in St.
Louis awarded $2 million to farmers. A different jury awarded $1.5
million in February 2010. Neither of those juries awarded punitive
damages.
Last July, a federal jury in St. Louis
awarded a Louisiana farmer, Denny Deshotels, $500,000 in one suit.
Jurors were not given the option of punitive damages because of
Louisiana law.
Two other bellwether cases settled, one a week into the trial and one the week before, Downing said.
In three state trials in Arkansas,
jurors also found in favor of farmers, awarding $1 million in one trial,
roughly $1 million or less in another and $6 million in actual damages
and $42 million in punitive damages in the third, Downing said..
At trial, company lawyers argued that farmers who waited out the brief price hit suffered no losses and that Bayer was not negligent.
Friday’s settlement had not yet been filed in federal court in St. Louis, but plaintiffs’ lawyers announced the deal at 4:35 p.m. and Bayer released its own statement a short time later.
Asked to explain the timing of the settlement, Levitt declined to comment.
Coffey said, “We did release (the announcement) as soon as we could,” noting it was shortly after the agreement was signed.
Downing would only say: “I can’t tell
you why it ended up late in the afternoon on a holiday weekend. You can
perhaps speculate about that yourself.”
Source: stltoday
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)