After the series of bomb blasts in Lahore, Hizb ut-Tahrir made it clear to the Ummah that, similar to the past, these blasts are being conducted to build public opinion for another military operation. Alas! This came true and the killing in Orakzai agency has already started.

Titles: 

•  Secret unit finds Muslims and non-Muslims blaming UK government for using terror attacks to justify aggressive foreign policy
• Lebanese army fires on Israeli jets
• Turkey presses for major constitutional changes    
• British military intelligence ran renegade torture unit in Iraq
• Taliban say not involved in Kabul peace talks

News Detailes:

Secret unit finds Muslims and non-Muslims blaming UK government for using terror attacks to justify aggressive foreign policy
The Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), has published for the first time some of the reports from focus groups it has conducted on the attitudes of Muslims and members of the public to terrorism.  The unit was started three years ago to provide better information across government departments on how their messages on terrorism have been received. A report, called Understanding Perceptions of the Terms ‘Britishness' and ‘Terrorism' found that many in the focus groups could "understand why some UK Muslims resort to extreme violence." It found that many Muslims believed terrorists were themselves victims who had been manipulated by others into believing it was their religious duty to fight back against British policy in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The research also found that many Muslims believed that the British and US governments are themselves "terrorists" for invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Some argued that terrorists could be labeled "freedom fighters" and a small number who participated in the groups said they believed al-Qaeda was a "media or US government creation used to demonise Muslims."  Worryingly for the UK government, both Muslims and non-Muslims said they believed the Government "used terrorist attacks to justify aggressive foreign policies in Iraq and Afghanistan" and several added that it had "increased rather than diminished the threat of terrorism within the UK" by increasing the risk of reprisals.

Lebanese army fires on Israeli jets
The Lebanese army says it has opened fire on two Israeli warplanes that were violating the country's airspace at medium altitude. "The army's anti-aircraft guns fired at two Israeli warplanes overflying Hasbaya in southeastern Lebanon," the Lebanese army said in statement. Israel's regular overflights across southern Lebanon are in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the statement added. The resolution calls on Tel Aviv to stop invading Lebanon's sovereignty by land, sea and air. Resolution 1701 was unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council in August 2006 that brought to end Israel's 33-day war on Lebanon, during which Israeli forces failed to achieve any of their objectives. The violation occurred amid Israel's escalating war threats in the region. The army says Israeli warplanes have entered Lebanese airspace on an almost-daily basis during the past months.

Turkey presses for major constitutional changes    
Turkey's pro-American governing party and the country's staunchly secular judiciary traded insults on Tuesday over whether to overhaul the country's Constitution. Senior judicial bodies, responding to constitutional changes proposed Monday by the leadership of the governing Justice and Development Party, called the proposals unlawful and a direct challenge to the judiciary's independence. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,  argued that the proposals derived from international practices and would promote a more democratic state. The party has proposed major structural changes to the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors, both strongholds of the secular state; these would give the government more oversight authority over the courts. Both bodies have been critical of the governing party's ‘roots in political Islam' and criticized what they called government infringement on the judiciary.

British military intelligence ran renegade torture unit in Iraq
Fresh evidence has emerged that British military intelligence ran a secret operation in Iraq which authorised degrading and unlawful treatment of prisoners. Documents reveal that prisoners were kept hooded for long periods in intense heat and deprived of sleep by defence intelligence officers. They also reveal that officers running the operation claimed to be answerable only "directly to London". The revelations will further embarrass the British government, which last month was forced to release documents showing it knew that UK resident and terror suspect Binyam Mohamed had been tortured in Pakistan.The latest documents emerged during the inquiry into Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel worker beaten to death while in the custody of British troops in September 2003. The inquiry is looking into how interrogation techniques banned by the Government in 1972 and considered torture and degrading treatment were used again in Iraq.Lawyers believe the new evidence supports suspicions that an intelligence unit - the Joint Forward Interrogation Team (JFIT) which operated in Iraq - used illegal "coercive techniques" and was not answerable to military commanders in Iraq, despite official denials it operated independently.In a statement to the inquiry, Colonel Christopher Vernon said he raised concerns after seeing 30 to 40 prisoners in a kneeling position with sacks over their heads. He said those in charge said they were from the Defence and Intelligence Security Centre, based at Chicksands, Bedfordshire, the British Army's intelligence HQ.

Taliban say not involved in Kabul peace talks
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said his movement, which refers to itself as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the country's name when it ruled from 1996-2001, had not altered its position: that no talks could be held until troops withdraw. "The Islamic Emirate has a clear position. We have said this many, many times. There will be no talks when there are foreign troops on Afghanistan's soil killing innocent Afghans on daily basis," Mujahid said. Although direct contacts between the government and senior Taliban officials have been denied by both sides, Western officials say they believe indirect and lower-level contacts have taken place throughout eight years of war. The outgoing U.N. mission chief in Kabul, Kai Eide, said last week he had held meetings with Taliban representatives over the past year, which ended abruptly this year when Pakistan arrested the number two Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Some Afghan officials have said the government had made contact with Baradar, and blame Islamabad for arresting him to ensure that it has leverage over any future talks. Karzai's spokesman has said the government had no "direct" contacts with Baradar, but declined to comment on whether it had had "indirect" contacts.

24/3/2010

On 22nd March, 2010 media announced that President Hamid Karzai met the super envoy of Gulbudin Hekmatyar the leader of Hizb -e- Islami in Kabul. The aim of this meeting was to initiate the process of dialogue and engage Hizb-e-Islami in negotiations. The policy of the dialogue with the rivals is the extension of London conference where it was decided to engage the opponents into a dialogue and get them in the government. All this is taking place in a time where the US and NATO forces are killing tens of Muslims every day.

     The debt crisis in Greece is ample proof that the world is still reeling from the global financial crisis that occurred in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers' collapse in September 2008. Initially only a handful of governments like Pakistan, Ukraine, Iceland and some Eastern European were affected by the credit crunch. These countries had to borrow money to meet their debt obligations and ensure fiscal stability. But now, the crisis threatens to overwhelm several European countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal and may even spread to countries like Britain and America. Just this week the IMF said that the crisis of the past two-and-a-half years had affected public finances across the globe in a way not seen since the Second World War. In 2007, when the credit crunch began, 40% of countries sampled by the IMF were running budget surpluses, but by 2009 this had dropped to 10%. Countries with deficits higher than 3% of national output (gross domestic product) increased from 20% to 70%. In advanced economies, the ratio of debt to GDP was projected to rise from 73% in 2007 to 109% in 2014, the highest it has been since the early 1950s.

IMF revelations come at a juncture, when deep fissures have emerged amongst world's leading capitalist countries, as they struggle to grapple with the prevalent debt situation. The transatlantic relationship is under a new strain as America and EU bicker on how best to restrain hostile speculators and aggressive hedge funds. Whilst in Europe, schisms between Europe and Germany over aid to Greece have undermined the European Union's collective response to the crisis. Germany is averse to providing financial help to Greece as she believes that Greece has not learnt from its mistakes of the past such as the exaggeration of fiscal accounts. Others in Europe have detested IMF interference and have called for a European fund to bailout debt stricken European economies-much to America's annoyance. So how did the West allow the global financial crisis to spread its tentacles so far and wide?

If one recalls the crisis was limited to the banking sector, but soon engulfed the whole financial sector as well as big corporate companies across the world.  In a frantic effort to offset the global financial crisis, America and Europe spearheaded world-wide initiatives such as quantitative easing, introducing huge fiscal stimulus packages, buying financial assets (government and company bonds) and lowering of interest rate. These measures at best provided a temporary respite, but came at a huge cost.

Governments around the world had to borrow heavily from the international money markets to finance such initiatives.  In essence the money was used to prop-up the ailing banking sector, by transferring private debt into public debtor or in layman's eyes taking tax payers' money and giving it to the rich financial institutions at the expense of everyone else. Very little of the money was used restructure the archaic financial system or invested to increase the manufacturing capability of the nations. Consequently, governments were saddled with huge mountains of debt and people were left out of pocket. International speculators quickly seized on the inability of governments to reduce enormous debts on their balance sheets. The speculators hedged and forced the currency of such countries to depreciate.

To counter rampant speculation, many experts advocate strong austerity measures to reduce government debt. However, reducing debt through cutting back on fiscal spending or raising taxes and interest rates is no remedy to dysfunctional capitalist economies that are on the verge of extinction. Unless the Capitalist States are prepared to back currencies with gold and silver, abolish privatization of public utilities, change property ownership laws that lie at the very heart of speculative economies the world will continue to head towards an economic catastrophe not witnessed before.

It is during such times that Muslims around the world must rise to expose the fallacies of the capitalist economic system and become strong advocates for the return of the Caliphate. Only the Caliphate can lift the world out of its economic misery and restore economic systems and policies that are just for black and white, rich and poor, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

22-3-2010

Abid Mustafa