The Taliban on the March

Only shortly before the presidential elections in Afghanistan, the Taliban staged an assault on ISAF headquarters in Kabul center. According to Western media, about 70% of the country are already under Taliban control.
I am using that opportunity to propagate further news on recent Taliban activity in Pakistan as has been reported by ARTE TV on August 6, 2009.

The Taliban commander of Northern Pakistan stated in an interview that further attacks by Pakistani troops would only lead to a seize of power by the Taliban in Peshawar and other places. He said that U.S. president Obama who is in charge of any U.S. bombardment in the region would be looked at as an enemy and would be dealt with sooner or later.




"In my language we have a saying: The black dog is the white dog's brother. And Barack Obama is still an infidel. If its Allah's will, we'll get rid of him very fast."

As the ARTE report proved, Taliban activity is even spreading to Southern Pakistan. Such, an Islamic school in the slums of Karachi is obviously engaged in preparing children to join the fight against Pakistani military. One of the Taliban instructors confirmed that children are most useful tools in their fight.



"The children come with us because they enjoy our weapons. At the beginning they don't use the weapons.They simply follow us as they are still too small. If we are decided to fight, Allah is providing the means. Children are the tools to fulfill the will of Allah."


At the same time, General Gul who is in charge of security for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal says that his country's nuclear weapons are safe. As we already know from Al-Qaeda's No. 3 (*), his organisation would not hesitate to use such weapons against the U.S. if they fell into their hands.

* => refer to an earlier blog-post Al-Qaeda: News from the Underground

中国的内战

中国的内战

乌鲁木齐的骚乱=>请看到几个影片！

Al-Qaeda: News from the Underground

Only some hours ago, Al-Jazeera TV published an interview with Al-Qaeda's No. 3, Mustafa Abul-Yazeed. Abul-Yazeed already became known as the chief financial officer of Al-Qaeda. Like No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, he originally came from Egypt where he had been jailed over the assassination of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

Let's remember: It was Sadat who once chased away the Soviets from their naval base near Alexandria and who began peace talks with Israel. Even though, that might have won him enemies enough, it was his attempt to come to peaceful terms with the Egyptian "brotherhood" of militant Muslims which finally broke his neck. After he had been murdered during a military parade, by soldiers who suddenly turned the cannon of their armoured vehicle towards the president's seat, it was the new president Mubarak who took revenge on the Muslim brotherhood and established his own dictatorship, stabilized by a status quo between Egypt and Israel and friendly relations with all U.S. administrations to come.

Years later, men like Zawahiri and Abul-Yazeed who had already survived persecution and torture in the post-Sadat era, finally became the heart and backbone of an Islamic terror organisation, called Al-Qaeda, under the guidance of their spiritual leader Ousama Bin Laden, an offspring of a wealthy and politically connected Saudi-Arabian dynasty who had become fed up with the hypocrisy of his social class.

Now, Abul-Yazeed is showing up on TV, and what he tells us about a possible "peace with the U.S." which he would not totally exclude, sounds like an Islamic treatment of infidels during the Middle Ages. If they can't decide to surrender to the Muslimic faith, after having given up all actions against the Muslimic community and after a decade of ceasefire given to them for consideration, they would either have to pay a "tax" for unbelievers or become again engaged in warfare with the army of Allah.

Well, to me it seems as if there are some people in the remote mountains of Central Asia who have been there too long . Just another argument for the Western Alliance to withdraw their troops. Maybe such kind of thinking can become contageous with the diastrous results we experienced under the late Bush administration.

Leave the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan alone to handle their matters because any interference from abroad will only serve to make things more difficult to them !

What seems to be more dangerous is Abul-Yazeed's stance on Pakistan's nuclear weapons: "By God's will, the Americans will not seize the Muslims' nuclear weapons and we pray that the Muslims will have these weapons and they will be used against the Americans."
These words should be seen in the frame of a very short distance between the actual fighting zones and Pakistani nuclear facilities. Even though, nuclear weapons might be well guarded, there's a strong risk of Al-Qaeda using so-called "dirty bombs". Such bombs are nothing else but conventional weapons that have been "enriched" with the dust of uranium minerals coming from the Central Asian "uranium belt". As I earlier described on my Chinese website, there's a high density of uranium deposits distributed all over Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most efficient uranium mines can be found in the war zones of Afghanistan, still held by the Taliban. Others on the Pakistani side are still in use to extract uranium (Southern Pakistan) while others have been closed for fear of Al-Qaeda and their Taliban friends (Northern Pakistan). And, by the way, what else might be Tora Bora, famous stronghold of Ousama Bin Laden during the first chapter of the "war against terrorism", than a fortified uranum mine, most probably built with U.S. help years before. Whatever my readers might believe or not, there's strong evidence about that anyway.

To my mind, that problem can only be solved by a tight international control of the uranium sites in the frame of multilateral treaties, profitable to the peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan and serving the reconstruction of their countries. Such, every interested member of the international community like China and Japan could take part in the exploitation of uranium without resorting to political hypocrisy. This would make sense as it cannot be denied that nuclear fuels will still be needed by many nations to ensure their energy supply during the first decades of the 21st century.

Obama and the Islamic Communityأوباما و الجماعة الإسلامية

هذا الأسبوع في القاهرة: الرئيس الأميركي أوباما و الجماعة الإسلامية

This week in Cairo: U.S. president Obama and the Islamic community. A new evaluation of U.S. relations towards the world of Islam. Read Obama's complete Cairo speech as published by Al-Jazeera. ARABIC

أسامة بن لادن يتهم باراك أوباما في تسجيل صوتي جديد

Osama Bin Laden in his latest sound record: Accusing President Obama. ARABIC / تسجيل صوتي جديد

Here's my own translation of some important stances made by Osama Bin Laden in his latest tape record. It is based on the Arabic transcription published by Al-Jazeera:

و اتهم بن لادن في التسجيل إدارة الرئيس أوباما و نظيره الباكستاني بتدبير الحملة العسكرية التي تخوضها القوات الباكستانية ضد مقاتلي طالبان بمنعهم ".بوادي سوات "من تطبيق الشريعة بالقتل و القتال

On that distributed tape, Bin Laden accused President Obama and his Pakistani colleague for organizing the military campaign that engaged Pakistani forces against the Taliban, those who are now being suject to bloody fighting in the Swat valley, when they enforced the prohibition "of applying Islamic Sharia law in case of murder and slaughtering."

وقال إن إدارة أوباما "بذرت بذورا جديدة لكراهية الأميركيين يبلغ عددها عدد المشردين والمتضررين من وادي سوات ومناطق القبائل في شمالي وجنوبي وزيرستان

And he said that the Obama administration "is sowing new gossip of hatred against the U.S. that is being spread among a multitude of refugees and victims from Swat valley and from the tribal regions of, both, North and South Waziristan."

وأضاف أنه "بذا يكون أوباما قد سار على خطوات سلفه بزيادة الاستعداء للمسلمين والاستكثار من الأعداء المقاومين ومؤسسا لحروب طويلة الأمد

And he added that "it was detesting when Obama put confidence, once again, into following the old footsteps (of his predecessor) which outraged all Muslims, increased the number of resisting enemies and founded the basis of long lasting wars."

ودعا بن لادن "الشعب الأميركي ليواصل جني ما يزرعه زعماء البيت الأبيض خلال السنين والعقود القادمة

And Bin Laden swore "the American people would continue to earn what have sown the leaders of the White House during the following years and decades." Ulysses / Wolfgang Wiesner

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News related to this subject:

June 3, 2009:
Al-Jazeera is mentioning about 2.4 million refugees that are
fleeing the war zone of the Swat valley in the border region
between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

June 3, 2009:
According to a recent Gallup Poll, the approval of U.S. leadership
has risen in the Arabic key states of Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and Syria.


June 10, 2009:
A detonation in front of a five star hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan,
left 11 dead and 50 wounded, foreigners included.

GERMANY: The Enemy From Within

Only some hours ago, German National TV (ARD) had the news that a former East German State Security ("Stasi") agent and "GDR" state party (SED) member was behind the murder of a certain West Berlin student Benno Ohnesorg.

About 40 years ago, Ohnesorg took part in a demonstration against the Shah of Persia, Reza Pahlevi, who was then visiting Berlin. The innocent student was cornered by the West Berlin policeman Kurras, now identified as an East German mole, and shot dead in a quiet dark place in the neighbourhood of the turmoil.

At the time, it seemed the real circumstances of this crime were not evaluated properly by the authorities, but the death of Ohnesorg triggered off an escalation of the students' protest which had already begun on a rather low level. A video on the background of the Ohnesorg murder, commented by Ulrike Meinhof, later leader of the RAF terrorist group, showed how deeply the impact of that crime influenced the West German students' movement and their protagonists. Even many regular citizens, regarded as "completely unpolitical", were shocked.



Therefore, it can be stated that the crime of a Stasi mole almost helped to turn the Federal Republic of Germany into turmoil:

An escalation of open protest, abduction and bloody murder of West German politicians and "celebrities" of the economic elite followed. And many years later, after terrorism had been stopped and the German reunification had been achieved, we heard to our great astonishment that RAF terrorists had always found a save haven in the East German Republic. Even though there had been a few East German citizens who put at risk their very existence when they informed West German authorities about such puzzling things as: "One of those guys from your "wanted" poster is living in my neighbourhood, just around the corner", there was no action to follow as nobody would believe them.

And after the reunification, insiders and Stasi victims who requested a better control of the former East German state security members found it difficult to make their position heard. In fact, it was the time of "appeasement", opened by the Federal Chancellor Kohl whom the reunification helped to survive at least for some further years. If he and his Minister of the Interior had had to decide, all documents of the former East German state security would have been destroyed.

It was in Bavaria where the local government was finally forced to stop Stasi activities when some remnants from the grey empire tried to take over control of Munich airport under the cover of private security services.

Now we've got another proof of how dangerous those people really have been and still are. Therefore, it would be wise for the Western intelligence community to provide our country with all the knowledge they have about former East German State Security. Especially U.S. services are requested to do so because it was them who seem to know most about the GDR....


Former RAF leader Ulrike Meinhof speaking in the aftermath of the Ohnesorg murder (above). Here's what she said: "When the Shah of Persia came to the Federal Republic, we didn't know much about Iran, we didn't know much about our own country either. But when the students took to the streets to make known the truth about Persia, took to the streets because another public stage was not available to them, the truth about the country we live in turned out as well. We found out that it was impossible to receive the head of a police state without being a sympathizer of the police state itself."

To read a German press report - click here !
Title: The Shot that Changed the Federal Republic

my personal view:
If all creativity East German Security developed to police its own people, to spy the West and to incite mistrust within our West German society, if all that creativity had been used instead to the well-being of its people and to the benefit of the East German economy, that small and shabby GDR would never have collapsed so miserably in 1989. Ulysses

Official U.S. Visitors to Cuba

Update for April 23, 2009, further down !


Yesterday, Barbara Lee, U.S. Congresswoman of California and her delegation visited Cuba's leader Fidel Castro and his brother Raoul.


They are representing a group of progressive Democratic Congressmen and women of Afro-American origin, often related with Cuban affairs. Their meetings have become known as the "Caucus of Black Congressmen" (CBC / Spanish: Caucus Negro Congresional). Even though its not for the first time that coloured members of the U.S. Congress held talks with Cuban officials, such events have always been extremely rare and restricted to a few members of Congress.

The CBC, founded in January 1969 by the first 12 coloured Congressmen elected, actually has reached a number of 42 members.



Once again, we become witness of Fidel Castro's steadily advancing physical decay that doesn't hinder him to write articles for the Cuban media. In a message of greeting he expresses his wish to enable an objective judgement about the sensitive relations between Cuba and the U.S. under the rule of Barack Obama by giving as much information as possible intended to state the public opinion in his country.


Recent statements by Fidel and Raoul Castro:
"We don't fear talks with the U.S." (Fidel)
"Many of our people never experienced anything else than living under the embargo that is meanwhile lasting fifty years. They will therefore be able to live under the embargo for another fifty years." (Raoul)


One member of the Caucus delegation said that despite Obama's victory the Northamerican society will continue to be a racist society. And Obama should be seen as the only opportunity for his nation to make progress and step over the rubble accumulated by earlier administrations.

April 13, 2009 :

Once again, the Latin-American alliance is showing its face when Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, is consulting his friend Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, during his hunger strike and which is intended to help change the actual system of legislative powers in Bolivia. At the same time, Fidel Castro, still far from being dead, has published an article in support of Evo Morales' policy.



April 20, 2009 :

While the Conference on the Americas is ending on Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. President Barack Obama calls for a new era of partnership. It seems that background talks have taken place as Venezuela declares it "will restore an envoy to the U.S.".




April 23, 2009 :

On April 23, Daniel Ortéga, President of Nicaragua, made his appearance in the regular transmission of "Mesa Redonda" (round table) on Cuba satellite TV. His subject was the Conference on the Americas and Obama's new policy of change.
Ortéga stated that the final document, released by the conference, didn't express at all what his country as well as his allies really expected. Instead, it was nothing more than a mere sign of "business as usual". Even the economic blockade of Cuba, openly rejected by an overwhelming majority of the United Nations General Assembly, didn't appear as an essential subject on the agenda. Such, Obama's "policy of change" should be questioned.



Another brandnew article by Fidel Castro (above) on Obama and the economic blockade of Cuba.

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Comment by Blueprint editor:

After his inauguration in January 2009, U.S. President Obama was forced to deal with all kinds of urgent affairs. The speed of pushing forward his political ideas has even become a subject of public discussion, when recent opinion polls proved that many U.S. citizens feared his style of handling things could mean "doing too much and doing it too fast". No wonder that Vice-President Biden answered a question about the abolishment of economic sanctions
on Cuba with the words: "Cuba isn't on the agenda yet".

Only shortly after Obama's order to close all CIA run detainee camps, including that of Guantánamo Bay, and his decision to open CIA memos (April 22) on how political detainees were treated in those camps, it should make no sense for Cuba's leadership to insist on its maximum demand of giving back Guantánamo Bay to the people of Cuba and lifting the blockade. Both things might follow sooner or later. But to increase the actual pressure on Obama who is now struggling against the reactionary hardliners of his own country on all levels of daily politics, will almost certainly reach the contrary of its goal. Cuba and its allies could easily become known as the "notorious moaners" of their region. Wolfgang Wiesner, April 23, 2009.

The Inauguration of U.S. President Obama

President Obama leaving his car at 4:05 pm on
his way from Capitol Hill to the White House:


Obama together with vice-president Biden:


Satellite image of gathering masses:


BRANDNEW at BLUEPRINT magazine:
The World of Superobama (political cartoons)

Happy New Year 2009

... from Havana (00:00 local time / 06:00 GMT)
2009 - 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution


... from U.S. station CNN (00:00 local time for Denver, Salt Lake City, Calgary / 07:00 GMT / earliest CNN reception in Europe)


... from Berlin (00:00 CET)


... from London (00:00 GMT)



.. and hours before from Sydney (left) and Hongkong (right)

ISRAEL'S GAZA BLITZKRIEGThe Beginning of the End ?

News of the Day (latest update further down!)

Already 360 Palestinians killed and 1.700 wounded on the fourth day of Israel's attack on Gaza have incited anti-Israeli rallies around the world:

Manifestations in Beirut as well as Amman/Jordan where 25.000 rose in protest.

Egypt now opens its border to Gaza for the rescue of wounded Palestinians.

The Muslim majority of Indonesia's 220 million inhabitants opposes Israel's Gaza attack, says Professor Bahtiar Effendy from Islamic State University, Jakarta.

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UPDATE (January 4, 2009):

Meanwhile, the figure of Palestinians killed has risen to more than 500. Many Palestinian families lost their homes while Israel's army joint their airforce and navy in the merciless bombardment when it passed the border to separate Gaza City from the rest of the Gaza strip. Voices from all over the world, including the UN Security Council, are demanding Israel to stop the bloodshed.

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UPDATE (January 11, 2009):

Latest overall toll of casualties :
January 10 (day 15 of war) - 830 Palestinians killed - 3350 wounded.
January 11 (day 16 of war) - 888 Palestinians killed - 4080 wounded.
13 Israelis killed since war on Gaza began. [All data from Al-Jazeera International]


Israeli bombing of tunnels crossing the Gaza-Egypt border. Those tunnels are being used for smuggling of goods (including cattle !) and weapons:
300-600 tunnels
8-20 m deep
200-1.000 m long

Israel is accused of using white phosphorus in its bombs. Burning phosphorus is known to inflict serious wounds when coming in contact with the human body. A similar devastating effect could be achieved by napalm which the U.S. applied in Vietnam against, both, guerillas and civilists.

Indonesia: 50.000 protest against the war on Gaza.

While U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's presidency is approaching, Israel's president Olmert declares "Israeli military close to fulfilling their goals in Gaza".


As Israel is able to apply nuclear weapons, voices are getting louder that it might plan to use those weapons against Iran, best equipped enemy to the Jewish state. U.S. authorities lately denied a report saying they received a request from Jerusalem for additional weapons.

---

UPDATE (January 14-15, 2009):

Latest overall toll of casualties :
January 15 (day 20 of war) - 1078 Palestinians killed - more than 5.000 wounded.

Israel accused of shelling UN headquarters in Gaza City while UN general secretary Ban Ki-Moon is holding talks with the Israeli government. Israeli shell hits marked UN vehicle in Gaza.

Gaza's media building hit by Israeli shelling.
Red Crescent hospital in Gaza City hit by Israel.

Voices of the World: Enough is Enough ! يكفي

Qatar calls for emergency summit on Gaza truce.
Israel questions legality of UN emergency meeting.


Venezuela and Bolivia break diplomatic ties with Israel.
Iran is discussing war on Israel.

Oussama Bin Laden (January 14, 2009) is calling for a Holy War on Israel.
بن لادن يدعو للجهاد لوقف العدوان الإسرائيلي على غزة



NHK World TV, Tokyo, (January 14) is discussing the development that led to the current situation: After Hamas won the Palestinian general elections in 2006, differences with its moderate counterpart Fatah increased, thus, resulting in clashes between both groups in 2007. Since then, Gaza has been controlled by Hamas while the former Westbank territory is being ruled by Fatah. Rockets have been launched on Israel from the Gaza strip, steadily but on a low scale, until Israel decided a "bombing out" of Hamas activists from Gaza. A few rockets have even been launched from Lebanon by a small number of Hamas supporters while Lebanese Hizbollah activists were not involved at all.

---

UPDATE (January 19, 2009):

While Israeli troops are being withdrawn from Gaza, only hours before U.S. president Obama's inauguration, here's the provisional statistics of human casualties among the Palestinian population and of material damage made to their infrastructure.
The death toll of Palestinians cannot be finally determined at this moment as the rubbles of Palestinian homes are just going to be fully removed. The total assessment of human and material damage could therefore last some further days. By the way, about 100.000 Palestinians have been displaced by the war.
When it comes to the evaluation of Israeli losses in the 22 days lasting war: 13 Israelis are reported to be killed, including three civilians.

Israeli Atrocities Reported

The following images show the urban areas of Gaza that have been shelled by Israeli troops during the last days. Local witnesses in the Rafah area (Gaza's southern border to Egypt) told Al-Jazeera that most damage to houses, plantations and water irrigation devices has been done by Israeli troops while they withdrew from Gaza territory after fighting had ended.
A desperate father reported to Al-Jazeera that his family was ordered by megaphone to leave their home. When they did so, while carrying a white flag, his children were shot from a distance of about ten metres by an Israeli soldier who let their father alive. Images from destroyed homes show Israeli graffiti reading like: "We are the good guys. Yours are the bad ones."

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Comment: The Beginning of the End ?

Even though the dead and the wounded are on the Palestinian side now, this attack might turn out to be the beginning of the end of the state of Israel. As foreign support, even from the U.S., is steadily dwindling, Israel might find itself isolated sooner or later while Palestinian rage is steadily rising as well. On the military side, well-equipped Islamic nations could get into trouble when it comes to maintain a half-hearted "neutrality" towards Israel while essential parts of their population are more and more fiercely opposing that neutrality and pressing their governments for immediate action. Not to mention Iran that seems to be the most decided and most dangerous enemy of Israel. Thus, a situation could emerge in a near future when sufficient military power against Israel comes together with a decreasing international support for that country which has been seen by its neighbours as the origin of conflict since the very moment it came into being. The day to come, even Israel's nuclear potential might lose its scaring power. [December 30, 2008]

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UPDATE (March 26, 2009):

EPILOGUE

An Israeli airstrike in Sudan is reported by Al-Jazeera. The airstrike targeted a convoy that allegedly transported arms from its Sudanese shipping port, Port Sudan, to the Egyptian frontier with Gaza.
While U.S. Africa Command denied any participation in that military action, Israeli government sources launched a statement that confirmed, Israel would hit their enemies whereever it might be necessary. Up to now, the Sudanese government denied any knowledge of that incident on its territory.


At the same time the use of phosphorous in Israeli grenades during the latest Gaza incursion has become a subject of the public debate on Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Earlier reports by Al-Jazeera already showed evidence that Palestinian civilians and their property had been targeted willfully by Israeli forces during the Gaza offensive (look above).

On March 26, 2009 as well, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi-Arabia, Freeman, confirmed the existence of a strong influence of the pro-Israel lobby in his country under the Bush administration and denied the existance of any pro-Arab lobby. He pointed out that, according to president Obama, such kind of lobbyism should play no further role under the new administration. [Interview by Al-Jazeera]