Obama condemns CIA torture past but stays quiet on accountability

In his first televised remarks on the torture report, President Obama stuck to his line of condemning past actions without taking sides in the debate over whether there was a cover-up for which people should be held accountable.

“In the aftermath of 9/11, in the midst of a national trauma and uncertainty about whether these attacks were going to repeat themselves … what’s clear is that theCIA set up something very fast without a lot of forethought,” he told Telemundo.

“The lines of accountability that needed to be set up weren’t always in place and some of these techniques that were described were not only wrong but were counterproductive.”

Obama said the methods employed by the CIA were flawed, although he stopped short of claiming with the Senate report that no useful intelligence was gathered that could not have been obtained elsewhere.

“We know that oftentimes when someone is being subjected to these kinds of techniques they are willing to say anything to alleviate the pain and distress they are feeling. We have got better ways of doing things,” Obama added in the interview.

He also said it was impossible to imagine the pressures after 9/11 but that “does not excuse all of us from looking squarely at what happened and make sure that it doesn’t happen again”.

“It’s important for us not to paint any broad-brush [picture] about all the incredible dedicated professionals in our intelligence community based on some actions that were contrary to who we are, but it’s also important for us to face up to the fact that when countries are threatened often they act rashly in ways that in retrospect were wrong.”

“We need to acknowledge that in part in order build in place systems, so that if – heaven forbid – we find out ourselves under the kind of direct threats that have occurred in the past that we recognise the dangers ahead of time and do better,” said Obama.

Asked if he was concerned the CIA could still be hiding things from him, Obama said no: “I have been very explicit … in prohibiting these techniques. Anybody who was doing the kind of things described in the report would not simply be keeping something from me, they would be directly violating the orders I have issued as commander in chief.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/10/obamas-first-comments-torture-cia-accountability

Security scare after man rushes stage as Malala Yousafzai collects her Nobel Peace Prize

By MARK LEWIS

Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India received the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for risking their lives to help protect children from slavery, extremism and forced labour at great risk to their own lives.

The 17-year-old Ms Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel winner, and Mr Satyarthi, 60, collected the award at a ceremony in Oslo City Hall in the Norwegian capital to a standing ovation. As she received her award, a young man ran on to the stage waving a Mexican flag that he had apparently smuggled into the heavily guarded ceremony, and he was whisked away by a guard.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg bemoaned the brief interruption and lapse in security. To help protect Ms Yousafzai – who had been shot in the head by Taliban extremists in Pakistan in 2012 – Oslo has been dominated by armed police and security guards for days, with blocked-off streets, metal fences and helicopters whirring above.

In his speech to an audience including Norwegian royalty and politicians, Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said all children have a right to childhood and education, and “this world conscience can find no better expression” than through this year’s winners.

Referring to Ms Yousafzai’s serious injury in Pakistan two years ago, he said Islamic extremist groups dislike knowledge because it is a condition for freedom. “Attendance at school, especially by girls, deprives such forces from power,” he said.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai displays her medal (Getty)
He praised Mr Satyarthi’s vision of ending child labour and how he had abandoned a career as an electrical engineer in 1980 to fight for that vision.

Mr Jagland also singled out another Indian, Mahatma Gandhi, who remains the most notable omission in the 113-year history of the Nobel Peace Prize. The chairman said prize winners live according to Gandhi’s principle: “There are many purposes I would have died for. There are no purposes I would have killed for.”

In his acceptance speech, Mr Satyarthi referred to rapid globalisation, high-speed internet and international flights that connect people. “But there is one serious disconnect. It is a lack of compassion,” he said, urging the audience to “globalise compassion”, starting with children.

Ms Yousafzai’s parents sat in the front row of the hall holding hands, and she thanked them for their unconditional love.  “Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings and for letting me fly,” she said. “Thank you to my mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always speak the truth – which we strongly believe is the real message of Islam.”

Earlier, the flag-waving youth who interrupted the ceremony had shaken Ms Yousafzai’s hand in the Grand Hotel, where she was staying, telling her how much he admired her.

The other awards – in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature – were presented in Stockholm yesterday. The ceremonies are always held on 10 December, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

U.S. - The Senate Report on the C.I.A.’s Torture and Lies

EDITORIAL: 

The world has long known that the United States government illegally detained and tortured prisoners after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and lied about it to Congress and the world. But the summary of a reportreleased Tuesday of the Senate investigation of these operations, even after being sanitized by the Central Intelligence Agency itself, is a portrait of depravity that is hard to comprehend and even harder to stomach.

The report raises again, with renewed power, the question of why no one has ever been held accountable for these seeming crimes — not the top officials who set them in motion, the lower-level officials who committed the torture, or those who covered it up, including by destroying videotapes of the abuse and by trying to block the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of their acts.

The world has long known that the United States government illegally detained and tortured prisoners after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and lied about it to Congress and the world. But the summary of a reportreleased Tuesday of the Senate investigation of these operations, even after being sanitized by the Central Intelligence Agency itself, is a portrait of depravity that is hard to comprehend and even harder to stomach.

The report raises again, with renewed power, the question of why no one has ever been held accountable for these seeming crimes — not the top officials who set them in motion, the lower-level officials who committed the torture, or those who covered it up, including by destroying videotapes of the abuse and by trying to block the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of their acts.

The Senate committee’s summary says that the torture by C.I.A. interrogators and private contractors was “brutal and far worse” than the agency has admitted to the public, to Congress and the Justice Department, even to the White House. At least one detainee died of “suspected hypothermia” after being shackled partially naked to a concrete floor in a secret C.I.A. detention center run by a junior officer without experience, competence or supervision. Even now, the report says, it’s not clear how many prisoners were held at this one facility, or what was done to them.

•In that, and other clandestine prisons, very often no initial attempt was made to question prisoners in a nonviolent manner, despite C.I.A. assertions to the contrary. “Instead, in many cases the most aggressive techniques were used immediately, in combination and nonstop,” according to the summary of the declassified and heavily censored document. “Sleep deprivation involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in stress positions, at times with their hands shackled above their heads.”

Detainees were walked around naked and shackled, and at other times naked detainees were “hooded and dragged up and down a long corridor while being slapped and punched.”

The C.I.A. appears to have used waterboarding on more than the three detainees it has acknowledged subjecting to that form of torture. During one session, one of those detainees, Abu Zubaydah, an operative of Al Qaeda, became “completely unresponsive.” The waterboarding of another, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described planner of the 9/11 attacks, became a “series of near drownings.”

Some detainees, the report said, were subjected to nightmarish pseudo-medical procedures, referred to as “rectal feeding.”

That some of these detainees were highly dangerous men does not excuse subjecting them to illegal treatment that brought shame on the United States and served as a recruiting tool for terrorist groups. To make matters worse, the report said that at least 26 of the 119 known C.I.A. prisoners were wrongfully held, some of them for months after the C.I.A. determined that they should not have been taken prisoner in the first place.

The C.I.A. and some members of the President George W. Bush’s administration claimed these brutal acts were necessary to deal with “ticking time bomb” threats and that they were effective. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, an avid promoter of “enhanced interrogation,” still makes that claim.

But “at no time” did the C.I.A.’s torture program produce intelligence that averted a terrorism threat, the report said. All of the information that the C.I.A. attributed to its “enhanced interrogation techniques” was obtained before the brutal interrogations took place, actually came from another source, or was a lie invented by the torture victims — a prospect that the C.I.A. had determined long ago was the likely result of torture.

The report recounted the C.I.A.’s decision to use two outside psychologists “to develop, operate and assess” the interrogation programs. They borrowed from their only experience — an Air Force program designed to train personnel to resist torture techniques that had been used by American adversaries decades earlier. They had no experience in interrogation, “nor did either have specialized knowledge of Al Qaeda, a background in counterterrorism or any relevant cultural or linguistic expertise.”

They decided which prisoners could withstand brutal treatment and then assessed the effectiveness of their own programs. “In 2005, the psychologists formed a company specifically for the purpose of conducting their work with the C.I.A. Shortly thereafter, the C.I.A. outsourced virtually all aspects of the program,” the summary said. And it noted that, “the contractors received $81 million prior to the contract’s termination in 2009.”

The litany of brutality, lawlessness and lack of accountability serves as a reminder of what a horrible decision President Obama made at the outset of his administration to close the books on this chapter in our history, even as he repudiated the use of torture. The C.I.A. officials who destroyed videotapes of waterboarding were left unpunished, and all attempts at bringing these acts into a courtroom were blocked by claims of national secrets.

It is hard to believe that anything will be done now. Republicans, who will soon control the Senate and have the majority on the intelligence panel, denounced the report, acting as though it is the reporting of the torture and not the torture itself that is bad for the country. Maybe George Tenet, who ran the C.I.A. during this ignoble period, could make a tiny amends by returning the Presidential Medal of Freedom that President Bush gave him upon his retirement.

It’s a weird war when Iran and Israel are bombing the same country

By Michael Williams

The McDonnell Douglas’ F4 Phantom was a workhorse of the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. It was retired from the USAF and the British Royal Air Force some 20 years ago. But the vintage fighter-bomber put in a surprise performance a few days ago over the skies of northern Iraq.

Iranian Air Force Phantoms purchased during the reign of the Shah of Iran, who was overthrown in the revolution of 1979, attacked Islamic State bases in Diyala province near the town of Saadiya, on the frontline between Iraqi forces and Islamic State.

Pentagon officials were quick to deny any coordination with the Iranian strikes. What is beyond any question, however, is that both the United States and Iran are acting in the same military theatre against a common enemy. This despite the fact that they have had no diplomatic relations for more than 30 years and at times have seemed on the brink of war themselves. While there appears not to have been any direct coordination between the two militaries, both air forces almost certainly did coordinate with the Iraqi defense ministry about the attack.

This episode unusual, but it is not unprecedented.

Consider that the U.S. Air Force and the Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Air Force have been attacking the same target — the Islamic State controlled city of Raqqa, in the east of the country.

Two weeks ago, the two air forces bombed the city — which is the only provincial capital not in government hands — within days of each other. It is interesting to note that Syrian Air Force attacks on Raqqa have been few and far between since it fell, on Jan. 12, to Islamic State.

Are both the Iranians and the Syrians attacks an opportunistic attempt to underline the common enemy that they share with the United States?

Other members of that coalition will have concluded that they are, and will have viewed these developments with concern, if not anger.

At the commencement of the U.S. coalition attacks on Islamic State, several Gulf air forces participated, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Their participation since has been less evident. And there can be little doubt that the Syrian aerial attack on Raqqa and the Iranian attack on Diyala will be viewed with grave unease among the U.S.’ allies in the Gulf especially if, in the case of Iran, an unspoken alliance with the United States emerges as a result.

Cooperation between Iran and the regimes in Damascus and Baghdad is hardly new. In fact, the alliance between Iran and Syria goes back more than thirty years to the time of Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current Syrian President. It is a crucial alliance, and without it, Iran would not be able to support its critically important Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.

Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, lasting more than a month, could not have been feasible without Iran’s critical arms supplies and technical assistance to its Lebanese ally.

This explains the motive behind the attack inside Syria by Israeli air force jets on Sunday. The first strike targeted warehouses believed to be holding Iranian missile systems destined for the Hezbollah, and a second strike near Dimas, on the highway between Damascus and the Lebanese border, hit a Hezbollah convoy heading towards Lebanon. The Dimas raid also hit an airbase that sheltered advanced Iranian drones. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had received information that several Hezbollah members were killed in the Dimas strike.

The Beirut Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted unnamed Syrian opposition sources as saying that the targeted area of Dimas was considered a closed military area under the control of the Fourth battalion of the government forces led by Assad’s brother, Maher El-Assad. The attacking aircraft, on both occasions, used Lebanese airspace as a corridor to get close to their targets the question now is whether there will be any retaliation for Sunday’s airstrikes by Hizbullah. The organization has still not commented on the strikes. Given its heavy military involvement inside Syria supporting the regime of Bashar al Assad that would seem unlikely.

Iran’s close relationship with Iraq is a result of the Bush Administration’s overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The removal of the Sunni dictator and the collapse of a strong Iraqi state led the way to the empowerment of the Iraqi Shia and a fast developing Teheran – Baghdad axis. Following the fall of Mosul to Islamic State, the military relationship between the two capitals has deepened, with both Washington and Tehran competing to assist the beleaguered Iraqi regime. Iran is known to have supplied Russian built Sukhoi 25 fighters to Iraq and there is a common supposition that these may be flown by Iranian pilots.

This series of events will inevitably complicate US relations with its Gulf allies. Now in its fourth year, the Syrian war shows no sign of resolution and the emergence of ISIS as a major military and political factor in the Middle East can at best only be contained. The chances of a diplomatic breakthrough are close to zero in the Syrian civil war not least because the biggest loser politically is the opposition Syrian National Council. As so often in civil wars the extreme parties are dominating the stage. In 2015 the Obama administration will find let up in pressures jn the Middle East.

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Video - Malala Yousafzai Nobel Peace Prize Speech

وزیراعلیٰ سندھ سید قائم علی شاہ کی ملالہ یوسفزئی کوآج اوسلو میں نوبل انعام ملنے پر مبارکباد

 وزیراعلیٰ سندھ سید قائم علی شاہ نے ملالہ یوسفزئی کوآج اوسلو میں نوبل انعام ملنے پر مبارکباد د یتے

 ہوئے کہا ہے کہ ملالہ کی اس کامیابی سے پوری قوم کا سر فخر سے بلند ہوگیا ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ ملالہ کی جدوجہد تعلیم اور خصوصاً لڑکیوں میں تعلیم کو عام کرنا ہے اور انکی اس جدوجہد اور پرچار سے نہ صرف قبائلی علاقوں بلکہ سندھ حکومت کی جانب سے جاری تعلیمی پروگرام کو فروغ حاصل ہو گا۔

وزیراعلیٰ سندھ نے کہا ہے کہ معاشرے کی ترقی کے لئے حکومت کے ساتھ ساتھ سول سوسائیٹی کا بھی اہم کردار ہوتا ہے اور ملالہ کی اس کامیابی سے سول سوسائیٹی میں بھی ملک اور قوم کی ترقی کے لئے ایک اہم جذ بہ بیدار ہو گا

'راشئ له تیارو د رڼا پر لوري یون پیل کړو - ملالې

د ناروې په پلازمېنه اوسلو کې د نوبېل سولې جایزه د خېبر پښتونخوا له سواته د تعلیم مبارزې ملالې یوسفزۍ او له هنده د ماشومانو لپاره کارکونکي کېلاش ستیارتي ته ورکړل شوه.

د نوبېل سولې جایزې په تاریخ کې ملاله تر ټولو کم عمره ده چې دغه جایزه ترلاسه کوي.

د نوبېل سولې کمېټې مشر تور جان جیګلېنډ په خپله وینا کې ملاله یوسفزۍ او کېلاش ستیارتي د سولې علمبردار وبلل.

ملاله یوسفزۍ په خپله وینا کې وویل، دا د خپل پلار منندویه ده چې د دې وزر یې پرانیستي پرېښودل. او زیاته یې کړه چې «زه ویاړم چې لومړۍ پښتنه یم او په ټوله نړۍ کې تر ټولې کوچنۍ یم چې د نوبېل سولې جایزه وړم»

دې وویل، دا جایزه د هغه ماشومانو لپاره ده چې زدکړې غواړي، دا د هغه ترهېدلو ماشومانو لپاره ده چې سوله غواړي، او د بدلون غوښتونکي دی. دې وویل، له هغه ماشومانو سره خواخوږي نه ده پکار بلکې عملي ګامونه اخیستل پکار دي، اوس د دې ګړۍ رارسېدلي چې هېڅ بې تعلیمه ماشوم ونه وینو. دې وویل، د نړۍ په هر کونج کې سوله غواړي، ښځو ته برابر حقوق ورکولو او ټولو ماشومانو ته زدکړه غواړي.

دې وویل، زه یې د هېلمند ننګیالې ملالې په نامه نومولې یم چې د خپل وطن د ازادۍ لپاره یې مبارزه کړې وه، او زه به هم د ټولې نړۍ د ماشومانو لپاره خپله مبارزه جاري ساتم. د نړۍ تر هغه ماشومه به ځان رسوم چې له تعلیمه بې برخې دی»

ملالې وویل، خلک به دا په ګڼو نومونو بولي، ځینې ما ته هغه ملاله وايي، چې طالبانو ویشتلې وه، ځینې یې د ماشومانو حقونو مبارزه بولي، ځینې یې د نوبېل جایز وړونکې بولي. خو دې وویل چې دې خپلځان او ژوند د ماشومانو تعلیمي حق ته سپارلی دی.

د ملالې وینا وه «کله چې زه په سوات کې وم، دا د سېلګرۍ لپاره مشهوره دی، خو ناڅاپه هر څه بدل شول، ماشومان له تعلیمه محرومه شول، خلک په دورو وهل پیل شول، د خلکو وژنه شروع شوه، زما ټول ژوند بدل شو، پر دې مهال زما لپاره دوې لارې وې یا خو غلې پاتې شم یا د خپل حق لپاره غږ پورته کړم چې مرګ ورسره تړلی وو. ما دویمه لاره خپله کړه.

د نوبېل امن کمېټې تالار کې ملالې یوسفزۍ په خپله وینا کې وویل: « ما له ځان سره له پاکستانه شازیه او کاینات راوستې چې له ما سره یو ځای ویشتل شوې وې، کا د پاکستان له سیند صوبې کاینات سومرو راوستې چې د جنسي تېري ښکار شوې، ورور یې وروژل شوی. له شامه او نایجېریا خپلې خویندې راوستې دي، له سوریا مې زړوره خور موضون، له نایجېریا مې بله خور امینه راوستې. دوی ټولې په یوه نه بله بڼه تر کړاو تېرې شوي دي»

ملالې وویل «ما ته راکړې د نوبېل امن جایزې ټولې پیسې به په سوات او شانګله کې د سکولونو او تعلیم په پرمختګ لګېږي»

د نوبېل امن کمېټې تالار کې غونډې ته د ملالې وینا وه «زه په دې حیرانه یم چې نړۍ ټانکونه او درنې وسلې جوړولی شي ښوونځي نشي جوړولی»

د نوبېل انعام شاخوا ۱۴ لاکه ډالر به نیم په نیمه د ملالې او ستیارتي ترمنځ وېشل کېږي.

تر دې وړاندې کېلاش ستیارتي په خپله وینا کې د نوبېل سولې جایزه د هغه خلکو په نامه کړه چې د ماشومانو حقونو لپاره مبارزه کوي. ده وویل چې دی د یوه غلي اکثریت استازی دی، او غوښته یې ده چې د پرمختګ او رڼا په دغه یون یا سفر کې ټول یوځای سره مله وي، او هېڅوک شاته پاتې نشي.

هر ماشوم بابد د ودې او لویوالي لپاره ازاد وي. په خپله خوښه او وخاندي، او ان دا چې په ازادۍ سره وژاړي.او د شلوک په متل یې خپله وینا پای ته ورسوله چې موږ باید له جهالته د علم پر لور او له تیارې د رڼا پر لور وخوځېږو.

د نوبېل امن جایزې غونډې په پای کې د پښتو نامتو سندرغاړي سردار علي ټکر، له پاکستانه راحت فتح علي خان او له هنده استاد امجد علي خان سندرې وویلې.

http://www.mashaalradio.com/content/article/26735619.html

Video - Nobel Prize For Malala 'An Honor For Pakistan'

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating the right of girls to an education, has won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, together with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children's rights activist. Residents of her home town of Mingora, in Pakistan's Swat district, told RFE/RL that the prize is an honor for the region and for all of Pakistan. In Peshawar, also in northwest Pakistan, civil society representatives celebrated the announcement with music and dancing.

Video - Malala: We Are Raising Our Voices For Our Rights

Malala Yousafzai told RFE/RL that she and girls around the world were fighting for the right to education, as she prepared to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December 10. Malala had invited old classmates from Pakistan, as well as girls from Syria and Nigeria, to the awards ceremony. She is sharing the prize with Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi. (RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal)

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Malala Yousafzai accepts Nobel peace prize with attack on arms spending

Pakistani education activist was jointly awarded prize with Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi.

The Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai has used her Nobel peace prize acceptance speech to launch a searing attack on “strong” governments that had the resources to begin wars but not to enable universal education.

Speaking at the Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo she said: “Why is it that countries which we call strong are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy, but giving books is so hard?”

Raising her voice in the silent room, where she was given a rousing standing ovation at both the beginning and end of her speech, she added: “We are living in the modern age and we believe that nothing is impossible. We have reached the moon 45 years ago, and maybe we will soon land on Mars. Then, in this 21st century we must be able to give every child a quality education.”

At the glittering ceremony, attended by dignitaries from around the world including the Norwegian royal family but not the prime ministers of India or Pakistan, Malala was joined by young female activists from around the world.

“I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not. It is the story of many girls,” she said, pointing to her “sisters” in the crowd.

She joked that although she was only 5ft 2in tall – in heels – she was not a lone voice. “I am many [...] I am those 66 million girls who are deprived of education – and today I am not raising my voice, it is the voice of those 66 million girls,” she said.

“Sometimes people like to ask me, why should girls go to school? Why is it important for them? But I think the more important question is: why shouldn’t they? Why shouldn’t they have this right?”

Malala, now 17, became the youngest winner of the prize after the Nobel committee acknowledged her “heroic struggle” for girls’ right to an education. She was shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012 after drawing attention to her own plight and the plight of girls like her, to get an education.

After being shot she was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, where she was treated for life-threatening injuries. Following her recovery she has become a household name – speaking before the UN, meeting Barack Obama, being named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and publishing the memoir I am Malala while continuing her education in Birmingham. She was jointly awarded the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian child rights campaigner.

Satyarthi, 60, dedicated his prize to children in slavery. He founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan – or the Save the Childhood Movement – in 1980 and has protected the rights of 80,000 children and brought attention to a scourge that continues today. It was a momentous day, he told the audience when “a young courageous Pakistani girl has met an Indian father and an Indian father met his Pakistani daughter”.

He recalled rescuing an eight-year-old girl from slavery. “When she was sitting with me in my car, she asked me: ‘Why did you not come earlier?’ Her angry question still shakes me and has the power to shake the whole world. What are we doing? What are we waiting for?”

Announcing the prize in October, the Nobel committee said: “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations.

“This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.”

Of the joint award, the committee said it “regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism”.

Speaking before the ceremony Malala revealed that she hopes to pursue a career in politics and become prime minister of Pakistan. “I want to serve my country and my dream is that my country becomes a developed country and I see every child get an education,” she told the BBC.

She hailed Benazir Bhutto – a woman who twice served as Pakistani prime minister before her murder in 2007 – as an inspiration. “If I can serve my country best through politics and through becoming a prime minister then I would definitely choose that,” she said.

At a joint press conference with Satyarthi on Tuesday, the 17-year-old said she was disappointed that the prime ministers of India and Pakistan were not attending the award ceremony. But she said it was an honour to stand along side veteran child rights campaigner Satyarthi, and reiterated her view that every child should have access to a decent education.

“I had this wish from the beginning to see children going to school and I started this campaign,” she said.

“Now this peace prize is very important for me and it has really given me more hope, more courage, and I feel stronger than before because I see many people are with me. There are more responsibilities but I have also put responsibilities on myself. I feel I am answerable to God and to myself and that I should help my community. It’s my duty.”

Full text of Malala Yousafzai Nobel lecture

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

In the name of God, the most merciful, the most beneficent

Your Majesties, distinguished members of the Norweigan Nobel Committee, dear sisters and brothers, today is a day of great happiness for me. I am humbled that the Nobel Committee has selected me for this precious award.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and love. I am grateful for the letters and cards that I still receive from all around the world. Reading your kind and encouraging words strengthens and inspires me.

I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional love. Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings and for letting me fly. Thank you to my mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always speak the truth- which we strongly believe is the real message of Islam.

I am very proud to be the first Pashtun, the first Pakistani, and the first young person to receive this award. I am pretty certain that I am also the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers. I want there to be peace everywhere, but my brothers and I are still working on that.

I am also honoured to receive this award together with Kailash Satyarti, who has been a champion of children's rights for a long time. Twice as long, in fact, than I have been alive. I am also glad that we can stand together and show the world that an Indian and a Pakistani can be united in peace and together work for children's rights.

Dear brothers and sisters, I was named after the inspirational Pashtun Joan of Arc, Malalai of Maiwand. The word Malala means "grief stricken", "sad", but in order to lend some happiness to it, my grandfather would always call me Malala – The happiest girl in this world and today I am very happy that we are standing together for an important cause.

This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.

I am here to stand up for their rights, raise their voice ... it is not time to pity them. It is time to take action so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education.

I have found that people describe me in many different ways.

Some people call me the girl who was shot by the Taliban

And some, the girl who fought for her rights

Some people, call me a "Nobel Laureate" now

As far as I know, I am just a committed and stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education, who wants equal rights for women and who wants peace in every corner of the world.

Education is one of the blessings of life — and one of its necessities. That has been my experience during the 17 years life. In my home in Swat Valley, in the north of Pakistan, I always loved school and learning new things. I remember when my friends and I would decorate our hands with henna for special occasions. Instead of drawing flowers and patterns we would paint our hands with mathematical formulas and equations.

We had a thirst for education because our future was right there in that classroom. We would sit and read and learn together. We loved to wear neat and tidy school uniforms and we would sit there with big dreams in our eyes. We wanted to make our parents proud and prove that we could excel in our studies and achieve things, which some people think only boys can.

Things did not remain the same. When I was ten, Swat, which was a place of beauty and tourism, suddenly changed into a place of terrorism. More than 400 schools were destroyed. Girls were stopped from going to school. Women were flogged. Innocent people were killed. We all suffered. And our beautiful dreams turned into nightmares.

Education went from being a right to being a crime.

But when my world suddenly changed, my priorities changed too.

I had two options, one was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.

The terrorists tried to stop us and attacked me and my friends on 9th October 2012, but their bullets could not win.

We survived. And since that day, our voices have only grown louder.

I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not.

It is the story of many girls.

Today, I tell their stories too. I have brought with me to Oslo, some of my sisters, who share this story, friends from Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria. My brave sisters Shazia and Kainat Riaz who were also shot that day in Swat with me. They went through a tragic trauma too. Also my sister Kainat Somro from Pakistan who suffered extreme violence and abuse, even her brother was killed, but she did not succumb.

And there are girls with me, who I have met during my Malala Fund campaign, who are now like my sisters, my courageous 16 year old sister Mezon from Syria, who now lives in Jordan in a refugee camp and goes from tent to tent helping girls and boys to learn. And my sister Amina, from the North of Nigeria, where Boko Haram threatens and kidnaps girls, simply for wanting to go to school.

Though I appear as one girl, one person, who is 5 foot 2 inches tall, if you include my high heels. I am not a lone voice, I am many.

I am Shazia.

I am Kainat Riaz.

I am Kainat Somro.

I am Mezon.

I am Amina. I am those 66 million girls who are out of school.

People like to ask me why education is important especially for girls. My answer is always the same.

What I have learnt from the first two chapters of the Holy Quran, is the word Iqra, which means "read", and the word, nun wal-qalam which means "by the pen"?

And therefore as I said last year at the United Nations, "One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world."

Today, in half of the world, we see rapid progress, modernisation and development. However, there are countries where millions still suffer from the very old problems of hunger, poverty, injustice and conflicts.

Indeed, we are reminded in 2014 that a century has passed since the beginning of the First World War, but we still have not learnt all of the lessons that arose from the loss of those millions of lives a hundred years ago.

There are still conflicts in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have lost their lives. Many families have become refugees in Syria, Gaza and Iraq. There are still girls who have no freedom to go to school in the north of Nigeria. In Pakistan and Afghanistan we see innocent people being killed in suicide attacks and bomb blasts.

Many children in Africa do not have access to school because of poverty.

Many children in India and Pakistan are deprived of their right to education because of social taboos, or they have been forced into child labour and girls into child marriages.

One of my very good school friends, the same age as me, had always been a bold and confident girl and dreamed of becoming a doctor. But her dream remained a dream. At age of 12, she was forced to get married and then soon had a son at an age when she herself was a child – only 14. I know that my friend would have been a very good doctor.

But she couldn't ... because she was a girl.

Her story is why I dedicate the Nobel Prize money to the Malala Fund, to help give girls everywhere a quality education and call on leaders to help girls like me, Mezun and Amina. The first place this funding will go is where my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan—especially in my home of Swat and Shangla.

In my own village, there is still no secondary school for girls. I want to build one, so my friends can get an education—and the opportunity it brings to fulfil their dreams.

That is where I will begin, but it is not where I will stop. I will continue this fight until I see every child in school. I feel much stronger after the attack that I endured, because I know, no one can stop me, or stop us, because now we are millions, standing up together.

Dear brothers and sisters, great people,who brought change, like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Aung San Suu Kyi, they once stood here on this stage. I hope the steps that Kailash Satyarti and I have taken so far and will take on this journey will also bring change – lasting change.

My great hope is that this will be the last time we must fight for the education of our children. We want everyone to unite to support us in our campaign so that we can solve this once and for all.

Like I said, we have already taken many steps in the right direction. Now is the time to take a leap.

It is not time to tell the leaders to realise how important education is - they already know it - their own children are in good schools. Now it is time to call them to take action.

We ask the world leaders to unite and make education their top priority.

Fifteen years ago, the world leaders decided on a set of global goals, the Millennium Development Goals. In the years that have followed, we have seen some progress. The number of children out of school has been halved. However, the world focused only on expanding primary education, and progress did not reach everyone.

Next year, in 2015, representatives from around the world will meet at the United Nations to decide on the next set of goals, the Sustainable Development Goals. This will set the world's ambition for generations to come. Leaders must seize this opportunity to guarantee a free, quality primary and secondary education for every child.

Some will say this is impractical, or too expensive, or too hard. Or even impossible. But it is time the world thinks bigger.

Dear brothers and sisters, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don't. Why is it that countries which we call "strong" are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so difficult?

As we are living in the modern age, the 21st century and we all believe that nothing is impossible. We can reach the moon and maybe soon will land on Mars. Then, in this, the 21st century, we must be determined that our dream of quality education for all will also come true.

So let us bring equality, justice and peace for all. Not just the politicians and the world leaders, we all need to contribute. Me. You. It is our duty.

So we must work ... and not wait.

I call upon my fellow children to stand up around the world.

Dear sisters and brothers, let us become the first generation to decide to be the last.

The empty classrooms, the lost childhoods, wasted potential — let these things end with us.

Let this be the last time that a boy or a girl spends their childhood in a factory.

Let this be the last time that a girl gets forced into early child marriage.

Let this be the last time that an innocent child loses their life in war.

Let this be the last time that a classroom remains empty.

Let this be the last time that a girl is told education is a crime and not a right.

Let this be the last time that a child remains out of school.

Let us begin this ending.

Let this end with us.

And let us build a better future right here, right now.

Thank you.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/resources/full-text-of-malala-yousafzai-nobel-lecture/article6679795.ece?ref=relatedNews

Malala awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India have received the Nobel Peace Prize for risking their lives to fight for children's rights. The 17-year-old Malala, the youngest ever Nobel winner, and Satyarthi, age 60, collected the award at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital to a standing ovation.

During her speech at the awards ceremony Malala said that, "I am grateful for the letters and cards that I still receive from all around the world. Reading your kind and encouraging words strengthens and inspires me."

"I am very proud to be the first Pashtun, the first Pakistani, and the first young person to receive this award," she said.

"I am also glad that we (Satyarti) can stand together and show the world that an Indian and a Pakistani can be united in peace and together work for children's rights," Malala said.

"This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change," she said.

Earlier, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjørn Jagland during his opening speech said that world conscience "can find no better expression than through Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai."

“A young girl and a somewhat older man, one from Pakistan and one from India, one Muslim, the other Hindu; both symbols of what the world needs: more unity. Fraternity between the nations!” said Jagland.

He said that, "Satyarthi and Yousafzai are precisely the people whom Alfred Nobel in his will calls 'champions of peace'."

"Malala Yousafzai is far and away the youngest Peace Prize Laureate of all time," Jagland said.

"Malala Yousafzai’s vision was clear right from the start. Girls had a self-evident right to education...Her courage is almost indescribable," he said.

Pakistani musician Rahat Fateh Ali Khan also performed at the awards ceremony.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a tweet on Twitter congratulating Malala on her award.

Malala has already received a host of awards, standing ovations and plaudits from the United Nations to Buckingham Palace.

But on the eve of the ceremony she said she was far from ready to rest on her laurels.

“We are not here just to accept our award, get this medal and go back home. We are here to tell children especially that you need to stand up, you need to speak up for your rights ... It is you who can change the world,” Malala told a press conference at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.

Pen and a book

“In this world if we are thinking we are modern and have achieved so much development, then why is it that there are so many countries where children are not asking for any iPad or computer or anything. What they are asking for is just a book, just a pen, so why can't we do that? “

Malala was 15 when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head as she travelled on a school bus in response to her campaign for girls' education.

Although her injuries almost killed her, she recovered after being flown for extensive surgery in Birmingham, central England.

She has been based in England with her family ever since, continuing both her education and activism.

For the first time ever the blood-soaked school uniform she wore when she was shot near her home in the Swat Valley in October 2012 will go on display in an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo this week.

At her invitation, five other teenage activists joined her in Oslo from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, including Shazia Ramzan, 16, and Kainat Riaz, 17, who were also shot during the Taliban attack on Malala, and 17-year-old Amina Yusuf, a girls' education activist from northern Nigeria where the terror group Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls during a raid in April 2014.

Explore: ‘Every Pakhtun girl is a Malala’

Asked why she thinks some Islamic extremist groups are opposed to education for girls, Malala, dressed in a multi-coloured headscarf, replied:

“Unfortunately, those people who stand against education, they sometimes themselves are uneducated or they've been indoctrinated.”

'Sold like animals'

The pairing of Malala and Satyarthi had the extra symbolism of linking neighbouring countries that have been in conflict for decades. After being named as a laureate, Malala said she wanted both states' prime ministers to attend the prize-giving ceremony in Oslo.

“If the prime ministers had come here I would have been very happy. I would have thought of it as a big opportunity to ask them... to make education their top priority and work on it together because we see the number of children who are out of school and suffering from child labour are mostly in India and Pakistan.”

While Malala will be the star of the annual Nobels extravaganza — also featuring the literature prize winner, Frenchman Patrick Modiano, and his compatriot Jean Tirole with the economics award — her peace prize co-winner Satyarthi is far less well-known.

He welcomed the increased attention the Nobel brought to the cause of children in bonded labour.

“There are children who are bought and sold like animals,” the jovial 60-year-old, clad in traditional Indian dress, told reporters at the Nobel Institute.

“This is very important for millions and millions of children who are denied their childhood, who are denied their freedom, who are denied their education and health,” he said, adding that the peace prize had shone a spotlight on their plight.

Satyarthi's organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Movement to Save Childhood) prides itself on liberating more than 80,000 children from bonded labour in factories and workshops across India and has networks of activists in more than 100 countries.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) there are about 168 million child labourers globally. Nobel winners receive eight million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, 862,000 euros), which is shared in the case of joint wins.

Video - We knew Malala wouldn't forget us, say her friends from Pakistan

Following in Benazir's footsteps, Malala aspires to become PM of Pakistan

Inspired by late Benazir Bhutto, teenage activist Malala Yousafzai said she aspires to become the prime minister of Pakistan, BBC reported on Wednesday.

Malala spoke to BBC HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur in Oslo as she prepares to receive Nobel Peace Prize today. The 17-year-old becomes the youngest Nobel laureate, adding yet another distinction to a long list.

“I want to serve my country and my dream is that my country becomes a developed country and I see every child get an education,” Malala said.

“If I can serve my country best through politics and through becoming a prime minister then I would definitely choose that,” she added.

Malala was 15 when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head as she travelled on a school bus in response to her campaign for girls’ education. Although her injuries almost killed her, she recovered after being flown for extensive surgery in Birmingham, central England. She has been based in England with her family ever since, continuing both her education and activism.

Commenting on her campaign for education, Malala said she had wished from the beginning to see children going to school.

“Now this peace prize is very important for me and it has really given me more hope, more courage, and I feel stronger than before because I see many people are with me,” she said.

“There are more responsibilities but I have also put responsibilities on myself. I feel I am answerable to God and to myself and that I should help my community. It’s my duty,” the teenage activist added.

The 17-year-old will receive the peace prize in Oslo with the Indian campaigner Kailash Satyarthi, 60, who has fought for 35 years to free thousands of children from virtual slave labour.

Speaking about her co-recipient Satyarthi, Malala said it was an honour to win the prize alongside the Indian child rights activist.

Malala has already received a host of awards, standing ovations and plaudits from the United Nations to Buckingham Palace. But on the eve of the ceremony she said she was far from ready to rest on her laurels.

Ceremony

Legendary Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will be performing at the awards ceremony and concert to be held in Oslo and one of the two songs that the singer will be performing at the concert is part of the Express Media Group’s nationwide highly-interactive campaign called Aao Parhao – Jo Seekha hai woh sab ko seekhao/ Come Teach – Teach all that you have learnt.

For the first time ever the blood-soaked school uniform she wore when she was shot near her home in the Swat Valley in October 2012 will also go on display in an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo this week.

At her invitation, five other teenage activists will join her in Oslo from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, including Shazia Ramzan, 16, and Kainat Riaz, 17, who were also shot during the Taliban attack on Malala, and 17-year-old Amina Yusuf, a girls’ education activist from northern Nigeria where the terror group Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls during a raid in April 2014.

Nobel winners receive $1.1 million, which is shared in the case of joint wins.