|
|
|
|
|
Marines who urinated on Taliban corpses identified
US in damage control mode to keep talks with Taliban on track
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Special to The
Tribune chief Kayani (C) or ISI chief Pasha (L) packing home
Oxford death: Indian-origin academic gets bail
|
|
Marines who urinated on Taliban corpses identified Washington, January 13 "Two of the culprits and their unit involved in the shameful act have been identified," CNN reported quoting a Pentagon spokesman. "We cannot release the names of the unit as well as the culprits at this time as the matter is being investigated," a Marine spokesman told CNN referring to the video which has gone viral sparking outrage and unrest in Afghanistan and the wider Muslim world. The unit was deployed to Afghanistan mainly in Helmand province in early 2011 and had returned home in September or October, the TV channel said. The US cable network quoted a Marine officer saying that the military was "confident that troops involved in the inflammatory video were from the third Battalion of the second Marine regiment based at Camp Leteune, North Carolina." The video appeared to show four servicemen urinating on three bloodied corpses and one of them apparently aware that they were being filmed saying "Have a great day buddy", referring to one of the dead. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said those found engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent. "This conduct is entirely inappropriate for the US military and does not reflect the standards of values our armed forces are sworn to uphold," he said in a statement. Earlier, the White House deplored the video. "We find this -- we've seen the video, and what it depicts is -- or what it apparently depicts is deplorable, reprehensible and unacceptable," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters. The video, posted on YouTube and other websites, is a big embarrassment for the Obama Administration, especially at a critical time of holding peace talks with the Taliban. The Department of Defence has ordered a probe into the authenticity of the video as well as those who were responsible for this. "The alleged action is obviously under investigation," Carney said in response to a question.
— PTI
|
|
US in damage control mode to keep talks with Taliban on track
Top US officials, in a bid to keep peace talks with the Taliban on track, scrambled on Thursday to limit the fallout from a video of US soldiers urinating on the bodies of dead Afghans. Talks with the Taliban are widely expected to start within weeks.
Marc Grossman, US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, will visit Afghanistan next week and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland did not rule out the possibility that he may meet Taliban representatives. The Obama administration has signalled its flexibility on transferring Taliban prisoners from the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a key Taliban condition for starting the reconciliation talks. The US and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government has set three conditions for talks with the Taliban-that they lay down their weapons, renounce
Al-Qaida and respect the Afghan Constitution.
|
|
|
Special to The
Tribune No coup is about to take place in a Pakistan where the independent media has ensured that every move by every player on Pakistan’s power scene is examined thread-bare. This exercise in itself is both a leveler and a restrainer. Had there been an independent electronic media in October, 1999, there would have been no coup.
Examination of every move closely gives a fair share of public hearing and also self-examination to all the players. Equally, the resulting public censure or otherwise, now informs the power players of the limits of their power, constitutional or otherwise. So while in the coming days we will see and hear some trial ballooning, some real moves, some political rhetoric, some bombastic claims, some propaganda, some shadow boxing as well as alarmist breaking news, but none of this is likely to send the President, the Prime Minister, nor the army chief or the ISI chief packing home. The government will look towards constitutional and political means to survival, the army will be constrained to act within the constitution and the judges in the Supreme Court will engage with the constitution within a contextual framework remaining mindful of history and fair-play. This is the spirit in which the memo and the NRO cases will be conducted. Asma Jehangir’s critique of judgments and the workings of the courts cannot be ignored and neither can the call to respect the judiciary as an arbitrator. Only in the glare of candid and lethal public debate, and the burden of a sordid history, no position or institution, is instinctively or by order graced with public respect. Everyone, in any position of authority, is on trial in today’s Pakistan, even the Supreme Court. The media ensures that the moves of all power players, government, politicians, army, and now the judiciary, are examined for historical precedents, for legality, constitutionality, for double-standards, for individual, institutional and party interests and in some clumsy ways for national interest and logic too. Hence irrespective of which House anyone sits in, which position they occupy, which party they lead, how many corps they command, what weapons they can brandish, what agencies they can use, what bank balance they control, which ethnic card they can play, which foreign country they can lobby, how many votes they can poll, how ‘clean’ or patriotic they claim to be, none of their moves or statements can claim immunity to public scrutiny. Indeed as many will and do complain the standard of public scrutiny varies. Some who scrutinise may be partisan, some incompetent and others too tedious but all critiques of any move of an individual, party or institution, are injected via the media - print, electronic and social - into public discussion and debate. It no longer matters which political party, which institution or which agency influences which journalist, analyst, publisher or channel because genuine debates are an equaliser-to be credible they are forced to provide a say to all sides and finally irrespective of what numbers hold what opinion, all opinions in the public realm are scrutinised against the public’s inherent common sense, its experiential wisdom and the recall wisdom that the media discussions inject in the public space. Public debate and discussion, which many are critical of and uncomfortable with, has indeed emerged as Pakistan’s new, intangible yet a consequential power centre. Its ways are haphazard, and also in many cases questionable, but it is sections of this media that have ensured that the May 2 Abbottabad fiasco is not hushed up, that Saleem Shahzad’s killing does not go un-inquired, that Hussain Haqqani is not declared guilty unheard, that a vigorous debate on the pros and cons of the memo issue is being conducted, the list is endless. And now in this current state of political boil in Pakistan, all power players will be forced to enter this intangible power centre by introducing their moves to the public through this power centre whether it is the ISPR press release, the judges’ observation, the Prime Minister’s China Today interview, or Nawaz Sharif call for abandoning the government or Imran Khan’s call for sending President Zardari home. As the media debates the issues, presents the pros and cons, often checking them against constitutional requirements and historical precedents, there is some settling of the storm, some calming of the nerves after the storm.
|
|
Imran for different plan for making peace with India Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan on Friday said it was time for a "different strategy" to make peace with India and warned that putting the Kashmir issue on the back burner could result in a terrorist attack similar to the one in Mumbai in 2008. "If you put Kashmir on the back burner, there is always a chance that a Mumbai will happen and we will be back to square one," Imran told an audience at the Atlantic Council in Washington via Skype. Acknowledging the use of militant groups by Pakistani governments to foment unrest in Kashmir, Imran said it was essential for Pakistan to adopt a "completely different strategy" with India. "The time has come for Pakistan to develop a completely new relationship with India," Khan said. "Pakistan should resolve all differences with India, particularly Kashmir, through political dialogue." "There has to be a political strategy on Kashmir... There must be some roadmap on Kashmir," he added. Imran contended that the benefits for peace in the Indian subcontinent are enormous. "And the people are ready for it. People don't want this animosity," he said. Imran said Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies should desist from conducting covert operations in the other's country and both governments should have the trust to resolve their differences politically. A strategy for the future "has to be what we have not done so far," he said. He dismissed a prevalent perception that he is anti-Western, but admitted that he had always been opposed to the US-led war on terror after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. "It is insane to declare a war on terror... Opposing this war does not make us anti-US," he said. "Today Pakistan is a far more radicalised society than on 9/11because of the US-led war on terror," he added.
|
|
|
Iran blames CIA, Mossad as it buries slain scientist Tehran, January 13 Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputy director at Iran's main uranium enrichment plant, was killed on Wednesday when two men on a motorbike slapped a magnetic bomb on his car while it was stuck in Tehran traffic. His funeral was to be be held after midday prayers, state media reported. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the "abominable" and "cowardly" killing was committed "with the planning or support of the intelligence services of the CIA and Mossad," of the United States and Israel. Some media close to Iran's conservatives have called for "retaliation" against Israeli officials. The Iranian government has demanded that the UN Security Council condemn the "terrorist" killing. The US has strongly denied it had anything to do with the assassination, although Defence Secretary Leon Panetta admitted: "We have some ideas as to who might be involved." The prime suspect is widely seen as Israel, as it was in the murders of three other Iranian scientists in similar circumstances over the past two years. Israel, though, has a policy of not commenting on intelligence matters. — AFP
|
|
Oxford death: Indian-origin academic gets bail
London, January 13 The death has shocked the academic community in Oxford amid reports that Sibia, 49, and victim Professor Steven Rawlings, 50 - described as close friends for decades and who co-wrote a book - had fallen out over academic matters while they were at Sibia's house after a meal at a local pub. Rawling's body was found in Sibia's house in Southmoor, Oxfordshire. Thames Valley Police said a post-mortem has proved inconclusive and further tests will be undertaken over the forthcoming weeks. Linda Davey, 64, Rawling's elder sister, told The Telegraph that he was not the type of man to get into an argument over anything. She said, "They have been friends for 30 years. We can't think that there was any kind of fight. We can only assume that it was a terrible accident. Steven was big, but he was gentle." Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University Professor Andrew Hamilton said, "The entire University community has been profoundly saddened and shocked by the tragic and untimely death of Professor Steve Rawlings. Our thoughts are with his family and friends." Detective Superintendent Rob Mason said, "This is a tragic incident and investigations are on to establish the cause of the death. A substantial amount of information is already in the public domain and we can confirm that the two individuals involved have been friends for over thirty years." Sibia, a stipendiary lecturer in Mathematics for Sciences at Oxford University, lectures to undergraduates studying chemistry and physics and has published two books. Local resident Duncan Logan, who lives opposite Sibia’s house, said he had known both academics for several years and described them as "the best of friends". He said, “I can't believe what I'm hearing. It's like a bolt from the blue.” — PTI
|
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Washington, January 13
