The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf’s avowed goal to reach the Waziristan area in Pakistan to protest against US drone attacks was never fulfilled, even as the political party announced it had achieved its goal. What were the goals that the PTI set out to achieve and what role did US peace activists play in it? In this radio report listen to two perspectives: Robert Naiman, travelling with the US peace delegation in D.I. Khan told John Grebe of Greater Boston’s WZBC radio that the peace rally was the way through which real change could begin. The author offered her perspective on a more complex situation in Pakistan. She is also interviewed about her book, Aboard the Democracy Train.
Pakistani military blocks anti-drone convoy from entering tribal region
Dera Ismail Khan, Oct 7 – Leading a convoy of thousands, the former cricketer was within striking distance of South Waziristan, where the CIA uses remote-controlled planes in the fight against Islamist militants, when he abruptly turned back.
Later Khan said he had changed plan because of warnings from the army and the risk of becoming stuck after the military-imposed curfew.
Addressing an impromptu rally of his supporters, he said the convoy had still been a huge success because he had gone to areas his political rivals “can only look at on maps”.
“We want to give a message to America that the more you carry out drone attacks, the more people will hate you,” Khan told the crowd of around 2,500 supporters. But after two days of travel, the U-turn seemed to surprise some, including a senior party official who got out of his car on the heat-baked roadside surrounded by arid scrubland and declared he had no idea what was going on.
Others expressed anger, saying Khan was more interested in using the event to burnish his popularity before a general election due at some point in the next six months.
“I am very disappointed,” said Khalil Khan Dawar, an oil industry worker who had travelled all day to get to the edge of the tribal agency. “We had to get to South Waziristan. For him this is not just about drones, it is about popularity and elections.”
Some have also questioned the relevance of Kotkai, the town in South Waziristan where Khan hoped to hold his rally, to the drone debate. Most drone attacks now take place in North Waziristan, and Pakistani army efforts to wrest control from militants have forced many of Kotkai’s residents to leave.
The abandonment of the much-publicised attempt to reach Kotkai was the second sudden change of plan on the same day. Earlier Khan had appeared to reassure a largely female delegation of the US peace group Code Pink that there would be no attempt to enter the tribal areas and that instead a rally would be held in the town of Tank.
By midday it was decided to push on regardless, apparently out of a desire not to disappoint the throngs of people who had joined his convoy along the road from the capital, Islamabad. That was despite the all-too evident disapproval of authorities who had placed shipping containers across the road at three different points.
The vehicles, including buses crammed with supporters waving the red and green flag of Khan’s political party, ground to a halt as throngs of protesters worked to push the obstacles out of the way, in one instance destroying a small building in the process.
Indignities and discomforts are nothing new to the mostly middle-aged and female activists of Code Pink, some of whom have been arrested while campaigning against US drone strikes. But being trapped on a bus travelling towards Pakistan’s tribal areas proved too much even for the most hardened of campaigners. “We had only one toilet break in nine hours,” said Medea Benjamin, leader of the 35-strong team of Americans who had agreed to join Khan on the march. They chose not to continue into, in the words of Benjamin, a “chaotic” situation.
To add to their miseries, their minders urged them to stay behind the curtains of their bus – emblazoned on its side with huge images of people killed by drone strikes – throughout much of the journey, particularly in many of the areas affected by militant groups. “It was hard for these people because they are protesters and they wanted to get out there,” said Shahzad Akbar, a lawyer who was looking after the group. “But there’s no way we are going to let them get out in some of those towns!”
Billed as a protest against drone strikes, which Khan and his supporters claim kill large numbers of innocent civilians as well as flouting Pakistan’s sovereignty, the procession had the feel of a political rally on wheels. Many of the vehicles eschewed anti-drone slogans and instead carried pictures of PTI politicians anxious to be included on the party’s official ticket in the upcoming elections.
Teenage School activist survives attack by Taliban
KARACHI, Oct 9— A Taliban gunman shot and seriously wounded a 14-year-old schoolgirl and activist in the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, singling out a widely known champion of girls’ education and a potent symbol of resistance to militant ideology.
The attack occurred in Mingora, the valley’s main town, when masked gunmen stopped a bus carrying schoolgirls who had just taken an exam and sought out the 14-year-old, Malala Yousafzai, shooting her twice.
Ms. Yousafzai, who won a national peace prize last year, was shot in the head and the neck, while two other people on the bus suffered lighter injuries, local health officials said. After emergency treatment, Ms. Yousafzai was taken by helicopter to a military hospital in the provincial capital, Peshawar, where doctors said she was in stable but critical condition late Tuesday.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying Ms. Yousafzai had been targeted for her criticism of the Taliban and because it considered her human rights campaigning to be an “obscenity.”
“She has become a symbol of Western culture in the area; she was openly propagating it,” a Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said by phone from an undisclosed location. “She considers Obama as her ideal leader.”
The Taliban publicly placed Ms. Yousafzai on its assassination hit list this spring. Mr. Ehsan added that if she survived, the militants would try to kill her again. “Let this be a lesson,” he said.
Although militant violence is a daily occurrence in Pakistan, the assault on an eloquent schoolgirl, who sprang to public attention in 2009 by documenting her determination to continue school under the Taliban, sent shock waves across Pakistan.
“She symbolizes the brave girls of Swat,” said Samar Minallah, a documentary filmmaker who has worked extensively in Swat. “She knew her voice was important, so she spoke up for the rights of children. Even adults didn’t have a vision like hers.”
Girls’ education in Pakistan has been a rallying cry against the Taliban for some here. In other districts close to the Afghan border, militants have shut down schools in recent years as a way of demonstrating their defiance of the national government.
Mustafa Qadri, a Pakistan researcher with Amnesty International, said the attack on Ms. Yousafzai “highlights the extremely dangerous climate many human rights activists face in northwestern Pakistan, where female activists in particular live under constant threats from the Taliban and other militant groups.”
Fazal Rabbi, a family friend in Swat, described Ms. Yousafzai as a girl of “extraordinary qualities.” In Parliament, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf urged his countrymen to battle the “mind-set” behind such attacks. “She is our daughter,” he said.
On the Internet, the country’s beleaguered progressives seethed with frustration and anger. “Come on, brothers, be REAL MEN. Kill a school girl,” one media commentator, Nadeem F. Paracha, said in an acerbic Twitter post.
Ms. Yousafzai came to public attention in 2009 as the Pakistani Taliban swept through Swat, a picturesque valley once famed for its culture of music and tolerance and as a destination for honeymooning couples.
Her father ran one of the last schools to defy Taliban orders to end female education. As an 11-year-old, his daughter Malala — named after a mythic female figure in Pashtun culture — wrote an anonymous blog documenting her experiences for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
“I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban,” she wrote in one post titled “I Am Afraid.”
Later in 2009, the army launched a sweeping operation against the Taliban in the area, displacing many militants into neighboring districts or across the border into Afghanistan.
Ms. Yousafzai continued to grow in prominence, becoming a powerful voice for the rights of children in the conflict-affected area. In 2011, she was nominated for an International Children’s Peace Prize; later, Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister at the time, awarded her Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize.
In recent months, she led a delegation of children’s rights activists, sponsored by Unicef, that made representations to provincial politicians in Peshawar.
“We found her to be very bold, and it inspired every one of us,” said another student in the group, Fatima Aziz, 15.
“She had this vision, big dreams, that she was going to come into politics and bring about change,” said Ms. Minallah, the documentary maker.
Pakistan’s military has long held the 2009 Swat operation as an example of its ability to conduct successful counterinsurgency drives on its own soil. The shooting on Tuesday, however, was a stark reminder that the Taliban remain a deadly force.
“This is not a good sign. It’s very worrisome,” Kamran Khan, the most senior government official in Swat, said by phone. A search operation was under way to capture the attackers, he added.
In recent months, Taliban fighters have been gradually slipping back into Swat, attacking senior community leaders. On Aug. 3, a Taliban gunman shot and wounded Zahid Khan, the president of the local hoteliers association and a senior community leader, in Mingora.
A senior local official said it was one of three attempted targeted killings by the Taliban in recent months.
The Swat Taliban are a subgroup of the wider Pakistani Taliban movement based in South Waziristan. The leader of the Swat Taliban, Maulvi Fazlullah, rose to prominence in 2007 through an FM radio station that espoused Islamist ideology. He is believed to be sheltering across the border in the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan.
The Pakistani Army virtually runs Swat, either directly through a large military presence in the valleys, or indirectly through armed militias that keep the Taliban at bay. But the military has also been accused of gross human rights abuses, particularly after a leaked videotape in 2010 showed uniformed men apparently massacring Taliban prisoners.
In response to sharp criticism, the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, announced an inquiry into the shootings. An army spokesman said on Tuesday it had not yet completed its work.
Shah Rasool, the police chief in Swat, said that all roads leading out of Mingora had been barricaded and that more than 30 militant suspects had been taken into custody.
Reporting was contributed by Sana ul Haq from Mingora, Pakistan; Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan; Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud from Islamabad, Pakistan; and Zia ur-Rehman from Karachi.
Balochistan hearing: Military, govt deflect Akhtar Mengal’s blows
ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: In the wake of Thursday’s high drama at the Supreme Court, the country’s top military leaders rushed to vindicate themselves over the Balochistan problem on Friday, stoutly denying that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) had any involvement in enforced disappearances.
The statement came in response to the six recommendations that former provincial chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal presented before the apex court a day before as a precondition for talks. The former chief minister did not mince his words – the conditions include what he referred to as a suspension of covert and overt military operations in Balochistan, recovery of missing persons, and disbanding ‘death squads’ operating under the supervision of secret agencies.
Friday’s statement was submitted by Balochistan Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad. It was prepared at a meeting attended by top military and executive authority officials in compliance with SC orders.
The high-level meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Naveed Qamar and attended by army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, ISI Director General (DG) Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam, ministers for information, law and postal services, the defence secretary, the attorney general, the principal secretary to the prime minister and the Balochistan chief secretary. The prime minister could not attend the meeting, because he was not present in the capital.
The joint statement addressed the other accusations hurled at the armed forces besides missing persons: “No covert and overt military operation is being carried out in Balochistan by the armed forces. Second, no person alleged to be missing is in the custody of or under detention of any law enforcing authorities or any other agency of Pakistan. Despite this all out efforts are being made to find out whereabouts of the persons who are alleged to be missing. Third, no proxy death squads are operating under the supervision of ISI and MI.” The statement added that the government has always believed that all political parties in Balochistan should participate in political activities without any interference from any quarter.
The statement, however, repeated information that is already available – Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) have been constituted and recently, the Balochistan government has approved a compensation policy for legal heirs of deceased persons. The government has also made a commitment to settle displaced persons.
The chief justice, on the other hand, remained unconvinced. “People have been missing for three years and hearing their [relatives’] accounts brings tears to one’s eyes,” he stated. He also cut short the chief secretary’s attempt at discussing other issues, including the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said there was no obligation to believe the affidavits submitted by intelligence agencies in which they claimed their innocence. We will see the grounds realities too, the court warned.
The chief justice also asked the leaders of all political parties, including Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif, on Friday’s hearing, to partake in finding a solution to the Balochistan crisis, saying that it was not just the government’s responsibility.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued these directives while penning down a short order pertaining to the Balochistan security case.
Uncomfortable army, govt
Sources said that military officials were ‘very much perturbed’ over Thursday’s proceedings of the apex court. Meanwhile, Raja Irshad, counsel for ISI and MI, expressed similar concerns: While talking to The Express Tribune, Irshad said Mengal was glorified by the court and that “We (army and secret agencies) will take action on such allegations. It was a totally wrong claim that secret agencies are involved in the killing of thousands of Baloch.”
Attorney General Irfan Qadir, whom the court passed a restraining order against on Thursday for ‘interfering in the hearing’, wasn’t very happy with Mengal’s demands either – and asked the chief justice to keep the disgruntled Baloch leader’s statements off record. He also asked the chief justice to direct Mengal to re-submit a more ‘moderately-worded’ statement.
Sources added, however, that executive authorities have decided to gear up political activities in the troubled province as the upcoming parliamentary elections draw closer, and hence did not take too harsh a stance against Mengal’s recommendations.
The court will hear the case from October 8 at the Quetta registry. It also told the provincial chief secretary that judges could pay a ‘surprise visit’ to areas in the province, particularly Dera Bugti, to examine ground realities.
Russia keeps door open to Pakistan after Putin cancels trip
Moscow, Oct. 4: It would have been the first visit to Pakistan by any Soviet or Russian head of state, and a strong signal that something might be changing in the foreign policy calculus of a country that has always strictly regarded India as its No. 1 regional partner.
The Kremlin says Mr. Putin’s trip to Pakistan was never officially confirmed and his working schedule this week is “too tight” to accommodate the two-day visit, which was to have included participation in a regular summit of regional leaders on Afghanistan and bilateral talks on trade, technical, and military cooperation with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
However, Putin dispatched Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Islamabad Wednesday in what looked like a hastily arranged effort to explain the change to Pakistani leaders and keep the door open for future warming of ties. Experts say that an increasingly anxious Russia wants very much to engage with Pakistan, and sees it as an indispensable regional player in dealing with whatever emerges in Afghanistan following NATO’s pullout in barely two years. The Russians fear a repeat of the turbulent 1990s, when narco-trafficking exploded across former Soviet Central Asia and militant Islamist movements based in Afghanistan triggered major civil strife in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
“It remains to be seen what will happen, of course, but most in Moscow tend to view it through the prism of how things went when the USSR pulled its forces out of Afghanistan in 1989. There followed a string of disasters which nobody would like to see repeated,” says Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a leading Moscow foreign policy journal.
“Pakistan will be a key player, and it follows that Russia must have an open channel to Pakistan, at the very least to know how they will react and what they will do,” he adds.
A Russian take on Afghanistan
Not everyone agrees that the outlook for Afghanistan after 2014 is chaos. Gen. Makhmud Gareyev, president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences and a former adviser to the pro-Soviet leader of Afghanistan, President Najibullah, following the withdrawal of Soviet forces, argues that things are quite different now.
“The fact is that the new post-Soviet Russian government established contacts with the rebels, and left Najibullah without ammunition,” says General Gareyev.
“I firmly believe that Afghanistan could have been normalized if not for that…. The Americans talk about leaving, but they aren’t really going to go. They’ll do what they did in Iraq, leave some forces and regroup them. They’ll try to keep bases in Central Asia and reinforce their presence in Pakistan. The Americans will still be around,” he says.
“Which doesn’t mean things will be OK. The Taliban will continue killing, and drugs will still pour out of Afghanistan. There will be lots of problems,” he adds.
Putin’s planned visit this week would have been the perfect opportunity to officially begin building bridges with Pakistan. He was to have attended the regular quadrilateral meeting on Afghanistan, which includes the leaders of Russia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Previous summits, held in various regional capitals, were always attended by then-President Dmitry Medvedev, who has met with Mr. Zardari six times in the past three years – though never in Pakistan.
Uncertainty why Putin cancelled
Russian experts say they are at a loss to explain why Putin ducked out of the meeting, a move that seems to have seriously set back Moscow’s timetable and led to a wave of injured feelings and perplexed speculation in the Pakistani media.
“One possible explanation is that Putin is a very specific guy, who feels like he can write his own rules and do things his own way,” says Sergei Strokan, foreign affairs columnist for the Moscow daily Kommersant. He points out that Putin last May refused to attend a summit of the Group of Eight advanced countries, despite the fact that President Barack Obama had specifically moved the meeting’s venue to accommodate him. Putin never offered any more detailed explanation other than that he was “too busy.”
“So far there is no clear statement from the Kremlin as to when, if ever, the visit will take place. It’s hard to see what’s going on here, but the fact that Lavrov has gone to Pakistan suggests that there is a strong feeling in Moscow that if we miss the chance to develop stronger relations with Pakistan now, we may pay for it with deep complications down the road,” Mr. Strokan adds.
Pipeline politics?
Some experts suggest that pipeline politics may lie at the root of the mystery. Russia’s powerful state-run natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, is seen as deeply involved in plans to export Iranian, Russian, and Central Asian gas to the lucrative markets of South Asia via two projects that are currently on the drawing boards. First, the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, which analysts say Gazprom has a strong interest in, has apparently been stalled by Pakistan due to US objections. Second, the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, which experts say Gazprom wants to build and own, may also be an unresolved issue between Moscow and Islamabad.
“There is a lot of talk behind the scenes about these pipelines, and it’s obvious that interests are lining up. It may be a hidden explanation for the confused diplomacy we’re seeing at the moment,” says Strokan. “But everything will depend upon regional stability. You can’t build pipelines through Afghanistan if there isn’t reliable security there.”
Experts say that time may be running out to find some kind of regional formula to handle the worst-case scenario for post-NATO Afghanistan that Moscow seems to believe in.
“From the moment NATO troops are partially withdrawn from Afghanistan, Russia wants that country to be controllable,” says Alexander Konovalov, president of the independent Institute of Strategic Assessments in Moscow.
“The fear in Moscow is that radical Islamism will spread, drug trafficking with explode, and Russia will be left to pick up the pieces. We know there’s no hope for stability there without Pakistan’s active participation, and we need to be talking seriously with them,” he adds.
Anti-Muslim subway ads throughout New York City: Fighting for faith?
Early in first grade, one of the nuns advised our class not to associate with children who attended other schools and believed other religions. My teacher, a younger nun, looked uncomfortable and quickly changed the topic. Later that day, I asked my mother about playing with friends who worshiped at other churches.
“Playing with other friends won’t change your beliefs,” my mother said. She was beautiful, devout and confident that her children knew right from wrong at an early age.
I have often wondered if those beliefs could have survived the Catholic Church’s child-abuse scandal, but she died long before the worst reports emerged.
Religions that insist that their adherents cannot read or explore other beliefs, testing their values, are insecure. Religions that try to thrive by insulting other religions are insecure.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) has purchased ads for the New York subway system that read:
“In any war between civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”
New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority originally rejected the ads, asking for modifications, but a U.S. District Court intervened.
The Interfaith Center of New York rejected the ads. The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York released a statement:
“While agreeing with U.S. District Court’s ruling that the placement of the AFDI ad in the New York Subway system is protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution, nonetheless, we find the ad’s content to be decidedly prejudiced and dangerously inflammatory. The broad mainstream of the New York Jewish community does not equate its unwavering support for Israel with intolerance for Muslims or their faith. We will continue our work with leaders of the Muslim and other faith and ethnic communities within the demographic diversity of New York to strengthen the communal collective and improve the quality of translife for all.”
Intolerance, an ugly quest for power and control, relying on fear to motivate – the certainty of some in proving to another that his or her frame of meaning has no value – these all cheapen spirituality. Clamoring is increasingly loud and insistent, overwhelming the power of example, in a shrinking world that cannot escape globalization.
Religious leaders bemoan a loss of faith, driving some to desperate measures. The AFDI Web site claims that it’s “Fighting for Faith,” and most of us prefer faith fighting for peace. Ruthless, mean competition for adherents and power, insults and violence, give reason to Americans to distance themselves from religion and explore spirituality alone or among a diverse and comfortable group of friends.
Susan Froetschel is the author of Fear of Beauty, a novel set in Afghanistan, about a woman’s struggle to learn to read with the help of the Koran.
Do not ask Pakistan to do more on terror: Zardari
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 : Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari declared Tuesday before the United Nations that his country had suffered enough in its fight against extremist terror and should not be asked to do more.
“No country and no people have suffered more in the epic struggle against terrorism than Pakistan,” he insisted.
“To those who say we have not done enough, I say in all humility: Please do not insult the memory of our dead, and the pain of our living. Do not ask of my people what no one has ever asked of any other peoples,” he said.
“Do not demonize the innocent women and children of Pakistan. And please, stop this refrain to ‘do more’.”
Beginning his address to the UN General Assembly with a denunciation of the recent American-made movie trailer and French cartoons that insulted the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), he demanded that such material be banned worldwide.
Then, speaking next to a photograph of his late wife — Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto, who was murdered by militants — he set about defending the Pakistani people’s record in the war on violent extremism.
Zardari said regular US drone strikes against targets in his country made his task of selling the fight against terror to his people harder, as did the massive increase in Afghan drug exports since the US-led invasion.
“There are a lot of questions that are asked of Pakistan these days,” he said, his voice rising as he warmed to his theme.
“I am not here to answer questions about Pakistan. The people of Pakistan have already answered them. The politicians of Pakistan have answered them. The soldiers of Pakistan have answered them,” he declared.
“We have lost over 7,000 Pakistani soldiers and policemen, and over 37,000 civilians,” he added. “And I need not remind my friends here today, that I bear a personal scar.”
Pakistan has long been seen as a safe haven for myriad armed groups, whether Taliban fighting along the Afghan border, domestic extremists or Kashmiri Muslims bent on capturing Indian-held territory.
“I remember the red carpet that was rolled out for all the dictators,” he said. “These dictators and their regimes are responsible for suffocating and throttling Pakistan, Pakistan’s institutions and Pakistani democracy.
“I remember the jailing of Pakistan’s elected leaders. I remember the 12 years I myself spent in prison. And I remember the billions provided by the international community to support those dictatorships,” he said.
“My country’s social fabric, its very character has been altered. Our condition today is a product of dictatorships.”
Zardari’s government has often been accused in the West of not doing enough to fight armed extremism, and since bin Laden was found — in a garrison town near the capital — some in Washington have called for aid to be cut.
Taliban remove minister offering bounty for film maker from hit list
PESHAWAR, Sept 26: The Pakistani Taliban say they are granting an “amnesty” to a Cabinet minister who is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who kills the American maker of an anti-Islam film sparking deadly riots in the Muslim world.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told reporters on Wednesday that the minister’s views represent the true spirit of Islam. Consequently, the militants have removed him from their hit list.
“We have totally forgiven him and removed his name from our hit list,” the Taliban spokesman said in a phone call from an unknown location.
Ehsan said that Taliban shoora, a top consultative body, had met on Tuesday and “praised Bilour for his sacrifice for the cause of Islam”.
“The shoora paid rich tributes to Bilour and endorsed his bounty announcement,” he said.
But Ehsan clarified that others in Bilour’s secular party – The Awami National Party (ANP), which opposes the Taliban – won’t enjoy the reprieve.
Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour had announced a $100,000 bounty for the killing of the maker of “Innocence of Muslims” – a film which has sparked deadly protests throughout the Muslim world. Bilour had also sought the Taliban’s and al Qaeda’s help in the “noble cause” of killing the filmmaker.
Pakistan’s government says Bilour’s bounty doesn’t represent official policy, and his party, the ANP, has also distanced itself from the minister’s comments.
Bilour, however, insisted public opinion was behind him in Pakistan, which has seen widespread protests against the film including nationwide rallies on Friday that ended in bloodshed and looting, with at least 23 people killed.
“I expressed my personal view and faith. I stand by my declaration,” the 72-year-old Bilour had said on Tuesday. “My faith is non-violent, but I cannot forgive and tolerate (this insult),” he said.
Bilour had added that a businessman from Lahore had offered to put up a further $400,000 for the reward and said that freedom of speech should not be used as an excuse to insult Islam.
“Killing is not a good way, but right now it is the only way, because no action has been taken from Western countries (against the filmmaker),” he said.
Washington condemned Bilour’s reward offer as “inflammatory and inappropriate”, while the EU said it deplored it.
Bilour could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Op-Ed: Anti-Islam Film an Exception to Free Speech Protection
17 September 2012: THE anti-Muslim film produced by Christian extremists may have sparked the violence that spread across the Middle East and South Asia this week. But the core issues in the following days of protests were unemployment, politicizing religion and the deep resentment against the United States for its wars that cost thousands of innocent lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Protest organizers just got a lucky break when Egyptian television aired and dubbed in Arabic the “Innocence of Muslims” film trailer. The movie simply got the ball rolling.
The debate in America is not whether rage against the US government’s meddling in Arab affairs is justified, but why Muslims get so riled up when the Prophet Muhammad is ridiculed. After all, other prophets get the same treatment in a secular society in which free speech rights are sacrosanct.
Muslims in the Middle East get the free speech thing, but often wonder why its advocates take such great pleasure in beating them over the head with it.
On Al Jazeera television the other day the news host brought in Arab and Western media types to talk about “Innocence of Muslims” and its impact in the Middle East. TJ Walker, a media-training consultant who works with Bloomberg TV and Fox News among other outlets, gave Al Jazeera’s mostly Arab and Muslim audience a brief lesson on the First Amendment, its importance to Americans and why all religious figures are equal opportunity targets for mockery and ridicule. Really, Walker implied, what’s the big deal about making fun of religious figures? We do it all the time. His tone and message was clear: Muslims should lighten up and accept the American standard of free speech.
Walker’s cluelessness about sensibilities of the audience he was addressing can be forgiven. His experience is how to train people to deal with the American media and not interpreting global news events. But he encapsulates many Americans’ “live and let live” approach to free speech.
Yet the extremists who made the film are not clueless, and have much darker goals in mind. It’s one thing to parody religious figures on “South Park” and quite another to deliberately produce a film filled with falsehoods with the intention to provoke violence.
Steve Klein, the Californian who provided technical assistance for the film, acknowledged in interviews that he knew the film was provocative. He announced that it was a success.
“We have reached the people that we want to reach,” Klein told the New York Times. “And I’m sure that out of the emotion that comes out of this, a small fraction of those people will come to understand …, and also for the people who didn’t know that much about Islam. If you merely say anything that’s derogatory about Islam, then they immediately go to violence, which I’ve experienced.”
Most people wouldn’t admit to falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater, but Klein seems to be proud of this accomplishment, even if it helped lead in some way to the deaths of four American citizens in Libya.
We are seeing a rise in violence prompted by hate speech. Norway mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik cited the writings of America’s leading Islamophobes as inspiration. The same Islamophobic gang and their confederates are now boasting of their success. They continue to defend their right to pursue objectives that result in violence.
The US Supreme Court had addressed the issue of false and dangerous speech in 1919. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. used the metaphor of “shouting fire in a crowded theater” when considering whether distributing anti-military draft leaflets during World War I was imminently dangerous to the nation’s security.
The court ruled there was no violation of free speech because the leaflets presented a clear and present danger to the US government’s efforts to recruit soldiers during wartime. Although subsequent decisions watered down the ruling, the issue of speech posing a “imminent lawless action” remains an exception to free speech rights.
Columbia University law professor Tim Wu told the Washington Post that, “Notice that Google (which posted the film on its website) has more power over this than either the Egyptian or the US government. Most free speech today has nothing to do with governments and everything to do with companies.”
Google, according to legal experts interviewed by the Post, “implicitly invoked the concept of ‘clear and present danger’ ” when it blocked access to the film in Egypt and Libya.
“Innocence of Muslims” is a perfect candidate as an exception to free speech rights since its creators deliberately focused on fermenting violence. But rather than leave it to corporations, the US government must take the initiative to prosecute future purveyors of violence.
Drones Capture Pakistan’s Stunning Scenic Beauty
ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The use of drones in Pakistan normally brings to mind images of US spy planes attacking tribal areas. But drones now are being used to capture a different kind of picture in the country – showing some of the world’s highest mountains being scaled by world-class climbers through some of Earth’s thinnest air.
Drones, or remote-controlled aircraft, have long been the domain of the American military and are used extensively in Pakistan’s tribal areas near the Afghanistan border to spy on and target militants.
Recently, however, civilians have increasingly turned to drones to shoot ground-breaking footage of adventure sports.
This summer a Swiss expedition used remote-controlled helicopters to shoot rare footage of climbers on the Karakoram, one of the world’s most demanding and formidable mountain ranges.
“People are going to see footage from the Karakoram that no human being has ever seen,” said Corey Rich, a photographer and videographer from Lake Tahoe, California, who was on the expedition.
The expedition was a joint project between outdoor clothing and equipment company Mammut, and Dedicam, a firm that specialises in using remote-controlled helicopters to shoot video. Their goal: to document world-class mountaineer David Lama and his climbing partner Peter Ortner as they climbed Trango Tower.
The sheer granite tower in the Baltoro Glacier is more than 6,000 metres above sea level and is one of the most technically difficult climbs in the world.
Filmmakers long have used helicopters to capture aerial footage of climbers – as well as other extreme sport athletes like surfers and skiers –that is hard to capture from the ground. But helicopters are costly and can be dangerous if they crash or get too close to the people on the ground.
Additionally, their beating rotors often kick up dust, snow and wind – and can push climbers off balance.
Drones, which can weigh just a few kilograms and cost between $1,000 and $40,000, are a fraction of the size and cost of the helicopters traditionally used in adventure photography.
Newer models tend to have all of their rotors facing into the sky, making them look a bit like a mechanical flying spider or insect.
The main concern for the summertime expedition was how – and if – the drone would perform in Pakistan’s rugged conditions and high altitude.
“The main challenge was that the air is much thinner, and we didn’t know how the flight controls would work with this and the propellers and motors,” said drone operator Remo Masina, from Lucerne, Switzerland.
He brought two on the Pakistan expedition – one with four propellers and another with six. From the ground, he flew them with a handheld console that resembles a video game console, and wore goggles to let him see the camera’s view.
Another challenge was to find the climbers on the mountain. Tracing the planned trek route, Masina directed the drone up the mountain until he spotted them – more than a mile (roughly 2,000 metres) away.
The result was stunning images of the Karakoram and the climbers making it to the top.
Experienced climbers say the Karakoram puts the rest of the world’s mountain ranges to shame. Neighboring Nepal has Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, but Pakistan has four of the world’s 14 peaks that soar to more than 8,000 metres above sea level, including the second highest mountain on earth, K-2.
Lama and Ortner said climbing the legendary Pakistan mountains was an amazing experience.
“Here there are so many mountains, and so many difficult mountains, and mountains that haven’t been climbed,” said Lama.
“That’s probably why the Karakoram is known as paradise for us.”
This year has been particularly successful for Pakistan’s climbing industry, which plummeted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US.
In addition to hosting the renowned Lama for the first time, Nazir Sabir, Pakistan’s elder statesman of climbing who was the country’s first person to scale Everest, said 30 climbers summited K-2 in 2012, the first summits from the Pakistani side of the mountain since 11 people died trying in 2008.
And the drone footage obtained during Lama and Ortner’s climb will expose even more viewers to the legendary Karakoram mountain range.
Drones also increasingly are being used in other adventure sports to push conventional photography boundaries. Cameras on drones have been used to capture video of surfers on Hawaii’s North Shore and to chase mountain bikers speeding down mountain trails.
“I’ve filmed anything from kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking, to track and field to just casual walking,” said photographer and videographer Mike Hagadorn, who has begun to build his own drones to support his Colorado-based firm, Cloud Level Media.
“Anything you can dream of – and as long as you don’t crash – you can make it happen.”
Experts predict drone cameras eventually will become an integral part of every sports shoot. But for now, they re definitely a novelty. The Swiss team filming Lama said villagers in Pakistan stood in awe, staring at the drones as they buzzed around, whenever he used one on the expedition.
“We were trying to do this shot that showed this quaint village,” Rich said. “But every single person in the shot is standing, stopped in the street, looking up at the helicopter.