The Islamic State

August 18, 2014 | 3:25 pm

The battle for Iraq's largest dam continued today, even as officials claimed that government troops and Kurdish forces had regained control of the complex from hardline Sunni militant group the Islamic State, which seized it earlier this month.

Iraqi military spokesman Lt-Gen. Qassim Atta told state television today that Mosul Dam had been "fully cleansed" of militants by a joint force of Iraqi troops and peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan backed by US and Iraqi aircraft. However, when VICE News visited the peshmerga front lines close to the dam, fighting was still clearly underway and medical staff reported a number of Kurdish and Iraqi casualties.

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It is not true that the Middle East is inherently unstable. Human history is the history of conflict and the Middle East is the cradle of civilization. But it is not true that current conflict is just the continuum of thousand years of fighting. Muslims and Jews have lived in peace in the Middle East for hundreds of years. In Palestine they were well beyond tolerance into actual friendship. Even in the seventies anyone from any country could go to Beirut, Damascus, Kabul, and Bagdad and have a wonderful worry free time.

Most current conflict can be trace to imperialistic meddling. To point some highlights: the arbitrary partition of the Kurdish and Pashtun countries by the British; The creation of a European settler State in Palestine by the British; the placement in power of the aleut minority in Syria by the British; The coup de Etat by the CIA that put the Sha in power in Iran; The creation of the Taliban by the CIA; The unconditional support of Israel by the United States, even against the interest of the people and government of the US, and even after Israel has attacked US personnel in international waters.

The ISIS is a good example. Who supplies the money? Saudi Arabia with petrodollars; who supplies the weapons? The United States. Who provides the entry point for army grade weaponry? Israel; why? To weaken and destabilize Israel's neighbors and pave the way to an all out assault on Syria and Iran.

Obama authorises US air strikes to help Iraqis besieged on mountain by Isis

• Dan Roberts in Washington, Martin Chulov and Julian Borger
• 
  
• theguardian.com, Thursday 7 August 2014 23.33 EDT

Barack Obama has authorised targeted air strikes against Islamic militants in Iraq, as the US military began an airborne operation to bring relief to thousands of minority Iraqis driven to a grim, mountain-top refuge.

Describing the threats against stranded Yezidi refugees as holding the potential for “genocide”, the president said he had authorised limited air strikes to help Iraqi forces, to assist in the fight to break the siege and protect the civilians trapped there.

“When we face a situation like we do on that mountain, with innocent people facing the prospect of violence on a horrific scale and we have a mandate to help - in this case a request from the Iraqi government - and when we have unique capabilities to act to avoid a massacre, I believe the United States cannot turn a blind eye,” the president said in a late-night statement from the White House.

“Earlier this week, one Iraqi said no-one is coming to help. Well, today America is coming to help,” he said.

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She is Malala

In a young age, Malala had earned the respect and support of the world. On October 09, 2012, the taliban shot her in the head while she rode home on a bus. In attempting to obliterate Malala’s words, the Taliban instead, just amplified her message far beyond the Swat Valley, calling attention to the justice of her cause in every corner of the world. During that incident, when Malala was about to be shot, the Taliban asked “Which one is Malala?” Now the whole world knows which one is Malala.

Born on the 12th of July 1997, Malala was given her first name after a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan, Malalai of Maiwand. Her last name, Yousafzai, is that of a large Pashtun tribal confederation that is predominant in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where she grew up. At her house in Mingora, she lived with her two younger brothers, her parents, and two pet chickens.

Malala was educated in large part by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is a poet, school owner, and an educational activist himself, running a chain of schools known as the Khushal Public School. She once stated to an interviewer that she would like to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead. Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, permitting her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed.

Malala started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008, when her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club.

"How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" Malala asked her audience in a speech covered by newspapers and television channels throughout the region.

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban is a thought provoking book.

Malala spoke with telling affection about her home country, and about the Pakistani people’s desire for prosperity, dignity and peace. Of the Taliban, whose threats against her continue, she expressed only the prayer that their children, all of their children, will have access to a real education as well. Mixed with the courage in her words, there is both personal humility and profound confidence; with passion in her voice, she summons everyone to unleash the power of young minds; to fight back against illiteracy, poverty, and terrorism; and to know in our hearts that – again, in her words – “One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.”

“Education is the only solution,” she declares, adding that, with sufficient bravery and respect for one another “No one can stop us.”

The first thing that impressed me was the universality of the story. The specifics are different but there is a parallel between Pakistan, The US, and the Taliban, and Mexico, The US, and the drug cartels.

The origin of the Taliban can be traced to the CIA, The grandfather of the modern Mexican drug cartels was Nassar Haro, a director of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad.  According to Peter Dale Scott, the Dirección Federal de Seguridad was in part a CIA creation, and “the CIA’s closest government allies were for years in the DFS”. DFS badges, “handed out to top-level Mexican drug-traffickers, have been labelled by DEA agents a virtual ‘license to traffic.’” Scott says that “The Guadalajara Cartel, Mexico’s most powerful drug-trafficking network in the early 1980s, prospered largely because it enjoyed the protection of the DFS, under its chief Miguel Nassar (or Nazar) Haro, a CIA asset.

The Pakistani government makes a show of fighting the Taliban, harassing the populace, while high ranking generals regularly have  lunch with the Taliban leadership. The Mexican government makes a show of fighting the Drug Cartels while high ranking government officials regularly have lunch with the Cartles leadership.

But the main message is that Malala is just a regular, tough hard driven, teenage girl. She describes how when in Abu Dabi, she started to panic  just at the look of Arabic men filling the street, and how she calmed herself by recalling that she already came back from the dead. If she can fight for her rights, could we?

how can we fight an ideological war with weapons?

As a peaceful American Muslim, I would like to think I’m not that irrelevant

Nour Saman, the angry woman in the video, had her life destroyed by Muslim militias. Her hatred and intolerance of Muslims is understandable and even compelling. But what actual Islamic government is actually behind the growth and spread of Islamic extremism? That’s clearly Saudi Arabia. The 9-11 terrorists were Egyptian and Saudis supported by Saudi money. What governments are behind the rise of the Taliban? The Saudis provided money for indoctrination and the United States provided weapons and military training to use them as a weapon against the Russians in Afghanistan. When the Russians left Afghanistan the US just let the Taliban run amok. Yet while the US seeds hate against itself in Pakistan by drone killings, to this day Saudi Arabia and the United States continue to support Islamic extremism to use them as a weapon against Syria and Iran. This is a good reason to dislike Obama’s government.

Brigitte Gabriel (a.k.a. Nour Saman, born October 21, 1964), is an American journalist, author, social commentator and activist.^[1][2] Gabriel says that Islam keeps countries backward,^[3][4] and that it teaches terrorism.^[5][6][7] To promote her views, she founded the American Congress For Truth and ACT! for America, a citizen action network that promotes "national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of Radical Islam."^[8]

She frequently speaks at American conservative organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, Christians United for Israel,Evangelicals and Jewish groups. In her own words, she gives voice to "what many in America are thinking but afraid to say out loud, for fear of being labeled a racist, bigot, Islamophobic, or intolerant."

In her first book Gabriel discusses her experiences as a Maronite (Eastern Catholic) Christian living in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1970s.^[26] She describes the story of her family and her childhood, hiding in a bomb shelter. She details her opinions that her country's inherent multicultural acceptance of all faiths and cultures including the then dominant Lebanese Christian phalangists, led to Lebanon's ruin by the continuous attacks from indigenous Muslims, other Christian groups and migrant Palestinians.^[27]

Gabriel comments that "anyone who voices his or her opinion contrary to 'politically correct think' is immediately tagged a "racist" or "bigot" and that this has resulted in a "social paranoia which discourages free thought and expression."^[28] Moreover, she states that societies and cultures must be held accountable for their actions and that "by not judging others... we have helped create the monsters we are dealing with today."^[29]

The book made The New York Times hardcover best seller list.^[30] The introduction of the 2008 edition of Because They Hate claimed that the book was put on the reading list at the FBI Academy and that it was assigned as mandatory reading for Navy SEALs heading to the Middle East.

Gabriel is critical of Islam and believes that "the degraded state of Arab societies is caused by Islam",^[3] and that Arab Muslims are "lagging behind" because of social and religious values.^[4] She considers "Islamic terrorists" simply as devout followers of Islam,^[7]following an example set by Muhammad's behavior.^[5][6] According to the New York Times, she portrays radical Islam as "thoroughly bent on destruction and domination" and her message is anti-Islam.^[1]

“	It is not politically correct to say that our Western societies are better than the Muslim Arab societies, but we are, we have been, and we always will be.	”
—Because They Hate[33]

Stephen Lee, a publicist at St. Martins Press for Gabriel's second book, has called her views "extreme",^[30] and Deborah Solomon of the New York Times Magazine, who interviewed Gabriel in August 2008, described her as a "radical Islamophobe".^[34] According to Clark Hoyt from The New York Times, over 250 people wrote in to protest that label in the days that followed.^[30]

Gabriel is critical of Americans who "find all sorts of things wrong with America", who "badmouth and put down our culture, government, and country", while having "never experienced life in an oppressive culture or under an oppressive leadership such as is found in the Middle East."^[33] She believes that Americans should "acknowledge that our Western culture is better than others."^[29]

In viewing America as "a powerful and great nation" possessing "superior culture and values", Gabriel sees the entitlements thatAmerican Western culture has bestowed through "the Judeo-Christian value system" and the ideals of the Founding Fathers, who "worked to establish rights for the individual, rights that did not exist under other forms of government at that time."^[35]

According to Gabriel, since Radical Islam views the destruction of Israel alongside the United States as "a parallel strategic objective",^[36] she therefore sees the survival of Israel as being of paramount importance as a vanguard of Western culture and as "the only Western-style nation in the Middle East, one that Arabs despise, feel threatened by, and vow to destroy."^[35]

In a symposium held in January 2009 titled "Homegrown Jihadis" by FrontPage Magazine, she stated Islam itself "promotes intolerance and violence", and that "Moderate Muslims must organize and engage those enlightened, educated and westernized Muslims in the community to begin a dialogue to discuss the possibility of reform in Islam just as Christianity and Judaism have been reformed."

Gabriel views the Arab–Israeli conflict as being "intractable because the Arab world refuses to accept the right of a Jewish state to exist." This animosity, having once been rooted in Pan-Arabism has evolved, according to Gabriel, into the more sinister spectre of "radical Islamic supremacism" which now appears to seek "bigger game in the West." She cites examples such as the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the rise of Hamas as bringing to the forefront radical Islamic ideologies that are rooted in "religious hatred, humiliation, and resentment" of Israel and the West.^[38]

Gabriel believes this can be seen in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict where, in her view, Palestinian nationalism has largely been replaced by "holy obligation" motivating adherents to commit "terrorist murder."^[39] She states that the legitimization of Palestinian suicide attacks within Israel has now evolved to where, "Islamists believe that they may commit mass murder anywhere in the world to advance their holy cause." As a result, she believes the world now suffers "from a plague of Islamic terrorism... authored and perfected by the Palestinians."^[40]

With regard to the two-state solution, Gabriel states: "Forcing Israel to accept a two-state solution is not going to work unless the Palestinians first are forced to clean up their act and eliminate hatred from their schoolbooks, teach tolerance to their people, and preach acceptance of Israel and the Jews as a neighbor."^[12]

Controversy at speaking engagements

When Gabriel was invited to speak as part of a lecture series organized by Duke University's Jewish community in October 2004, many in attendance were angered by her referring to Arabs as "barbarians." The Freeman Centre for Jewish Life at Duke University later apologized for her comments.^[20] Following her speech at women's campaign event for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa (JFO) in November 2008, many in attendance registered their protests, leading Mitchell Bellman, president and CEO of the JFO, to write a letter in which he acknowledged that Gabriel made, "unacceptable gross generalizations of Arabs and Muslims," distancing his organization from her views.^[34]

In 2007 at the Christians United For Israel annual conference, Gabriel delivered the following speech:

The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil [applause].... this is what we're witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no soul, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call "Allah" which is very different from the God we believe....[applause] because our God is the God of love.

—Christians United For Israel annual conference 2007^[41]

This speech was subsequently criticised by journalist Bruce Wilson as being "hate speech" and stated that Brigitte Gabriel "paints a wide swath of humanity as subhuman", comparing her to Goebbel's Reich.^[41]

In March 2011 while being interviewed by Eliot Spitzer on CNN, Gabriel defended the speech stating:

I was talking about how Palestinian mothers are encouraging their children to go out and blow themselves up to smithereens just to kill Christians and Jews. And it was in that context that I – that I contrasted the difference between Israel and the Arabic world, was the difference between democracy and barbarism.^[42]

She further added:

How easily journalists, or people and comments especially now with the Internet age, can take few words and either paste them together or edit them together to basically express their own point of view.^[42]

References to Nazi Germany are at best an indication of lack of arguments and at worst a scoundrel alarm. I do not want to apologize for Islam. I do believe religion is a bad thing. Islamic extremism is a problem for Muslim countries. Compare the angry diatribe to the courageous words of a girl fighting Islamic extremism at the risk of her life: http://arnulfo.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/malala-yousafzai/



The Heritage Foundation hosted a Benghazi panel on Monday that took a turn for the worse when a Muslim law student asked the panel a question about their portrayal of Islam as universally bad. Their answers, detailed in Dana Milbank'sWashington Post column,
it is perhaps not so surprising when you know that two of the Foundation's panelists were Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! for America, and Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy. Gabriel is a prominent anti-Sharia activist who is a regular commentator on Fox News. Gaffney is one of the architects of a conservative approach to national security that advocates for the profiling and surveillance of Muslim Americans.

The anti-proliferation brigade

Uploaded on Jul 22, 2010

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea's two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing"the fear and folly of nuclear weapons." It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.

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World Nuclear Stockpile Report

The exact number of nuclear weapons in global arsenals is not known. With little exception, each of the nine countries with nuclear weapons guards these numbers as closely held national secrets. What is known, however, is that more than a decade and a half after the Cold War ended, the world's combined stockpile of nuclear warheads remain at unacceptably high levels.

Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris of the Federation of American Scientists are the leading experts in estimating the size of global nuclear weapons inventories. The table is a compilation of their estimates and analyses, with links to their full reports. These reports are published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and discussed further at the FAS Strategic Security Blog.
As the authors of these estimates note, the above numbers may not add up due to rounding and uncertainty about the operational statuses and size of the total inventories. For a full analysis of how the authors arrived at their estimates, please view the provided links for the complete reports.
These huge stockpiles come at great financial cost to the countries that keep nuclear weapons. Even in the U.S., these costs area difficult to determine but, through careful analysis, Ploughshares Fund has released our best estimate of just how much nuclear weapons will cost the U.S. over the next ten years.
Updated November 4, 2013.

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Renewable energy programs

Germany's renewable energy revolution

Tim Smedley Guardian Professional, Friday 10 May 2013 17.58 BST

To many a casual observer, Germany's reaction to the Fukushima disaster seemed knee-jerk to say the least.

Nuclear power produces nearly 20% of Germany's energy, but in July 2011 (only three months after Fukushima) the German government vowed to shut down its nuclear capability within 10 years. Not just that, but to replace it with renewable energy, cut greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, ensure renewables contribute 80% of Germany's energy by 2050, and ensure energy consumption drops 20% by 2020 and 50% by 2050. It even has its own word: 'Energiewende', or 'Energy Transformation'. And Angela Merkel, not known for hyperbole, has described it as a 'Herculean task'.

The sight of thousands of kilometres of power cables slicing through the German countryside, and the costs involved, are beginning to bite. A renewable energy surcharge has already seen the average family's energy bill increase by 47% in the past two years.

There are also question marks over the transportation and storage of intermittent wind energy.

While a lot of the media attention has been focused on large-scale wind farms (and Fischedick expects wind power to contribute half of the 80% renewable energy target by 2050), one of the most fascinating aspects of Energiewende is how it embraces micro-generation and micro-ownership. Public acceptance is, says Fischedick, much easier to maintain if it is paralleled with levels of individual ownership. Also known as a 'prosumer' model, over 50% of renewable-energy capacity is owned by individuals or farmers in Germany; the Big Four energy companies own just 6.5% (according to 2010 figures). "This is PV, co-generation... really small facilities," says Fischedick. "The prosumer aspect is vitally important... if you only have the chance to look from outside at the changes then you are much more [likely to be] complaining about what is going on."

This in turn is causing the big utility companies to reassess their role. Rather than continuing to rely on business-as-usual, they are significantly ramping up investment in biomass plants, offshore wind and large-scale photovoltaic plants, informs Fischedick. "In addition we have some utility companies looking at becoming a sort of service provider for the prosumer; RWE for instance provide a new service for the typical house owner to help them construct their own PV system on the roof, and to combine it with a small-scale battery. They have really changed their business portfolio in the last two years, just to be part of the game."

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ISLAMABAD: Minister for Power and Water Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has indicated that the government intends to invest in wind power to find a solution to the ever deepening energy crisis with at least 3,200 Mega Watts (MW) of power to be generated through it.

Mukhtar was addressing the launch ceremony of commemorative Postal stamp in Islamabad on inauguration of Pakistan’s first 50MW wind energy project by Fauji Fertiliser Company (FFC).

The minister said that 106MW is ready for commercial operation while projects to generate 150MW are under construction. He added that the next year will see at least 10 more projects with an investment of over $2 billion.

Mukhtar said that the commencement of commercial operation of FFC wind farm is the beginning of exploiting the wind potential of Gharo Keti Bandar Wind Corridor – an area that alone has 50,000MW power generation potential.

“I feel exalted that many more wind power projects are in pipeline and will commence their commercial operations one after another in the coming months,” he said.

Later during the day, Mukhtar told the media that a formal agreement has been reached between Pakistan Post and Alternate Energy Development Board to issue special postage stamp to save energy.

He said that the main reason for the current power crisis is the shortage of water in dams and assured that the government has taken adequate steps to overcome the shortfall.

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Saudi Arabia Plans $109 Billion Boost for Solar Power

By Wael Mahdi - Nov 22, 2012 4:53 PM GMT


Saudi Arabia plans to produce electricity from its first nuclear plant by 2020 and begin operating a solar farm by 2015, said an official at the agency developing the country’s renewable energy program.

Drones

CIA drone strikes

3 November 2013 Last updated at 00:07 GMT

The US has responded to accusations from Pakistan that a drone strike that killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud had destroyed the country's nascent peace process.

A state department official said talks with the Taliban were an internal matter for Pakistan.

The statement insisted Pakistan and the US had a "shared strategic interest in ending extremist violence".

It also said it could still not confirm that Mehsud had been killed on Friday.

Pakistan has summoned the US ambassador to protest over Friday's drone strike that killed Mehsud.

U.S. Drone Program

Edited time: October 29, 2013 20:58

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The victims of a drone strike alleged to be launched last year by the United States spoke to members of Congress on Tuesday and urged the US government to stop killing civilians with weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles.

Rafiq ur Rehman, a primary school teacher from North Waziristan, Pakistan, spoke through an interpreter on Capitol Hill on Tuesday along with his two children, ages nine and 13.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) invited Rehman to speak in Washington about the strike last October that killed Momina Bibi, his 67-year-old mother who was recognized around the region as a midwife, not a militant. Regardless, a weaponized drone purported to be under the control of the US Central Intelligence Agency executed Bibi in front of her grandchildren on Oct. 24, 2012. The US has not formally acknowledged the attack, nor taken responsibility.

"Nobody has ever told me why my mother was targeted that day,” Rehman said during the Tuesday morning panel. "All media reported three, four, five militants were killed. But only one person was killed that day. A mom, grandma, a midwife.”

“The string that holds the pearls together. That is what my mother was,” Rahman said. “Since her death, the string has been broken and life has not been the same. We feel alone and we feel lost.”

Barry O’Bomber

Posted by Lesley Clark on October 11, 2013

"I thanked President Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees," she said in the statement. "I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact."

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakastani girl who was shot in the head on her school bus by Taliban gunmen for criticizing their rule, including banning education for girls.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/11/205176/obama-and-first-lady-meet-with.html

war in Afghanistan

KABUL | Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:38am EDT

(Reuters) - An Afghan man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at U.S. soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least one serviceman on Sunday, local officials and the NATO-led coalition said.

poverty and terrorism

Gunmen have killed at least nine foreign tourists after storming a hotel in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, police say.

Initial reports say five are from Ukraine, one from Russia and three from China. A Pakistani woman is also said to have been killed.

The attack happened near the base camp of the Nanga Parbat Mountain, in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan.

No group has so far said it carried out the attack.

Police had at first said 10 foreign tourists were killed. The motive for the attack is not yet clear.

Part of the Himalayan Range, Nanga Parbat is one of the highest mountains in the world and a popular tourist destination.

"Unknown people entered a hotel where foreign tourists were staying last night and opened fire," Ali Sher, a senior police officer, told Reuters.

A senior official said the area had been sealed off and police were hunting for the killers.

"Since the area is very remote with no roads or transport, their bodies will have to be retrieved by helicopter," he said.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have condemned the attack.

Mr Sharif, who was re-elected earlier this month, said such acts of cruelty and inhumanity would not be tolerated.

Meanwhile Gilgit governor Syed Mehdi Shah is set to hold a meeting with regional law enforcement agencies on Sunday to discuss the security situation in the area, Radio Pakistan reports.

Correspondents say Gilgit-Baltistan, which borders China, had been considered one of the more secure areas under Pakistani control.

However, in recent years it has suffered a spate of attacks by militants targeting Pakistan's Shia Muslim minority.

The area is famous for its natural beauty and the main city of Gilgit is seen as a gateway to the Karakoram and Himalayan mountain ranges.




Published on Dec 21, 2012

United Nations, December 2012 - Pakistan - it's a country rich in culture and history, but it's also a country struggling with rising threats of terrorism and in some regions, radical ideology. But now, many of Pakistan's youth are fighting back, determined to shape a future of prosperity ....and peace.

21ST CENTURY SHOW # 73

Transcript:
http://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/21century73.pdf

The ingenuity of looting

India-U.S. Fight on Basmati Rice Is Mostly Settled
By SARITHA RAI
Published: August 25, 2001


A Texas company's attempt to patent a type of basmati rice became a touchstone for anti-globalization protest in the 1990's. But the long-simmering issue was largely settled this week, when the United States granted a narrower patent to the company, Ricetec of Alvin, Tex.

The United States originally granted the patent in 1997, touching a nerve in India, leading to a challenge by the Indian government and igniting demonstrations against what was termed a piracy of emerging nations' indigenous products.

After this week's decision, the Indian government said it saw no reason for further dispute. The new patent is limited to a few variants of the rice and will not hamper export of its own basmati product, the government concluded.

Still, scientists in India are complaining about future problems while evaluating the impact, and opposition politicians are agitating for further action.

The protests in the late 1990's were led by Vandana Shiva, who called Ricetec's claim to basmati rice absurd. She termed the limited scope of the final patent largely a success. But, she warned, ''the battle against Ricetec is just the beginning of India's battle against bio-piracy and theft of indigenous plant wealth.''

For most Indians, the basmati controversy went beyond the economic impact of one product. Basmati, an aromatic rice used in virtually every Indian kitchen, is considered a national heritage. The long-grain rice, whose grains remain petal-soft and separate after cooking, grows in the Punjab region in the north, and across the border in Pakistan.

In 1997, the United States initially granted a broad basmati patent to Ricetec, which developed several strains of rice marketed under various names as similar to basmati. Of the 20 claims made by the company, most related to the rice plant, with others covering the grain and farming methods.

The American decision created an uproar as bitter Indians expressed frustration that successive governments had let India lose claim to basmati, which had never been trademarked. India and its rival Pakistan said they would fight the patent, calling it a threat to the economic survival of thousands of farmers in the subcontinent. More than 50,000 people demonstrated in front of the United Sates Embassy against the patent.

At the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, India protested the agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights, which had led to a spate of patents for western companies, including for basmati rice. Another coalition denounced the basmati rice patent at the Seattle meeting, and called on W.T.O. members to accept that the rights of farmers and communities precede intellectual property rights.

At the Summit of the Americas in Quebec, activists protested against the prospect of intellectual property protection that would work to the advantage of multinationals involved in genetic engineering of agricultural products -- like basmati developed over hundreds of years -- at the expense of small farmers in developing countries.

For years, India largely ignored any claim or legal protection for growers and marketers of basmati. A bill has been introduced to recognize produce as belonging to a specific geographical area, but it is still pending before a panel of the Parliament. Given that basmati is not patented by geographic location even within India, the country's international patent appeal appears weak.

For over two decades ''basmati'' has been used in the United States to describe long-grain aromatic rice grown domestically. This usage went unchallenged by India, so much so that the patent claims were under the plea of ''long usage'' provided for in trade-related intellectual property rights.

The premium grain stacked up in American supermarkets under brand names like Calmati, which comes from California, and Texmati and Kasmati, which are marketed by Ricetec.

Indian basmati exporters dismiss these varieties as basmati imitations. The distinct aroma and the texture of basmati comes from the Indian soil irrigated by waters from the Himalayan rivers, they say.

India urged the United States Patent and Trade Office in April 2000 to re-examine certain Ricetec claims that India felt posed a threat to Indian basmati exports to the United States. In hundreds of pages of scientific evidence, India argued that its basmati varieties already had the characteristics claimed as unique by Ricetec.

India protested Ricetec's claim to the term basmati, and insisted that the appellation should be reserved for rice grown in a specific region in India. The argument is much like the one that has been used successfully to limit Champagne to France and Scotch whiskey to Scotland.

Ricetec subsequently withdrew some 15 claims. The American patent office just issued a patent on the claims dealing with three strains of the rice developed by the company.

While the government said it was satisfied, opposition politicians stalled proceedings in the Indian Parliament demanding that the government challenge the patent.

On Tuesday, the commerce minister, Digvijay Singh, tried to pacify members of Parliament, saying Ricetec had received only a varietal patent so it could sell its rice as a superior strain of basmati. India could also develop its own different strains of basmati, he said.

Ms. Shiva, the protester, saw the narrowing of the patent as a significant accomplishment. ''What remains is a farmers' battle, because Ricetec's strains have been bred from traditional Indian and Pakistani basmati varieties,'' she said. Activists will continue to urge the government to pursue a trademark battle for the basmati name.

But scientists, including Dr. S. A. Siddiq of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, remain skeptical about India's ability to thwart piracy of traditional basmati strains. ''India exports a million tons of basmati a year, and India is complacent because the Ricetec patent does not hinder that,'' Dr. Siddiq said.

The issue goes beyond mere protection of trade and export of the rice. ''The basmati patent came so suddenly that India has just woken up to the threat to its traditional plant wealth,'' Dr. Siddiq said. ''We have to get our laws in place.''

Ms. Shiva says that allowing multinational companies to patent indigenous produce and knowledge is a theft and has resulted in the revoking of a European patent for the traditional Indian neem tree. Patent fights are on for medicinal turmeric and tamarind.

''Granting exclusive patent rights amounts to stealing economic options of daily survival from the developing world,'' Ms. Shiva said.

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The Mayacoba Bean is a case of biopiracy, where Larry Procter, a Colorado executive in the bean industry cultivated yellow beans he bought in Mexico on vacation for which he received a US patent two years later on all yellow beans of this variety. Larry’s company, Pod-Ners, admits that its Enola bean, (named after Larry Proctor’s wife), is a descendant of the traditional Mexican bean from the Andes, the Mayacoba, but that it has a better yellow color and a more consistent shape. By obtaining a patent and a U.S. Plant Variety Protection Certificate, he secured what amounted to a legal monopoly over yellow beans sold in the United States. Under the terms of the patent, he can therefore sue anyone in the United States who sells or grows a bean that he considered to be his particular shade of yellow. Procter also profits from yellow beans imported from Mexico by imposing on them a six cent-per-pound royalty. As a result, both farmers in the United States and particularly in Northern Mexico have suffered great economic hardship. The case has stimulated great debate over whether traditional knowledge and/or genetic resources should be patentable in the first place. As the number of patents filed by large corporations for native crops increases, activists become more concerned about the adverse effects of these patents on developing countries and particularly indigenous people.

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THE SBMATE PATENT:
AMERICAN INGENUITY OR LOOTING OF A TANZANIAN RESOURCE?

CHARLOTTE HINKLE

April 10, 2011

Today’s pirates don’t come with eye patches and daggers clenched in their teeth, but with sharp suits and claiming intellectual property rights. So those rich countries which take seeds away from their poorer neighbors and then try to patent them are guilty of theftplain and simple: biopirates by another name.

–New Scientist

UN's anti-polio campaign

Polio's last stand? 2012 cases

Nigeria - 97
Pakistan - 47
Afghanistan - 26
Chad - 5
Source: IMB


Attacks in the Peshawar region killed a female vaccination supervisor and her driver, as well as a student volunteer.

Coming after five deaths on Tuesday, the UN said it was suspending its three-day vaccination drive.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have issued threats against the UN's anti-polio campaign.

Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic.

The UN children's agency Unicef and the World Health Organisation were suspending work on the programme nationwide after Wednesday's bloodshed, said Unicef spokesman Michael Coleman.

The programme was halted in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces on Tuesday after four female health workers were shot dead in the city, while another female worker was killed in an attack in Peshawar.

Nationwide drive
The vaccination supervisor and her driver died when their car was sprayed by gunmen riding motorbikes in Charsadda district, north of Peshawar, police said.

The student volunteer was shot in the head when gunmen on two motorbikes fired at a team of vaccinators in a northern suburb of Peshawar.

Gunmen riding motorbikes also shot at polio vaccinators in another area of Charsadda and in the adjoining district of Nowshera, although no injuries were reported.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday condemned the attacks and praised the work of the polio vaccination teams, calling on regional authorities to guarantee their safety.

Wednesday is the final day of a three-day nationwide anti-polio drive - during which an estimated 5.2 million polio drops were to be administered.

There has been opposition to such immunisation drives in parts of Pakistan, particularly after a fake CIA hepatitis vaccination campaign helped to locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

Militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO workers in the past in an attempt to halt the immunisation drives, which they say are part of efforts to spy on them.

Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only other countries where polio is still endemic.

Pakistan is considered the key battleground in the global fight against the disease, which attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours of infection.

Jihad Jane

By John Shiffman

(Reuters) - Colleen LaRose, the middle-aged American woman who called herself Jihad Jane, hurried to the computer in her duplex near Philadelphia - the place where she had spent months entertaining murder.

Minutes earlier, an FBI agent had left a card on her door, requesting a call, and LaRose had known precisely what to do. She emailed her al-Qaeda handler for advice.

It was July 17, 2009, and almost four months had passed since LaRose had agreed to kill in the name of Allah. Now, the FBI left a calling card on her doorstep. How had they found her? And what did they know?

Her al-Qaeda handler, Eagle Eye, lived in Pakistan. He was wise. He was pious. He would guide her.

LaRose, now 46, had never seen his face, but during online chats, he had seen hers. Her blonde hair, fair skin and green eyes made her a prized recruit, especially for the undertaking Eagle Eye had ordered. She would blend in nicely, avoiding suspicion. Eagle Eye's plot called for her to travel to Sweden and murder Lars Vilks, the artist who had blasphemed the Prophet Mohammad.