OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
My Father Died for Pakistan
Shehrbano Taseer
The New York Times: January 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/opinion/09taseer.html?ref=todayspaper
TWENTY-SEVEN. That’s the number of bullets a police guard fired into my father before surrendering himself with a sinister smile to the policemen around him. Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, was assassinated on Tuesday — my brother Shehryar’s 25th birthday — outside a market near our family home in Islamabad.
The guard accused of the killing, Mumtaz Qadri, was assigned that morning to protect my father while he was in the federal capital. According to officials, around 4:15 p.m., as my father was about to step into his car after lunch, Mr. Qadri opened fire.
Mr. Qadri and his supporters may have felled a great oak that day, but they are sadly mistaken if they think they have succeeded in silencing my father’s voice or the voices of millions like him who believe in the secular vision of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
My father’s life was one of struggle. He was a self-made man, who made and lost and remade his fortune. He was among the first members of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party when it was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the late 1960s. He was an intellectual, a newspaper publisher and a writer; he was jailed and tortured for his belief in democracy and freedom. The vile dictatorship of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq did not take kindly to his pamphleteering for the restoration of democracy.
One particularly brutal imprisonment was in a dungeon at Lahore Fort, this city’s Mughal-era citadel. My father was held in solitary confinement for months and was slipped a single meal of half a plate of stewed lentils each day. They told my mother, in her early 20s at the time, that he was dead. She never believed that.
Determined, she made friends with the kind man who used to sweep my father’s cell and asked him to pass a note to her husband. My father later told me he swallowed the note, fearing for the sweeper’s life. He scribbled back a reassuring message to my mother: “I’m not made from a wood that burns easily.” That is the kind of man my father was. He could not be broken.
He often quoted verse by his uncle Faiz Ahmed Faiz, one of Urdu’s greatest poets. “Even if you’ve got shackles on your feet, go. Be fearless and walk. Stand for your cause even if you are martyred,” wrote Faiz. Especially as governor, my father was the first to speak up and stand beside those who had suffered, from the thousands of people displaced by the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 to the family of two teenage brothers who were lynched by a mob last August in Sialkot after a dispute at a cricket match.
After 86 members of the Ahmadi sect, considered blasphemous by fundamentalists, were murdered in attacks on two of their mosques in Lahore last May, to the great displeasure of the religious right my father visited the survivors in the hospital. When the floods devastated Pakistan last summer, he was on the go, rallying businessmen for aid, consoling the homeless and building shelters.
My father believed that the strict blasphemy laws instituted by General Zia have been frequently misused and ought to be changed. His views were widely misrepresented to give the false impression that he had spoken against Prophet Mohammad. This was untrue, and a criminal abdication of responsibility by his critics, who must now think about what they have caused to happen. According to the authorities, my father’s stand on the blasphemy law was what drove Mr. Qadri to kill him.
There are those who say my father’s death was the final nail in the coffin for a tolerant Pakistan. That Pakistan’s liberal voices will now be silenced. But we buried a heroic man, not the courage he inspired in others. This week two leading conservative politicians — former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and the cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan — have taken the same position my father held on the blasphemy laws: they want amendments to prevent misuse.
To say that there was a security lapse on Tuesday is an understatement. My father was brutally gunned down by a man hired to protect him. Juvenal once asked, “Who will guard the guards themselves?” It is a question all Pakistanis should ask themselves today: If the extremists could get to the governor of the largest province, is anyone safe?
It may sound odd, but I can’t imagine my father dying in any other way. Everything he had, he invested in Pakistan, giving livelihoods to tens of thousands, improving the economy. My father believed in our country’s potential. He lived and died for Pakistan. To honor his memory, those who share that belief in Pakistan’s future must not stay silent about injustice. We must never be afraid of our enemies. We must never let them win.
Shehrbano Taseer is a reporter with Newsweek Pakistan.
Wikileaks, the US secret bunker, the Gulf of Aden Vortex: Contact made?
Pravda: December 8, 2010
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/08-12-2010/116116-gulf_aden_vortex-0/
Where is this story in the international media? The combined naval might of twenty-seven countries is concentrated off the Somali coast allegedly to fight the poorly armed pirates who continue to act with apparent impunity. Or is there something far, far more serious?
Once again the Wikileaks cables come into play. And what is revealed is terrifying. According to a report allegedly prepared by Admiral Maksimov of Russia’s Northern Fleet, in late 2000, a magnetic vortex was discovered in the area of the Gulf of Aden. Russia, the PR China and the USA joined efforts to study what it was but discovered that it defied logic and the laws of physics.
The USA set up a center of operations in Djibouti, which soon became the HQ of the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and monitored the vortex, which remained stable from its discovery in November 2000, according to the same report, until late 2008, when it started to expand. This, it appears, caused the USA to send a warning to the rest of the world and in response the following nations poured their military resources into the area:
This is the largest naval force to have been assembled in human history. And it has been gathered to defeat what, half a dozen poorly, armed youngsters in cheap speedboats? What is going on?
The photo shows a spiral of light which appeared over Norway on December 9, 2009. So strange was the occurrence, that according to a Wikileaks document presented to President Putin by the GRU (foreign intelligence unit), President Obama and Defence Secretary Gates were ushered into a secret military bunker, (2012 Alice). Why 2012?
This spiral suddenly disappeared, and a month later, the vortex in the Gulf of Aden seemed to project a worm-hole, like the one in this video:
You Tube: Norway Spiral http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIg5eczY5Ms
Notice the hole on seconds 7, 17 and 35.
Researchers* have pointed out that this Norway Spiral appeared at the same time that HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) and the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), CERN, were conducting tests. And how to explain this top secret report (CI/KR = critical Infrastructure and Key Resources) from the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway, sent to USNORTHCOM:
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/indexoslo337.htm
Now, perhaps, we are beginning to understand the campaign against Wikileaks, the Chinese panic against Google and the rest of the hype, for the spider at the center of the Web is not US diplomatic staff mouthing their personal opinions or saying Gaddafy goes around having intellectual conversations with a Ukrainian blonde, but indeed the Gulf of Aden Vortex file, which Assange has in his possession.
Camodian union leader arrested-CCC
18-01-11
Cambodian union leader arrested
Clean Clothes Campaign: December 16, 2010
http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/cambodian-trade-union-leader-arrested
The Clean Clothes Campaign is deeply concerned for the safety and welfare of union- and worker leaders in Cambodia. On November 18th Sous Chantha, a trade union leader of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Unions (C.CAWDU) was arrested and charged with drug trafficking. This arrest is believed to be a frame-up in order to disturb his union activities, and he risks 2 to 5 years in jail.
C.CAWDU organized a nation-wide strike for higher wages last September which led to mass dismissals of union members and dozens of legal cases filed against union leaders. Today, 379 workers from 18 companies are still dismissed from their workplaces. Their families are without income. They cannot pay for food nor for house rent and risk being thrown out of house.
Please take action today at http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/cambodian-trade-union-leader-arrested and call upon the Cambodian government to immediately and unconditionally release Sous Chantha, and upon the employers and the Garment Manufacturer Association in Cambodia (GMAC) to immediately reinstate all suspended and dismissed workers and their leaders with average back-wages paid and to start good faith negotiations about the workers’ benefits proposal at once.
After one year, wherrabouts of 20 Uighur deportees from Cambodia still unknown-Freedom House
18-01-11
One Year Later, Whereabouts of Deported Uighurs Still Uknown
Freedom House: December 17, 2010
Freedom Houses urges the Chinese government to reveal the whereabouts of 20 Uighurs deported from Cambodia one year ago. At the time of the deportation, Chinese officials promised to deal with the Uighurs in a transparent manner. However, a year later, no information has been released about their location or well-being.
On December 19, 2009, Cambodian authorities deported back to China 20 Uighurs who had been seeking asylum in Cambodia. Most members of the group, which included a woman and two children, had fled to Cambodia in October 2009, fearing persecution amid the Chinese security crackdown in Xinjiang in the aftermath of ethnic violence in July of that year. Chinese authorities accused the individuals of being involved in the violence that took place in Urumqi but have not provided evidence to support such claims. Rather, before being deported, several of the asylum seekers reportedly revealed details of violence committed by Chinese security forces against Uighurs, raising concerns that the Chinese authorities sought the Uighurs’ deportation to silence their eyewitness accounts. Two days after the deportation, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Cambodia and concluded 14 deals with the Cambodian government worth approximately $1 billion.
“Enforced disappearance is one of the most inhumane human rights violations as families have no way of knowing the fate of their loved ones,” says David J. Kramer, Executive Director at Freedom House. “Freedom House urges the international community to increase pressure on the Chinese authorities to immediately reveal the whereabouts of these 20 Uighurs and others who have disappeared since July 2009.”
The incident reflects a wider pattern of enforced disappearances of Uighurs. The July 2009 clashes were followed by a harsh crackdown that included large-scale disappearances of Uighurs, with Human Rights Watch documenting at least 40 individual cases. More recently, Beijing-based Uighur academic and blogger, Ilham Tohti was reportedly detained in early December as were his wife and two sons, both under the age of five.
TOC, gazetted
Christopher Ong, The Kent Ridge Common
The Online Citizen: January 12, 2011
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/01/toc-gazetted/
The Government has sent shock waves across Singapore by ordering The Online Citizen, one of the country’s most popular socio-political websites, to be gazetted as a political organization. This gazetting means that The Online Citizen (TOC) will not be able to use any of its new media platforms during the upcoming General Elections to voice its support for any political party or personalities, according to the TOC website.
If successful, The Online Citizen will be the first blog not only in Singapore but perhaps in the world to be classified as a ‘political organization’. The reaction towards this political gazetting of one of Singapore’s most successful socio-political blogs has been largely critical, with many also believing that it is the first step before several other socio-political blogs are classified too as ‘political organizations’. What then, many may fear, is a complete blackout of alternative news sources and forums during the period of the General Elections.
The Online Citizen’s proud history over the years include touching on topics such as the mandatory death penalty, the situation of the homeless in Singapore, Mas Selemat’s escape from a high security prison, to its extensive coverage of the AWARE incident and everyday bread-and-butter issues confronting the common man on the street. Most recently, it organized a highly successful forum, Face2Face — in which a member of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) was invited but did not show up — that brought together key figures of the opposition parties in Singapore such as Chee Soon Juan, Chiam See Tong, Low Thia Khiang and Kenneth Jeyaratnam together for the first time in many years.
The vitriolic response to what many see as an attempt to control The Online Citizen threatened to boil over with hundreds of frustrated comments left on several other popular blogs and forums in Singapore, such as the Hardwarezone forum and Temasek Review, that provided coverage of the event. Most urged The Online Citizen not to back down in the face of a possible gazetting as a political association, and encouraged it to continue its operations. Some suggested far-fetched ideas of mirroring The Online Citizen to a foreign server, in order to bypass this mandatory registration.
For Singaporeans, most felt for the first time, today, a very real fear of losing their source of free speech and thought on the Internet.
In the eyes of many, the justification of the political gazetting of The Online Citizen, because it “has the potential to influence the opinions of their readership and shape political outcomes in Singapore”, is a terribly weak one. Given this line of argument, should not other instruments such as the REACH website, The Straits Times or even the NUS Political Association for that matter be similarly considered as independent political entities, and not be allowed to pledge any form of support for any one party or personality using their respective platforms during the General Elections?
TURKMENISTAN CLAMPS DOWN ON MOBILE AND INTERNET USERS
Amnesty International: December 23, 2010
Amnesty International is calling on the Turkmenistani authorities to immediately lift the suspension of the operation of the country’s largest mobile phone service provider until arrangements can be made to provide an alternative service enabling them to access independent news sites.
Earlier this week, the authorities suspended the operation of the privately-owned and Moscow-based service provider, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), leaving around 2.5 million people, half of the country’s population and 80 per cent of the mobile phone-users, suddenly unable to use their mobile phones or access the internet.
“With their arbitrary actions the Turkmenistan authorities are severely restricting communications within the country and with the outside world,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director.
“This measure will unlawfully interfere with correspondence and violate the right of many people in Turkmenistan to receive and impart information in breach of international human rights standards.”
Thousands of people in remote parts of Turkmenistan do not have land lines or access to the internet at home. Many of these people rely instead on mobile phones.
People may now be isolated and unable to call for help in an emergency. For the last few days Amnesty International has been trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with contacts in Turkmenistan.
Meanwhile, MTS users are left with no choice but to buy the services of Altyn Asyr, the state-owned service provider, which blocks access to independent news sites and the websites of opposition groups.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov came to power in Turkmenistan in 2007, promising to uphold human rights. Three years on, repression of any form of peaceful dissent continues unabated.
In September this year he called on the Ministry of National Security to fight those who “defame our democratic law-based secular state and try to destroy the unity and solidarity of our society.”
“There is a serious risk that the authorities could use state-owned service providers to monitor conversations and exclude individuals from communicating by mobile phone,” John Dalhuisen said.
“In a country, where the right to freedom of expression has been under constant attack, the suspension of a service that allowed some contact with the outside world seems ominous.”
Cuba: Cables Reveal Government Sees Bloggers as “Most Serious Challenge”
Global Voices: December 28, 2010
Like Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil, Cuba was one of the Latin American countries most frequently referenced in the trove of diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks. Cables confirmed much of what is already known about the diplomatic impasse that has stifled relations between the two countries for over fifty years. But they also revealed the Cuban government’s deep concern about the political impact of independent bloggers on the island.
Cables sent from the US Interest Section[1] (USINT) in Havana in 2009 (the most explicit of which can be found at El País) indicate that, in the eyes of USINT, the Cuban government does not see the traditional dissident community as a serious threat to political stability on the island, and that the movement has limited resonance within the general population.
An April 15 cable described the dissident movement in Cuba as, “as old and as out of touch with the lives of ordinary Cubans as the regime itself.” The dissidents mentioned here include leaders and groups such as Oswaldo Payá and Agenda para la Transición, who represent part of the island’s small, decades-old dissident community that receives considerable support from USINT and struggles to evade repression by the Cuban government.
On April 15, 2009, Jonathan Farrar of USINT wrote:
…we see very little evidence that the mainline dissident organizations have much resonance among ordinary Cubans. Informal polls we have carried out among visa and refugee applicants have shown virtually no awareness of dissident personalities or agendas.
Given that USINT surveyed visa and refugee applicants, a group that opposes the Raúl Castro government in greater proportions than the general population, this information should be particularly disconcerting to dissident leaders. Ironically, Farrar also wrote that “…dissidents have, and will continue to perform, a key role in acting as the conscience of Cuba and deserve our support in that role.” He did not elaborate on how these groups could represent the “conscience of Cuba” if they were, as mentioned earlier, “out of touch with the lives of ordinary Cubans.”
A cable sent on December 20, 2009 indicated that the Cuban government sees bloggers as “its most serious challenge” within the realm of civil society.
Another cable also described “[y]ounger individuals, including bloggers, musicians, and performing and plastic artists” as being “much better [than traditional dissidents] at taking “rebellious” stands with greater popular appeal.”
The December 2009 cable read:
The bloggers’ mushrooming international popularity and their ability to stay one tech-step ahead of the authorities are causing serious headaches in the regime. The attention that the United States bestowed on XXXXXXXXXXXX, first by publicly complaining when she was detained and roughed up and later by having the President respond to her questions, further fanned the fears that the blogger problem had gotten out of control.
The name redacted here unquestionably belongs to renowned Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was abducted and beaten in November of 2009 and conducted an email interview with US President Barack Obama shortly thereafter. In September of 2009, a USINT cable described a meeting between Sánchez and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bisa Williams in Havana, in which Sánchez told Williams that “[a]n improvement in relations with the United States is absolutely necessary for democracy to emerge [in Cuba.]”
Collectively, these and other cables suggest that for USINT, certain bloggers may come to represent a “next generation” of government critics and activists that the US government will likely seek to support, if it is not doing so already.
Rogelio M. Díaz at Bubusopía [es] wrote that he was glad that the US had recognized that Cuba’s future lies in the hands of Cuban youth, and not that of the “old guard” dissident community.
[Es] cierto que no nos sentimos para nada identificados con los fósiles de la contrarrevolución, los que venden al país por treinta monedas… [mientras] siguen apoyando el bloqueo…
[It’s] true that we do not at all identify with the fossils of the counterrevolution, those that are willing to sell their country for thirty coins… [who at the same time] continue to support the blockade…
But he was wary of the cables’ inference that bloggers could somehow replace, or serve the same purpose (however futile) as, traditional dissidents.
Jóvenes como yo, entonces, preferimos como ídolos…aquellos que…repelieron la vileza mercenaria con las armas en la mano…[y] continuaron trabajando y luchando con sus manos, su intelecto y su amor por construir un futuro mejor…
Young people like myself, then, prefer as idols…those who…fought off mercenary turpitude with arms in hand…[and] continued working and fighting with their hands, their intellect, and their love to construct a better future…
It is important to understand that these cables refer only to bloggers who are critical of the Castro government; the island’s very small independent blogging community represents a wide range of political positions, many of which support Cuban socialism and hope for positive change that will face challenges and strengthen the system as it stands. Blogs like Bubusopía represent an important part of this community. If they are truly interested in understanding the “conscience of Cuba,” it would behoove USINT officials to read all of these blogs in earnest, and to incorporate the significant diversity of opinions that they represent into their diplomatic discussions.
[1] A historically controversial institution, USINT is seen by most as a center for information gathering, and as a source of (unauthorized) support for dissidents, and of pro-US propaganda dissemination.
[2] Refers to the motives of USINT.
The charter97.org website is blocked
Charter 97: December 19, 2010
http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2010/12/19/34810/
Technical support service of the charter97.org website allows the possibility of the site being blocked by the state Internet-provider “Beltelecom”.
The authorities conduct the election according to the already used scenario. The charter97.org website is blocked during all the elections in Belarus before mass street protests of the opposition.
Independent Media Sites in Belarus Reportedly Hijacked During Election
http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2010/12/19/34820/
Belarus is holding an election today. This election is particularly important because Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, sometimes referred to as the ‘last dictator of Europe,’ has allowed a fair degree of freedom throughout the campaign, including giving free airtime on national TV to opposition candidates, during which they were allowed to criticize him without censorship.
However, it appears that Belarus is continuing in its mixed record of allowing free access to opposition Internet sites during elections. I am getting reports from a digital activist whom I trust of DDoS attacks against a number of sites, which is common during times of crisis in authoritarian countries. I can verify that the following sites have been inaccessible at times this morning: charter97.org, belaruspartisan.org ucpb.org. He is also reporting that international connections to ports 443 and 465 are being blocked, which will prevent users from securely posting content to international sites like facebook and twitter and from sending mail through international carriers like gmail (the blocking is apparently for all international sites, though, not just ones that may be offensive to the government).
Most interestingly, he reports that BELPAK, the Belarussian national ISP, has been silently redirecting requests from independent media sites to copies of those sites presumably run by pro-government actors, if not the government itself. So when a user requests gazetaby.com, the ISP hijacks the request and instead of returning the requested page returns a redirect for gazetaby.in. The fake site is almost identical to the originally requested site, and as of this post each fake site appears to contain all of the same stories as the original site. Presumably as election day goes on, though, the government will use the fake site to prevent publication of stories that it does not like (by merely not mirroring them onto the fake site). My source observed this behavior repeatedly this morning, but it has since stopped, so requests from within Belarus are currently going to the original sites. This behavior was reported for the following sites, with the following faked mirrors (which can be accessed as confirmation):original site fake site
gazetaby.com: gazetaby.in
charter97.org: charter97.in
nn.by nnby.in
belaruspartisan.org: belaruspartisan.in
ucpb.org ucpb.in
euroradio.fm: euroradio.in
Here’s a zip file of screenshots of each of the above sites, in case the fake sites are taken down.
I cannot verify that this activity was or is happening, but the mere presence of the mirrored sites under almost identical names is strong evidence of bad behavior by someone. My source is working directly with many of the sites listed above and so can verify that those mirrored sites are not being run by the site owners (running such mirrored sites under similar domain names is a very common form of DDoS resistance).
This practice of using a complex combination of different methods for controlling the Internet, particularly during times of crisis like an election or a protest, is very common (we will shortly release a report on DDoS attacks against independent media which includes the finding that independent media sites offer suffer from a range of different types of control rather than just filtering, just ddos, just hijacking, etc). Note above that several of the sites that have been subject to the hijacking described above have also been DDoS’d. It may or may not be the case that the actors DDoS’ing the sites are the same as the ones hijacking them (the hijacking is almost certainly the work of BELPAK, since they are the only ones with the ability to hijack requests as described above).
China erases picture of Nobel winner’s empty chair
NewsCore: December 13, 2010
The empty chair, diploma and medal that should have been awarded to Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. [Associated Press]
The Nobel ceremony was held in the City Hall in Oslo, Norway, last Friday night. [Associated Press]
CHINA has taken its suffocating censorship to a new level by erasing from an internet blog an image of the empty chair that highlighted the absence of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel laureate, from the peace prize ceremony in Oslo.
The image was removed only a few minutes after a lone Chinese blogger posted it on a popular website in defiance of the authorities.
Buoyed by Liu’s award, Chinese dissidents will no doubt be keeping censors busy in the coming days — the blue and white empty chair is set to become a powerful symbol and rallying point for resistance to the regime.
Already empty chairs have begun proliferating in cyberspace.
One image circulating online and via Twitter, the social networking site, showed a black chair in the shape of a human with handcuffs around the ankles.
“I think that they will remember the empty chair,” said Geir Lundestad, the Nobel committee secretary, after the Nobel medal was placed on the chair under a portrait of the 54-year-old Liu at Friday’s ceremony in Oslo.
Mr Liu, a writer, professor and human rights activist, could not attend because he was jailed in 2009 for 11 years for his campaign to bring more freedom to China.
China also prevented members of his family, including his wife, Liu Xia, from leaving the country to accept the medal on his behalf. A $1.4 million cash prize went uncollected.
Venezuela seeking to regulate Internet
Reuters: December 10, 2010
http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/venezuela-seeking-to-regulate-internet-1.999782
Venezuela plans to include the Internet in a law that regulates the media, under a proposed bill presented to parliament on Thursday that the opposition claims will result in censorship.
Manuel Villalba, a lawmaker from President Hugo Chavez’s Socialist Party, said the law was aimed at protecting citizens.
“Nowhere is the restriction of access to the Internet suggested. There should just exist protection of citizens’ moral and ethical honour,” said Villalba, who heads the National Assembly’s media commission.
The bill proposes applying limits on content in “electronic media” according to the time of day, with adult content reserved for programming after midnight.
Such limitations already are in place for TV and radio programming. It was not clear how they would be applied to the Internet .
The bill also proposes allowing the government to restrict access to websites if they are found to be distributing messages or information that incite violence against the president. Chavez frequently accuses the opposition of plotting to kill him.
Chavez has been criticised by media freedoms groups for forcing an opposition TV station off the air and taking away the licenses of dozens of radio stations.
The government says Venezuela’s elite uses the media to undermine Chavez and considers its own one-sided reporting of news as a legitimate response in a communications “war.”
Opposition politicians have previously warned that Chavez intends to copy web restrictions favoured by his ally Cuba, especially on social networks such as Twitter which are hugely popular with critics of the president.
Venezuela has taken a tough stance against people who spread false rumours on social networks but Chavez is an avid Twitter user and has more than 1 million followers to his account @chavezcandanga
