Asia

NOVANEWS   Posted By: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC   By Hanan Habibzai (Editor’s note:  In 2001 Americans and their Tajik allies slaughtered 2,000 POWS in Northern Afghanistan, a barbaric war crime.  Veterans Today calls for an investigation of this act, those who ordered it and those who covered it up.  The first group of names, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, we all know.  There are more…) The war in Afghanistan has entered its 10th year, a year of both stalemate and suffering.Everyone is thirsty to see peace and stability in his or her environment across Afghanistan but they are not sure.  Even the idea of peace carries great danger. “If the war criminals who tried to destroy innocent families who worked with the Taliban gain power, returning to peace will be...

NOVANEWS   Posted By: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC   by Asif Haroon Raja   Pak-US relations have seen many ups and downs starting early 1950s when Pakistan decided to join western pacts and became a US ally. Despite that the US embraced Pakistan on need basis only and dumped it when its regional objectives were served, Pakistan has remained attached to USA. Anomalous relationship has survived on account of choice of the ruling coterie and not that of the people. The latest romance between the two countries grew up in the aftermath of 9/11 after a decade old estrangement. Gen Musharraf suffering from legitimacy bug forgot about America’s repeated betrayals and willingly pushed Pakistan into the deceptive lap of USA. He gullibly accepted false assurances of US le...

NOVANEWS   by Asif Haroon Raja     Unmanned drones were first used by the US military in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina for surveillance purpose. Currently drones are being employed against combatant civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Unmanned drones are supplementing aerial attacks by jets and gunship helicopters and cruise missiles. Prof Marc W. Harold writes in his article that future US wars in third world will involve massive drones to police territory. It will employ local satrap forces, like Karzai forces, and once the territory is pacified sufficiently, it will deploy government-ready-to-rule kits. It is typical of American style war where only opponents and civilians die, but this kind of technological warfare can only be carried out upon weak ...

NOVANEWS   Insists Strikes Part of His ‘Fundamental Responsibility’ by Jason Ditz antiwar.com According to officials familiar with the conversation, CIA Director Leon Panetta rejected demands from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence head Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha to end drone strikes against his nation and scale back operations beyond those coordinated with the ISI itself. The officials said the multi-hour talks ended with Panetta insisting the drone strikes were part of his “fundamental responsibility” and that they would continue. He also apparently rejected the other calls, insisting the US government would do whatever it thinks is in its interest in the region. Despite rejecting every single demand of Pasha, CIA spokesmen insisted that the talk was “productive” and prove...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross Pakistani Officials Slam Latest Attack Against South Waziristan by Jason Ditz Though Pakistani officials were quite clear on Monday in their demand that the US put its entire drone strike program “on hold” for the foreseeable future, drones were active again today in South Waziristan, attacking a village and killing at least six people. The Zardari government had long been a tacit supporter of such strikes. The ugly number of recent incidents, as well as anger over the Raymond Davis affair and its subsequent revelation that a number of US spies were operating in Pakistan beyond the ones cooperating officially with the government, however, have sparked a backlash. Now it is not just cabinet ministers but Pakistan’s powerful military establishment maki...