State Sponsors of Terror & extra-State Terror Actors: the Challenge to Ethical Democracy

What the article below fails to note is that the U.S. is a state sponsor of terror.

So is Pakistan.

So is Saudi Arabia.

Money flows freely among these three to fund terror. It's been flowing for at least 60 years.

And as you can see China is playing a subversive balance-of-power role in the UNSC vote, by offering limited strategic support to Pakistan. While it quietly executes so-called Islamic militants, the Uighurs, Turkic Muslims, in China.

However, the US action, acting on India counterterrorism intelligence, in the UNSC while long overdue is a welcome step in the right direction.

Only when (white) Americans died in Mumbai, did the US take action against Pakistan. Corpses of color don't count in US racialized discourse, whether in Iraq or at home.

But even though the US has acted in the UN Security Council, the US will continue to contribute to terror on the ground in South Asia and West Asia because the US govt is currently a terror agent in Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and in the past, other places, Greece for example which recently had riots.

The ordinary people of Pakistan want prosperity, health and peace just like all the peoples of South Asia and West Asia (btw, I never refer to this area as the Middle East, a colonial and later US neo-imperial geopolitical construct). However the Pakistan government has been a terror pawn of the US ever since the US-led action against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

The US sponsorship of terror, at the same time as it is selectively fighting terror, will have to change fundamentally (double entendre intended), before we see any substantive progress in the so-called US-led war on terror.

Chithra KarunaKaran

Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A United Nations Security Council committee put three Pakistani leaders of the group Lashkar-e-Taiba and a Saudi operative on a terrorist watch list Wednesday as new evidence surfaced that the group blamed for the Mumbai attacks has expanded its activities and its fundraising well beyond South Asia.

A U.N. document obtained by McClatchy said that LeT has sent operatives to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, established a branch in Saudi Arabia and been raising funds in Europe. The group may also have received money from al Qaida, suggesting that it has close ties with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, the document said.

Although Pakistan's government outlawed LeT in May 2002, it "continues to operate and engage in or support terrorist activities abroad," the document said.

"Is there real concern about Lashkar trying to expand its footprint? The answer is yes," said a U.S. counterterrorism official in response to questions about the document, which the U.N. committee reviewed before voting to add the four to the watch list. He requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

U.S. intelligence officials worry that as the U.S.-led campaign against al Qaida has taken a toll on its leaders, restricted the movement of its members and curbed its financial support, bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman al Zawahiri, have cultivated ties with other militant Islamist groups, especially non-Arab ones such as LeT.

The U.N. document, which describes some of LeT's activities and fundraising, names LeT founder Muhammad Saeed as the group's "overall leader and chief," and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged military coordinator who was arrested by security forces on Sunday on the Pakistan-held side of the divided Kashmir region.

The U.N. Security Council al Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee also added Haji Muhammad Ashraf, whom the U.N. document calls Lashkar's finance chief, and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahariq, whom it describes as a key propagandist who once coordinated fund-raising activities in Saudi Arabia, to the watch list.

The committee said in a statement that three of the four reside in Pakistan: Saeed, who insists that he left LeT to run a charity that the U.S. considers a LeT front organization, Lakhvi and Ashraf. It said that Bahariq is from Saudi Arabia.

Individuals and groups placed on the U.N. list are subject to international sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans. LeT was included on the list in May 2005.

The U.S. and India sought to have the U.N. designate the four as part of an crackdown on LeT, which is accused of training and sending the 10 gunmen who attacked two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a train station and other targets during a three-day rampage earlier this month in Mumbai. More than 170 people died, including six Americans.

India also sought to have the U.N. committee include on the list Hamid Gul, a retired Pakistani Army general who headed the country's main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, in the late 1980s. However, China, a close ally of Pakistan that has veto power on the Security Council, apparently blocked Gul's inclusion.

Gul, a harsh critic of the U.S., insists that he has no connections to any extremist groups.

The U.N. document said that Saeed plays "a key role" in LeT's operational and fundraising activities.

"In 2005, (LeT founder) Saeed determined where graduates of an LeT camp in Pakistan should be sent to fight, and personally organized the infiltration of LeT militants into Iraq during a trip to Saudi Arabia," the document said. "Saeed also arranged for an LeT operative to be sent to Europe as LeT's European fundraising coordinator."

Lakhvi, the group's alleged military coordinator, "has directed LeT operations, including in Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and Southeast Asia. In 2006, Lakhvi instructed LeT associates to train operatives for suicide bombings," the document said. "In 2004, Lakhvi sent operatives and funds to attack U.S. forces in Iraq, having directed an LeT operative to travel to Iraq in 2003 to assess the situation there."

The document alleged that Lakhvi has also been involved in fundraising activities, "reportedly receiving al Qaida-affiliated donations on behalf of LeT."

Ashraf has overseen Lashkar's finances since 2003, the document said. It alleged that he traveled to the Middle East to collect money and help the "Saudi Arabia-based LeT leadership with expanding its organization and increasing fundraising activities."

Bahariq was "credited with being the main financier behind the establishment of the LeT," which was founded in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, said the document. He then went on to become the group's leader in Saudi Arabia and coordinated fundraising with Saudi non-governmental groups and businessmen, it said.

"As of mid-2005, Bahaziq played a key role in LeT's propaganda and media operations," it continued.

The Mumbai attacks have fueled serious tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

The Bush administration has been pressing Islamabad to crack down on Lashkar and other extremist groups in an effort to dissuade India from launching retaliatory military strikes against Pakistan.

Washington fears that Indian retaliation could spark a fourth Indo-Pakistan war that would free al Qaida and other Islamic militant groups to intensify their insurgency in Afghanistan.

ON THE WEB

Read the press release of the U.N. Security Council al Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY:

U.S. forces mistakenly kill 6 Afghan policemen

India says Pakistan must sustain resolve

Pakistan has made start but must do more

Video Report: Pakistan under pressure over terrorists
McClatchy Newspapers 2008
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IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING

"IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING."

This is the slogan that has protected us in New York City, since 9/11. This is the mentality, the thought process, the active public engagement we in India need.

The 72-year old harbor official in Mumbai who SAW the young men getting out of a speedboat at night with overloaded backpacks, should have SAID something because he SAW something. This is EVERY citizen's obligation.

Don't leave it to the politicians especially the rightwing, antisecular, anticonstitutional Hindutva elements, or sluggish, status-preserving lifetime salaried bureaucrats.

It's up to The People to say something, to kick the butts of their elected leaders, these paid/bribed political hacks, to DO the PEOPLES WILL.

NDTV and other media, Stop talking to the talking heads. Step aside and let The PEOPLE speak. Let the People Engage in vigilant antiterrorism, for the Greater Collective Good (GCG).

That is a critical and preferred path towards a People's
Democracy. We aren't there yet, either in India or the U.S. or South Africa or Brasil or anywhere else.

DEMOCRACY'S WORK IS NEVER DONE.

Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.Blogspot.com
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Terror Strikes & India Grieves

http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2008/11/27/world/asia/27mumbai.html?s=1&pg=8

My Comment NYT#193. (a version)
November 26, 2008 9:30 pm

India and ALL the sovereign nation-states of South Asia can go forward ONLY if We the People collectively WAGE PEACE & JUSTICE while increasing VIGILANCE and SECURITY, vigorously encouraging our governments to pursue the governance we DESERVE.

I thank every person for their comments that show CONCERN for those who suffered and died and have been injured in these horrific attacks and I send my sympathy to their families and communities who have suffered such a grevious loss.

I deplore all comments on these NYT Comment pages against Muslims and Islam, made in response to the terror attacks inflicted upon the innocent people of Mumbai, allegedly by a group calling themselves the Deccan Mujahadeen. Terrorism has no religion, though religion is used as an excuse.

Economic/ Social/Political Justice is a powerful antidote against terror. A few of the millions who are despairing and marginalized by hunger, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, discrimination can and do become pathological. They violate the rights of countless others with murderous, callous indifference. They can even lead seemingly comfortable middle class lives and still experience marginalization, as in the London bombings. Ethnic Tamil Hindus and ethnic Buddhists have been operating for decades with violence and murder in Sri Lanka.

What role have neo-imperial nation-states (U.S.) and former colonial powers (U.K.) played through invasion, occupation, sanctions, threats, settlement, militaristic intervention, resource consumption, in other formerly colonized, now emerging sovereign nation-states? Retaliatory extra-state terrorism and long-term state-sponsored corporate terrorism appear to be linked.

Mumbai is one amazing resilient global megacity, whether temporarily submerged by a powerful monsoon or by a powerful series of bloody bomb blasts. Mumbaikars are worthy of their/our great city and they are in our meditations and in our collective action.

Gandhi's lived message ("my life is my message") of peace and non-violence in this precise moment of terrorist violence, is especially relevant.

Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.Blogspot.com

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Unsung Heroes: The Iraqi People

Yes, this (see below) is a moving human interest story. Yes Dr. Chris Coppola and his wife Meredith are both caring sensitive individuals.
But what's the REAL story? That this U.S. regime is a state sponsor of terror in Iraq. "Shock and awe" is terror. That this regime's armed destruction of human life has invited a pathologized resistance that had never been there before. Dr. Coppola should not even have to go to Iraq. The problem is that the Bush-Cheney regime
s invasion and occupation of the sovereign nation-state of Iraq and dangerous threats to the sovereign nation-state of Iran makes false heroes (like Dr. Coppola) of the ones that "serve" -- serving up death and destruction and then winning medals and accolades and book contracts for their "service."
The occupation is inhuman, it's unethical and it must stop.

Who are the unsung heroes? The Iraqi people.

http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
see below for story that prompted my response:
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October 15, 2007

A Military Doctor in Iraq, and Baby Blue

When American military surgeon Dr. Chris Coppola shipped off to Iraq in September, his wife Meredith knitted two baby blankets, one pink and one blue, just in case he might need them. Last week, the blue blanket was put to use, an event chronicled in moving detail on Dr. Coppola’s compelling medical blog, “Made a Difference For That One.”

Dr. Coppola’s blog is essentially a regular letter home to his family, but it offers a glimpse into the deadly human toll going on a world away in Iraq. One of his most recent posts, called Blue Blanket, is a dramatic account of an Iraqi woman who was injured after gunmen apparently fired on a bus filled with women and young girls. She was eight months pregnant — her husband had been killed seven months earlier — and bullets and metal fragments pierced her hip and uterus. Dr. Coppola recounts how he and his colleagues scrambled for information on how to treat the war wounds, consulting with trauma experts in Baghdad and the United States for advice.

He describes in graphic detail the ensuing operation and delivery of a baby boy, who was purple and not breathing until a few puffs of oxygen brought forth a cry. The war-zone hospital wasn’t equipped with an incubator, but the team found a crib and wrapped it in cellophane from the food service department. They added a hose that blew warm air into the makeshift incubator. The boy’s mother was still in intensive care, but the staff was excited by the new arrival.

It seemed like nearly everyone drifted by to sneak a peek-a-loo. The lucky bedside nurses got to feed him his first meal, which he took well. We fussed over his numbers and vital signs. We scowled over complications that might occur and brainstormed for stratagems to ward them off. He seemed to pay our worries no mind. I rushed back to my hooch to bring him a blue receiving blanket that M. had knit and sent with me to Iraq in case a baby might need to be warmed. His freshly cleaned tiny features are a calming precious beauty in our utilitarian combat support hospital. If he can emerge safe from such a horrible event, perhaps there is hope for even better days to come.

This is Dr. Coppola’s second stint in Iraq — he was there for five months in 2005 and just returned last month. During his first stay, he didn’t blog but instead sent regular e-mails home to his family, which his wife has since compiled into a book called “Made a Difference For That One: A Surgeon’s Letters Home From Iraq.” A portion of the book’s proceeds are donated to Fisher House Foundation, a group that provides housing for the family of military members who are hospitalized for treatment. The military newspaper Stars and Stripes recently wrote a feature about the hospital where Dr. Coppola works.

• Dear Ms. Parker-Pope,

  Thank you very much for featuring my letters home. As you so kindly mentioned, the purpose of this blog and the book my wife and I published is to call attention to Fisher House (www.fisherhouse.org) an organization which helps families of injured troops. From our combat support hospital, I have a limited, yet intense perspective on the war. I’d like to send out my good wishes to you and also to the many families who are missing their loved ones over here.

  Warm regards,

  Chris

  — Posted by Chris Coppola

• ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

October 16th,
2007
9:53 pm

It is noteworthy that my post drew more ire than the good doctor drew kudos for his humanitarian work on his second tour in Iraq. That’s regrettable because as I have already stated in my first post, the doctor cares about people and he is a sensitive caring individual.

Here’s the point of my critique which I rather suspect will again be lost in crudely self-serving,
highly profitable patriotism.

Dr. C’s heroic exploits, and heroic they are, there’s irony in that, represent the “human face” of U.S. predatory capitalism and neo-imperial triumphalism. Except there’s absolutely nothing to be triumphant about. Instead, there’s reason to grieve. The mass killings of tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands, I am being really conservative in my estimates here)of Iraqi women, children and men that this US regime does not even care to count.

I am also aware that I am speaking across a vast racial divide, being a Third World woman of color who has relatives in Iraq. Are all the posters and the doctor and his wife white? Hmmmmm.

Systemic Whiteness and white supremacism is what U.S. white racism is all about. Genocide and racism are inherent aspects of U.S. history and continue to impact contemporary relations with the rest of the world.

Who are the unsung heroes of this tragic war?
The Iraqi people. No one else.

http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com

— Posted by Chithra KarunaKaran

Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com