Growing up in Kashmir, by Karan Vaid Rollover images for slideshow controls Growing up in Kashmir The Idea of Kashmir in an average Indian’s mind is that of a paradise laid waste by the ill intentions and actions of unscrupulous individuals backed by a foreign power and supported by a section of the local population. What interested me was what people my age were doing, where were they hanging out, what were their aspirations, were they like me? I visited the nearest (and oldest) snooker “club”, and I found it filled with young college and unemployed youth at 12pm on a Tuesday afternoon. They told me how hopeless the situation is. Most of them live with family. “Things have improved…but not fast enough!” After three weeks, my fourth visit to this region comes to an end. Photographer: Karan Vaid Camera: Nikon D3s Website: obscuredmuse.wordpress.com / www.karanvaid.com
Oil drops 2%, logs first loss in seven sessions - Futures Movers By Myra P. Saefong and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures closed lower Wednesday to break a six-session climb, pressured by a sharply stronger U.S. dollar as traders kept a wary eye on Iran and its threat to disrupt oil shipments through a key shipping channel. After the close of the regular session, prices continued to decline in electronic trading immediately following a report from the American Petroleum Institute that showed a hefty, unexpected increase in last week’s crude inventories. Crude for February delivery shed $1.98, or 2%, to settle at $99.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had gained 1.7% on Tuesday to tally a six-session climb of 8.4%. 2011: A year in review 2011 was a year of conflict, a year of tragedy, and for some a year of hope. “Right now, it is all about Iran,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, editor in chief of the Kilduff Report. Bahrain-based U.S. API posts spike in crude supply US : U.S.: ICE Futures U.S.
The Perils of Journalism in Pakistan: Living in Fear of Intelligence Agents - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International Hamid Mir leans back in his office chair, staring at his moblie phone. "Afraid? Am I afraid?" "I have not seen a real bastard than you. Mir, 45, is one of Pakistan's most famous journalists. Some say Mir sympathizes with the Taliban, while others believe he is a CIA agent, an Israeli spy or that he supports India. Threat From Within But in Pakistan, the truth is risky. "In recent years colleagues were mainly the victims of terror attacks by separatist groups or radical parties," Mir says. Over the last year, however, the source of threats has altered dramatically. On Mir's Dec. 14 show, he discussed the question of whether General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, traveled to various Gulf states to gather support for a coup back home after a United States operation in the northern city of Abbottabad ended with the killing of Osama bin Laden. The affair in which Ijaz is wrapped up has rocked Pakistan. 'Living Dangerously' Blossoming Media Industry
The U.S. Government is Run by Liars, Like Their Drones Federal Employees Will Crash Politics / US PoliticsDec 27, 2011 - 02:15 AM GMT By: Gary_North The U.S. government is run by liars. Second, the U.S. government routinely violates laws. Let us not identify inaccurately the source of the foolishness. If people who run the government learned that, every time they did what looks like an utterly foolish thing, their department's budget were cut by (say) 2%, and yet they kept doing similar things, then they could reasonably be classified as fools. The drone incident is unquestionably a juicy example of incompetent lying. These days, the mark of not successfully lying your way out of a problem is this: Jon Stewart does a segment on you on The Daily Show. The CIA really does not care that the public figured out that the CIA lied about the drone. It grows at varying rates in different periods. The voters did not rise up in opposition. The voters are fools. But I digress. As Presidential speeches go, Ike's was arguably the greatest. He was like the sorcerer's apprentice.
India's Maoists Going Urban? Naxalites reportedly switching their attack to India’s cities India’s Naxalite rebels, for years bottled up in the poverty-stricken middle and eastern regions of the country, have forged a new strategy to infiltrate into India’s premier industrial hubs, intelligence officials say. According to the Union Home Ministry, the Maoists have formulated a major change in strategy designed to further expand out to target India’s commercial areas including the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, the country’s commercial capital of Mumbai and the diamond hubs of Surat and Vadodara. The intelligence officials say the new strategy is to zero in on the country’s vulnerable industrial pockets. Security agencies suggest that the Naxalites, formally known as the Communist Party of India (Maoist) are likely to further expand their turf through what they call a ‘Golden Corridor Committee.” The insurgents started their armed struggle in 1967 with a peasant revolt in Naxalbari village in West Bengal.
IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability The officials, citing secret intelligence provided over several years to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the records reinforce concerns that Iran continued to conduct weapons-related research after 2003 — when, U.S. intelligence agencies believe, Iranian leaders halted such experiments in response to international and domestic pressures. The U.N. nuclear watchdog is due to release a report this week laying out its findings on Iran’s efforts to obtain sensitive nuclear technology. Fears that Iran could quickly build an atomic bomb if it chooses to has fueled anti-Iran rhetoric and new threats of military strikes. Some U.S. arms-control groups have cautioned against what they fear could be an overreaction to the report, saying there is still time to persuade Iran to change its behavior. Iranian officials expressed indifference about the report. ‘Never really stopped’ Key outside assistance “It is unknown if it commenced or progressed as planned,” Albright said.
Mullah Omar: Last Man Standing Osama bin Laden is dead, but his close ally and Taliban chief Mullah Omar still complicates the future of Afghanistan. Anti-terrorism officials around the world last year chalked up some stellar success stories, capturing or killing a number of high-profile Islamic terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. Chief among them was obviously Osama bin Laden. But others included Omar Patek, the last of Jemaah Islamiyah’s senior leaders, who was arrested in Pakistan last January in the same town that bin Laden was captured in. But one man has eluded everyone for more than a decade. Since the September 11, 2001, strikes on New York and Washington, Mullah Mohammad Omar – the self-styled Imam and Taliban chief – has ranked among the world’s most wanted, alongside bin Laden who Omar for years helped harbor. The truth was, though, that the one-eyed cleric wasn’t actually on that list.
Iran speeding up nuclear program, U.N. inspectors say Iran appears to be accelerating key components of its nuclear program, installing more capable machines for enriching uranium and moving some equipment into underground bunkers less vulnerable to airstrikes, U.N. nuclear inspectors said in a report Friday. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also expressed “increasing concerns” about past — and possibly ongoing — research by Iranian scientists on nuclear warhead design, despite Iran’s repeated insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful. The report, based on inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities last month, repeated a litany of complaints about stonewalling by Iranian officials who have refused to allow access to key facilities or provide details about plans to build as many as 10 nuclear facilities across the country. Iran’s defiance has helped fuel fears that it is working secretly toward becoming a nuclear power.
Editorial: CIA agents in Pakistan by Najam Sethi These are difficult times for professional journalists in Pakistan. Eleven were killed last year in the line of duty. They were either caught in the crossfire of ethnic or extremist violence or targeted and eliminated by state and non-state groups for their political views. Saleem Shehzad, for example, was abducted, tortured and killed last year and a commission of inquiry is still floundering in murky waters. Now an insidious campaign is afoot to target senior journalists who question the wisdom of the security establishment on a host of thorny issues. If you say the military's notion of "strategic depth" in Afghanistan is misplaced, outdated or counter-productive, you are a CIA agent. If you say the military was either complicit or incompetent in the OBL-Abbottabad case, you are a CIA agent. If you say that the civilians should have control over the military as stipulated in the constitution, you are a CIA agent.
Israel’s Secret Iran Attack Plan: Electronic Warfare We’re treated to a whole new Arya during the premiere episode of HBO’s fantasy epic—one “whose heart is now black,” says the star who plays her. [WARNING: SPOILERS] Game of Thrones is back. And, while every episode of HBO’s sprawling fantasy epic has its breakout character, the unequivocal star of the Season 4 premiere, “Two Swords,” is none other than Arya Stark, played by Maisie Williams. When we last left Arya, she was riding with Sandor Clegane, aka The Hound (Rory McCann), to places unknown, when the duo came across a gang of four Frey soldiers eating at a campfire. Arya overhears the grunts mocking the deaths of her mother, Lady Catelyn, and brother, Robb. During the final fifteen minutes of “Two Swords,” Arya and The Hound come across Polliver and his cronies. Arya finally gets her revenge. “Something wrong with your leg, boy?” The Daily Beast sat down with 16-year-old Maisie Williams, who plays Arya, to discuss her character’s stunning transformation. I am so thrilled as well.
U.S., Israel Discuss Triggers for Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Infrastructure The Obama administration is trying to assure Israel privately that it would strike Iran militarily if Tehran’s nuclear program crosses certain “red lines”—while attempting to dissuade the Israelis from acting unilaterally. Eli Lake reports exclusively. When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opined earlier this month that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could “consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret,” the Israelis went ballistic behind the scenes. Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, lodged a formal diplomatic protest known as a demarche. And the White House was thrust into action, reassuring the Israelis that the administration had its own “red lines” that would trigger military action against Iran, and that there is no need for Jerusalem to act unilaterally. The stakes are immensely high, and the distrust that Israelis feel toward the president remains a complicating factor.
U.S. Fifth Fleet says won't allow Hormuz disruption | World By Parisa Hafezi and Humeyra Pamuk TEHRAN/DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it would not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the world's most important oil route. "Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated," the Bahrain-based fleet said in an e-mail. Iran, at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear programme, said on Tuesday it would stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if sanctions were imposed on its crude exports. "Closing the Strait of Hormuz for Iran's armed forces is really easy ... or as Iranians say, it will be easier than drinking a glass of water," Iran's navy chief Habibollah Sayyari told Iran's English-language Press TV on Wednesday.
Iran warns of closing strategic Hormuz oil route TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's navy chief warned Wednesday that his country can easily close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the passageway through which a sixth of the world's oil flows. It was the second such warning in two days. On Tuesday, Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strait, cutting off oil exports, if the West imposes sanctions on Iran's oil shipments. In response, the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet's spokeswoman warned that any disruption "will not be tolerated." With concern growing over a possible drop-off in Iranian oil supplies, a senior Saudi oil official said Gulf Arab nations are ready to offset any loss of Iranian crude. That reassurance led to a drop in world oil prices. "Closing the Strait of Hormuz is very easy for Iranian naval forces," Adm. The threats underline Iranian concern that the West is about to impose new sanctions that could target Tehran's vital oil industry and exports. The U.S.
» Ofcom Censors Iranian State Television Alex Jones Press TV December 28, 2011 Britain’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) has imposed a 100,000-pound fine on Press TV for what it calls the breach of the regulator’s rule. Ofcom has also decided to remove the Iranian English-language news channel from the Sky platform under the pretext that Press TV made administrative errors in its application for a license in 2007. Following is the response of Press TV’s CEO, Dr. Mohammad Sarafraz, to Ofcom: This letter is written in response to your government-controlled organization’s decision to ban Press TV’s broadcast in a desperate effort to silence an alternative voice in the UK. Your decision to remove Press TV from the Sky platform was made after confidential documents from the US Embassy in London about Washington and London’s concerted effort to block Press TV in Britain were leaked. Press TV broadcast live the Israeli regime’s attack against the people of Gaza and the military invasion of the Strip. Print this page. 545 Tyrants Run Our Lives