U.S. Senator Menendez of New Jersey indicted on corruption charges

BY JULIA EDWARDS

U.S. Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey was indicted on corruption charges, allegations that the high-ranking lawmaker said he would address at a news conference on Wednesday night.

Menendez was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey for accepting gifts from Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist, in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to benefit Melgen's financial and personal interests, according to the court filing.

The allegations against Menendez, a senior lawmaker on foreign policy and banking, raise the possibility of Republicans gaining a 55th Senate seat to strengthen their hand in policy fights with Democratic President Barack Obama, should the senator decide to resign his seat.

Menendez was stepping down as ranking member, or top Democrat, on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee, Senate aides said.

Menendez and Melgen, both 61, were charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud. Menendez was also charged with one count of making false statements.

Menendez, in response to previous reports of a federal investigation, has denied wrongdoing. Melgen and his representative could not immediately be reached for comment on the charges.

The Justice Department said Mendendez accepted up to $1 million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence the outcome of Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars to Melgen.

The indictment said Melgen improperly gave Menendez flights on private jets, use of a Caribbean villa, a stay at a luxury hotel in Paris and tens of thousands of dollars to a legal defense fund. Between 2007 and 2012, Menendez never disclosed any of the reportable gifts that he received from Melgen and withheld the information from his Senate staff, the indictment said.

Menendez, a Cuban-American, is one of the most prominent Hispanic politicians in the United States. His office said in a statement that he will speak at a news conference in Newark, New Jersey at 7 p.m. (2300 GMT).

Political science professor Matthew Hale at Seton Hall University in New Jersey said, "It is important to remember that Senator Menendez grew up in the rough and tumble rink of North Jersey politics ... He knows how to fight and I suspect he will fight these charges."

Menendez was re-elected to a second term in the Senate in 2012. He spent 13 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"As we have said before, we believe all of the senator's actions have been appropriate and lawful, and the facts will ultimately confirm that," Tricia Enright, Menendez's communications director, said on March 6, responding to early reports that federal prosecutors were close to bringing charges.

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee issued a statement of support from several politicians, including Menendez's fellow New Jersey Senator Corey Booker.

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Music Video - Nancy Ajram - Lawn Eiounak / نانسى عجرم - لون عيونك

What blogger Raif Badawi's new book reveals about Saudi Arabia

Articles written by the imprisoned Saudi blogger and free speech activist Raif Badawi have now been translated into German and published as a book. His severe punishment is evoking outrage in the West.

Raif Badawi's articles, translated into German and compiled in the book "1000 Peitscheinhiebe" ("1,000 lashes"), are filled with irony. Yet one can hardly enjoy the humor without being haunted by the shocking sentence imposed on the Saudi blogger.

How could these texts, which appear so harmless from a Western perspective, lead to 10 years of prison, 1,000 lashes and a fine of 1 million riyal (about $266,000)?

The German version of his texts was released as a book on April 1

Religious establishment uneasy

There can only be one explanation for such a punishment: Saudi Arabia's religious establishment is very nervous. Badawi expresses ideas which are shared by many Saudi citizens and it is getting harder and harder to stop them from circulating publicly.

Badawi writes about - as he puts it - the spectacular ways in which Arab society is suffering under the weight of theocracy, while clerics refuse to accept anything less than complete obedience from the population.

From the blogger's perspective, "They are doing business with the minds of the people." Clerics wouldn't want to suddenly lose their power, which explainswhy they so fiercely protect their teachings from public criticism.

The cynical methods of the Saudi clerics

Badawi provides an example to show how the Saudi clergy deals with the slightest offensive suggestion. The Saudi author Turki al-Hamad wrote in a novel: "God and the Devil are two sides of a same coin." This sentence, beyond the fact that it was written in a work of fiction, was meant to be completely harmless: the author simply wanted to say that God is defined by its opposite.

Yet the Saudi clergy spent years attacking Turki al-Hamad for his choice of words. According to them, he put God and the Devil on the same level.

The author once gave a televised interview to try to explain what he meant with his book. Religious TV stations repeated the clip of Turki al-Hamad saying that sentence over and over again in their own shows. Their cynical methods aimed to ruin his reputation in religious Saudi Arabia.

Badawi criticizes patriarchy in his country

Against religious intolerance

But is the country really that pious? After reading Badawi's texts, one can't help but think: not completely.

Women are especially affected by the polygamous system in place. A wife - one among many others, of course - cannot expect any material support from her husband, not even a place to live or child support. On the other hand, she must always make herself available to her husband's desires. There are many names for this kind of sexual arrangement in Saudi Arabia. Badawi calls them "animal marriages."

Badawi shares several of his grievances in his book. No Christian missionaries are allowed to work in Saudi Arabia; no churches can be built: A demonstration of religious intolerance in his country's version of Islam. He is irritated by zealots who show "pseudo-Islamic chauvinistic arrogance towards other people."

Warning against religious extremism

These excerpts clearly demonstrate that Badawi isn't specifically opposed to Islam. His criticism is not against religion as such. He rather criticizes the intolerance shown by some authorities.

He already observed signs of such intolerance during the Arab Spring. He wrote in February 2012: "There is a systematic mass mobilization in progress and ordinary citizens are being sprayed with religion and religiosity - or least the Islamists' interpretation of it. (…) They're loudly warning against everything related to culture and education. From their point of view, this somehow equates to heresy, atheism and blasphemy."

International solidarity for the free speech activist: Here a protest vigil held in London in 2015

#FREERAIF

For such criticism, Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years of prison, a heavy fine and 1,000 lashes. Saudi Arabia has decided to silence one of its best minds as a cautionary tale for those who would dare think like him.

There are certainly many others who do. Badawi is not the only one who is locked up - many other Saudi thinkers are behind bars. Imprisoning its free spirits is a questionable move for a rich country like Saudi Arabia: It may well define the shape of its future.

#RaifBadawi - Fascist Saudi regime tells Quebec to stay out of Raif Badawi case

Saudi Arabia tells Quebec to stay out of Raif Badawi case

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Canada is telling Quebec politicians his government won’t accept meddling in its internal affairs in response to the case of a jailed blogger.

The ambassador sent a letter addressed to the Speaker of the national assembly regarding Raif Badawi, saying his government expresses “its strong surprise and dismay” at what is being said and written about the case.

Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes and fined for criticizing Saudi Arabian clerics.

The first 50 lashes were carried out in early January, but he has not been flogged since.

The March 10 letter was also sent to the federal government and is critical of attacks by media and international agencies on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

“(The kingdom) does not accept any form of interference in its internal affairs and rejects the encroachment on its sovereign right or the compromising of its judiciary independence and integrity,” writes Naif Bin Bandir AlSudairy.

Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil said Wednesday her government will continue to champion Badawi’s cause as well as challenge other human rights abuses around the world.

“We want Raif Badawi to be released from prison and to be able to come here and live with his wife and his children,” Weil said.

Badawi is not a Canadian citizen, although his wife and children fled Saudi Arabia in 2012 and settled in Sherbrooke, Que., in 2013.

International Relations Minister Christine St-Pierre is expected to meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson in the near future to discuss the next steps.

Weil declined to speculate on whether the Saudi reaction might be indicative of something else.

“I think it’s mostly important for us to reiterate our firm opposition to his imprisonment (and) our defence of human rights,” Weil said.

Badawi’s detention and sentence have stirred up worldwide condemnation and Quebec politicians unanimously adopted a motion in February calling for his immediate release.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also spoken out against Badawi’s treatment, but has said Ottawa’s influence is limited by the fact he is not a Canadian citizen.

Journalist: Saudi-Led Caolition Airstrikes Helping Al-Qaeda in Yemen

A Qatari journalist and writer disclosed that the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen are helping Al-Qaeda militants escape from prisons throughout the country.

"Our warplanes strike Yemen's prisons to help release the Al-Qaeda prisoners and we are spending billions of dollars for bombing Yemeni children and women," Qatari journalist Ahmad Abdelmalik Hamideddin wrote in an article on Wednesday.

He underlined that all the people killed in the Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen are civilians and no military force has been killed.

"What can we say when the Saudi news agencies confess that the Saudi-led airstrikes have only hit houses?," Hamideddin added.    

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for seven days now to restore power to fugitive Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi airstrikes have killed at least, 198, mostly women and children, and injured hundreds more.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

Five Persian Gulf States -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait -- and Egypt that are also assisted by Israel and backed by the US declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued Thursday.

US President Barack Obama authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the military operations, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said late Wednesday night.

She added that while US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, Washington was establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.

THE YEMEN CRISIS ISN’T ABOUT YEMEN. IT’S ABOUT SAUDI ARABIA AND ITS DESIRE FOR REGIONAL POWER

On Thursday, March 26, Saudi Arabia launched a military campaign in Yemen, after fighters and army units allied with the Houthi movement threatened to overrun the southern port of Aden, as reported by The New York Times.

Saudi Arabia insists the Houthis, who adhere to the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam, are proxies of Iran and part of an Iranian plan to destabilize the region. Indeed, since the Arab Spring in 2011, Iran has stepped up its regional role, backing predominantly Shia factions in regional conflicts, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad, and the Iraqi military in its fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Levante (ISIL).

For Saudi Arabia and its allies, Iran’s involvement in regional affairs is unacceptable. They fear the Iranians will ignite Shia revolts across the region and destabilize the Middle East even further.

However, as the Saudi military continues its assault on Yemen, it is becoming increasingly evident that the greatest threat to the region is not coming from Iran, but from Saudi Arabia, which has also been involved in various proxy wars. While these have mostly been aimed at curbing Iranian influence, Saudi Arabia’s approach to the region is single-mindedly driven by a desire to increase its regional hegemony.

The Saudi attack in Yemen is backed by an allied force, including ten mostly Sunni-majority regional states (Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Pakistan, and Turkey), and has support from the United States. A few days after airstrikes began, ousted Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia from his refuge in Aden.

Hadi, who was leading Yemen’s transitional government until being ousted by the Houthis in January, was the only candidate in presidential elections held in February 2012, following the overthrow of former Saudi-backed dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. During Hadi’s rule, the Houthis repeatedly demanded greater representation in the Yemeni Parliament. The Houthi movement has had other, more long standing grievances with Yemen’s central government, dating back to the early 2000s. Frustrated by the government’s failure to address their demands, the Houthis staged a takeover of Sana’a in September 2014.

Recently, the rebels managed to advance to Aden, where they engaged in several clashes with pro-Hadi factions. Claiming “to protect and defend the legitimate government [of Hadi],” Saudi Arabia sent in warplanes, bombing key-Houthi held positions. A potential Saudi-led ground invasion has also received support from regional states and the United States.

If Saudi Arabia is genuinely concerned about regional stability, though, why has it remained largely inactive over the very real threats from ISIL, and multiple crises in Libya, Syria, and Iraq? These conflicts are arguably more destabilizing to the Middle East than Yemen’s Houthi movement, and could have benefitted from a joint Arab intervention.

In reality, Saudi’s “concerns” over Yemen, as with many other issues in the region, are not actually about Yemen or its stability, but rather about Saudi Arabia’s own hegemonic power and desire to overshadow Iran.

Yemeni political and human rights activist Baraa Shiban emphasized this in an interview with Free Speech Radio News, saying:

“It’s just a ground for a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia… And instead of having that fight in the lands of either Iran or the Saudis, the battlefield is Yemen now. And actually there are many people questioning the benefits of supporting either side because simply they feel that they are fighting a fight that doesn’t belong to us and then results of it will either work for the benefit of the Iranians or the Saudis. Yemen will lose either way.”

Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners are likely to continue bombing Yemen, until Saudi achieves its goal—to circumscribe Iranian influence in the country and assert itself over Yemen.

http://www.yementimes.com/en/1873/opinion/5022/The-Yemen-crisis-isn%E2%80%99t-about-Yemen-It%E2%80%99s-about-Saudi-Arabia-and-its-desire-for-regional-power.htm

Why Pakistan Will Fight Saudi's Wars but Not Its Own

Farheen Rizvi 

Pakistan, which faces the challenge of terrorism at home, seems ready to join the Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen. On Monday, a senior Pakistani government official indicated that the country would send troops to the Kingdom. Though Pakistan's defense minister denied the claim that a decision about military support had been made, he arrived in Saudi Tuesday to decide the next steps. And late last week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office vowed that any threat to Saudi Arabia would "evoke a strong response" from Islamabad. But joining the Saudis in their latest war would polarize Pakistan, which is home to several Muslim sects. Pakistan would also incur the ire of its neighbor, Iran, with whom Pakistan's Shiites --about 20 percent of the population -- maintain close ties.

Although Riyadh and Islamabad have been close allies for decades, part of Pakistan's problem with Islamist radicals stems from Saudi funding for religious schools that teach a fundamentalist Wahhabi doctrine. Pakistan is still paying the price for its initial involvement in the Afghan proxy war between the United States and the former Soviet Union in which Saudi Arabia played a critical role. Support for the Afghan Mujahedeen during the 1980s encouraged extremism, terrorism and sectarianism in Pakistan, changing Pakistani society significantly. Involvement in a new, distant war in Yemen is unlikely to have a different result on Pakistan's internal cohesion.

By the time I moved out of Pakistan in 1997, the country was witnessing a surge of sectarian killings. Extremist Sunnis, inspired by puritan Wahhabi teachings, were targeting educated Shiites, forcing them to emigrate. Extremist groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi targeted Shiite doctors, engineers, lawyers and professors. This was the result of sectarian hatred taught at Saudi-funded madrasas originally set up to recruit and train foot soldiers for the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan's intelligence service had used the madrasas to recruit fighters to fight in Kashmir against India and to support the Taliban in Afghanistan. 

The madrasas were attractive for poor Pakistani families who weren't able to send their children to schools or even to feed them daily. One-third of Pakistan's nearly 200 million people live below the poverty line, subsisting on less than one dollar a day per family. Madrasas provided children free housing, food and clothing alongside religious education. According to the inspector general of Punjab police, hundreds of religious seminaries in Pakistan, especially in Punjab province, are foreign funded.

The curriculum of these madrasas conformed to puritanical Saudi Wahhabi beliefs, disregarding the religious syncretism of the India-Pakistan subcontinent. Many madrasa students imbibed hatred towards sects other than the Wahhabis, which latermanifested itself in sectarian attacks. Saudi Arabia's concern after 1979 about Iranian influence also played a part in encouraging extremist attacks on Pakistani Shiites. The Wahhabis consider Shiites as heretics while the Saudis also tend to see them as allies of Iran.

The rationale for Pakistan's involvement in the Saudi-funded Afghan war during the 1980s was similar to the reasoning currently being offered for Pakistani involvement in the conflict in Yemen. The Saudi-Pakistan relationship has been close and rests on mutual dependence of the two countries' elites. Pakistani troops were stationed in the Kingdom during the 1980s to protect the royal family. Prime Minister Sharif and his family lived in Saudi Arabia during their years in exile from 2000-2007.

Despite being armed with nuclear weapons, Pakistan is perennially cash-strapped. The Saudis have traditionally been generous in supporting Pakistan with hard currency. They have also paid for expensive weapons for the Pakistani military from other countries (usually the United States). Over a million Pakistani expatriates work in Saudi Arabia and their remittances are critical for Pakistan's economy. Last year, Riyadh gave a $1.5 billion loan to Pakistan to overcome a hard currency shortage. At the Saudis' request, 2,500 Pakistani retired army and police officials joined Bahrain's anti-riot force in cracking down on the Bahraini Shiite uprising.

The Pakistan military, as well as civilian leaders like Prime Minister Sharif, see partnership with the Saudis as beneficial in economic and military terms. Saudi backing has also been important for advancing Pakistan's strategic objective of maintaining military preparedness against India, a much larger neighbor, andwresting the disputed territory of Kashmir from it through an insurgency.

For their part, the Saudis got a chance to spread their version of Islam through the wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Close ties with Pakistan, the world's only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons, helps the Saudis stake their claim as leaders of the Islamic world. The Kingdom holds Islam's most sacred sites and sees only Iran as its rival in speaking for the world's Muslims.

The spread of Wahhabism in Pakistan has been detrimental to Iran, because it advanced Saudi interests and exacerbated anti-Shiite sentiment in the region. Relations between Pakistan and Iran have suffered several setbacks beginning with the assassination of Iran's consul-general in Lahore, murdered by SSP terrorists and accentuated by killings of Shiite pilgrims headed to Iran near the Pakistan-Iranian border.

By siding with Saudi Arabia in Yemen, Pakistan is in danger of being sucked into a conflict driven by sectarian factors. Iranian-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen are deployed on the border close to Riyadh and that has created shockwaves throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But the instability in Yemen poses no direct threat to Pakistan's security or other critical interests.

By getting involved in the Yemen conflict, Pakistan risks sectarian conflict at home in addition to being drawn into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East. Pakistan has paid a heavy price due to terrorism, losing some 30,000 lives over the last two decades. Pakistan's interests might be better served by working on better diplomatic relations with neighboring countries, especially Afghanistan and India, and focusing on eradicating the growing radicalization within its society. Entering a distant war for Saudi Arabia will do little to help Pakistan's already precarious condition.

Pakistan - Abdul Sattar Edhi - 'They call him an infidel': Pakistan's humble founder of a charity empire

Abdul Sattar Edhi runs a sprawling health charity from a Karachi slum, but that doesn’t stop the religious right condemning him for not saying his prayers.

Even in Pakistan a cheap sofa covered with brown plastic is not most people’s idea of throw-restraint-to-the-wind luxury.

But Abdul Sattar Edhi, a legendary charity worker known for his asceticism, is still getting used to the two-seater that recently replaced the hard bench he sat on for decades in the corner of his office.

“I didn’t ask for it, it was given to me by my daughter,” he says. “I like simplicity, but I didn’t get angry with her.”

The dowdy piece of furniture does nothing to undermine the uncompromising frugality of the office of a man proud to own just two sets of salwar kameez, an everyday outfit in Pakistan.

The tiny room is accessed directly off an alley in a Karachi slum and has space for only a few desks for the handful of people who manage a sprawling, countrywide charity empire of more than 1,200 ambulances, hundreds of medical centres, graveyards and an adoption service for abandoned children.

Established in 1957 when Edhi took it upon himself to set up a tent hospital to look after the victims of a flu outbreak, it went on to become Pakistan’s most impressive social enterprise.

Its minivan ambulances are a common sight across Pakistan, particularly in the aftermath of all-too-frequent terrorist bombings.

Anyone can walk in off the street and pay their respects to one of the country’s most recognisable personalities, the frail old man with a long beard and cap who many Pakistanis argue should have received a Nobel prize years ago for his work.

Emergency callers can end up speaking to Edhi himself if he happens to pick up the phone. He rarely strays far, given that his bed occupies an even more humble back room behind his office.

And yet not everyone likes and respects this saintly figure, who reckons he is about 90 years old.

In October last year eight men barged into the Edhi headquarters and smashed their way into a bank of strongboxes just a few feet away from where Edhi himself was dozing in his hospital-style bed.

One of the robbers kept a gun trained on a social worker, even though the frail man was no threat, as they proceeded to steal valuables held as a service for people unable or unwilling to use a bank account.

The more than £400,000 of cash was swiftly replaced by donations that poured in from a horrified public, although Edhi turned down a large gift from a man he dismissed as a “capitalist” and “big robber”.

The theft was a shocking moment for an organisation that is facing growing competition from Pakistan’s militant, religious right.

In January Hafiz Saeed, a cleric wanted by India for his alleged masterminding of the 2011 terrorist attack on Mumbai, announced his Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) was establishing a bridgehead in Karachi for the first time with a fleet of 15 ambulances.

FIF is the charity wing of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the parent body of the bannedLashkar-e-Taiba, regarded by some experts as one of south Asia’s most dangerous terrorist groups.

Unlike Edhi, Saeed uses the platform of his fast-growing charitable works to call for jihad against India and to create a parallel state that makes a point of being first on the scene when disasters strike.

Edhi says he is not worried, pointing out he has a 60-year head start on Saeed: “If he wants to become Edhi in two years, how is that possible?”

But he is hurt at his treatment by some of the country’s mullahs, who are jealous of his fundraising power and suspicious of his lack of sectarian or ethnic bias in attending to the people who turn to him for help.

“They call him an infidel saying that he does not say his prayers,” says his wife Bilquis, who, with her children, helps run the foundation. “What we are doing should be done by the government and should be appreciated, but instead we are blamed.”

The foundation has lost much of the annual charity it once scooped up during Eidal-Adha, when families would donate the skins of animals sacrificed on the day, which could then be sold for cash.

As well as hardline Islamist groups, the foundation has lost out to the strong-arm tactics of what Edhi calls an “ethnic organisation”, a reference to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the dominant political party in the ethnically divided port city.

“There is more hostility towards us from the religious and political groups,” his wife complains. “Our strong cupboards used to be full – nobody would steal from us.”

But Edhi says he is unfussed by aggressive political parties or the mullahs’ claim that he is an atheist who will not be allowed into heaven.

“I will not go to paradise where these type of people go,” he smiles. “I will go to heaven where the poor and miserable people live.”

Terrorist groups exist in MQM: Aitzaz Ahsan

Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan on Wednesday said the last month’s raid conducted by Rangers at the headquarters of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has put a stop on targeted killings in the metropolis.

Speaking in Geo News program, Capital Talk, Mr. Ahsan said "one cannot label the entire MQM as a terrorist organization, however, some terrorist groups do exist in the party".

Aitzaz said he failed to understand the MQM Chief Altaf Hussain, adding that the one who understands him better than even the PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari is Rehman Malik.

He said the death row inmate, Saulat Mirza would not be able to become MQM's Masood Mehmood and that in case he is granted a pardon it would nullify the significance of his statement.

Commenting on today’s arrest of MQM leader Muhammad Anwar in London, the senior PPP leader said normally the accused in cases relating to money laundering get released on bail shortly after arrest but his (Anwar's) detention will prove damaging for 'Altaf Bhai'.

"The Saud family had presented a gift of $1.5 billion to Nawaz government in 2013 and, therefore, the Sharif brothers will remain indebted to the former", Aitzaz added.

He suggested the government to summon a joint meeting of parliament to discuss the Yemen-Saudi Arabia conflict.

Pakistan eighth most dangerous country in the world: report

Pakistan has emerged as the world’s eighth most dangerous country, according to IntelCenter’s list of “Top 10 Most Dangerous Countries”.

The Middle East topped the list as of March 2015, with Iraq and Syria ranking No 1 and 2 respectively, given the current political situation in the war-torn countries.

IntelCenter, a Washington-based company working for intelligence agencies, Country Threat Index (CTI) examines the volume of terrorist and rebel alerts, messaging traffic, videos, photos, incidents and the number of people killed and injured in a country over the past month and runs it through an algorithm to assign the country its CTI.

Out of the top 10 most dangerous countries, Pakistan had a CTI of 122 is joined by Afghanistan with a CTI of 186. The neighbouring country ranked fifth on the list. The higher the CTI, the greater is the risk.

“A low CTI does not necessarily reflect the absence of risk as the US in the lead-up to 9/11 would have had a low CTI. It does, however, reflect a lower level of activity over the preceding 30 days (of the analysis), which means high-volume activity is unlikely but one-off events are always a possibility,” IntelCenter said in a statement.

CTI should not be the sole measure of risk in a country but should merely be factored into consideration, the statement said.

“The CTI is based solely on terrorist and rebel related activity. It does not evaluate other risk factors such as crime and political instability,” it further said.

The countries completing the top 10 include Nigeria (3rd), Somalia (4th), Libya (6th), Yemen (7th), Ukraine (9th) and Egypt (10th).

The Global CTI serves as an overall indicator of global terrorist and rebel activity and is calculated by adding up each individual country’s CTI, the statement said.

Pakistan - ANP chief says NWA ‘social agreement’ an insult to FATA

The ‘social agreement’ between the North Waziristan political administration and tribesmen is an insult to Fata’s residents, asserted Awami National Party Central President Asfandyar Wali Khan on Tuesday.

Terming the agreement an injustice while speaking at Bilour House in the city, he said tribespeople left their homes and rendered tremendous sacrifices for the sake of the country. He believed the loyalty of the tribes was being questioned through the eight-page document. “It is an insult and such actions create mistrust,” he underlined.

The ANP chief demanded that local bodies’ polls should also be held in Fata and said tribespeople had been left at the mercy of the political administration. He expressed concern over some clauses of the LG Act 2013 and alleged the government was preparing to rig elections.

Asfandyar said that village councils’ outcomes will be announced 10 days after elections, while National Assembly results are declared in a matter of hours. He believed such an announcement clearly indicated that the government was intent on poll rigging. He also slammed the government for authorising the chief minister to sack the district nazim.

He said PTI Chairperson Imran Khan has joined the ranks of military dictators Ayub Khan and Ziaul Haq by announcing LG polls on a non-party basis. He said on one hand, the courts had ordered that LG elections be held on party basis, but the PTI government was doing the opposite in the province.

Asfandyar said ANP has already challenged this in court and hoped the judiciary would uphold its stance on the matter.

‘No militant wing’

The ANP chief said his party had no militant wing and those with any such links would not remain party members.

Asfandyar said Saulat Mirza’s allegations against senior politicians had no legal standing as they were not recorded before a magistrate. However, he said the allegations were of a serious nature and suggested a high-level joint investigation to probe the matter. “An independent investigation of these allegations would be in the interest of all stakeholders, including MQM,” he said. The ANP central president claimed the Karachi operation was launched after taking all parties on board.

ANP chief termed the thaw in Pak-Afghan ties as a positive development and said the friendly relations needed to continue for the sake of both countries.

‘Stay out of Yemen’

Asfandyar voiced his concerns over Pakistan’s participation in the Yemen conflict. He believed such actions could prove disastrous for the country and asked the government to convene an All Parties Conference to discuss the thorny subject.

Talking to reporters after the party’s provincial general council meeting at Bilour House, the ANP chief said his party was vehemently opposed to Pakistan taking part in the wars of other countries. He said the federal government should immediately call an APC so that all political parties could agree on a single point. He reiterated that his party would oppose Pakistan’s military intervention in Yemen during such a meeting.

He said Pukhtuns were still bearing the brunt of Pakistan’s participation in the Afghan war and Balochistan would have to pay similar consequences if the country became part of the tussle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Asfandyar said it was unfortunate that the Pakistani leadership had failed to learn from its past mistakes.

Pakistan - We should stay away from Yemen

By Rasul Bakhsh Rais

Today, the Middle East is divided; it is in turmoil and is engulfed in multiple conflicts. Long before the Arab spring, the fault lines of the state formation process had become visible. The glue of Arab nationalism that tied many diverse tribal, religious and sectarian communities together had become dry, empty of promise and a failed strategy mainly because of the way political dynasties, personalised rule of dictators and tyranny replaced the dream of a common state for all. The regimes in Syria, Egypt, Yemen and many other states that started as reformist and revivalist, lost legitimacy and popular support, and the strategy of relying on use the of force to hang on to power for decades was emploed. The template of power structure they created was primarily designed to let them rule in arbitrary fashion than govern with the people’s consent. The will of the strongmen, donning the uniforms, replaced the ideal of democracy and peoples’ right, and made for the ideal of Arab nationalism.

In the absence of the normal politics of democracy — freedoms, political parties, genuine elections, activists — tribal, sectarian and religious identities were used to mobilise resistance against these governments. It is natural in closed systems for resistance leaders to stay in the safe zones of narrow communities because of a fear of persecution and state violence. The dictatorial regimes have been fascist to the core and used some of the most cruel means to silence their opposition. This has produced widespread resistance which has taken many forms, leading to a collapse of state authority and the capturing of many parts of states by militias. The only exception is Egypt where the armed forces stepped in and recaptured the state in the name of stability and order.

The conflict in Yemen has been simmering for almost a decade, and has now gathered combustible elements in it: tribal, sectarian, religious and power factions. The most dangerous development is that all civil conflicts have morphed into regional conflicts with there being rivalry and a power struggle between two resourceful states: Iran and Saudi Arabia. Their interventions and counter-interventions have led to the development of two rival regional alliances around them. At the moment, the Saudi-led regional coalition, with strong backing from the United States and some European powers, appears to be aggressively inclined towards reshaping the Middle East according to its imperatives of stability, order and security.

There is yet another dangerous dimension to the evolving Middle East conflict, and that is the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in parts of Iraq and Syria as well as the emergence of other similar groups. These are mostly organised along sectarian and religious lines — showing allegiance to the IS. There is fierce struggle throughout the region to recruit fighters for the rival religious militias. Pakistan, with a large number of unemployed and unemployable youth, might be fertile ground, as it has been for decades for many militant organisations.

Pakistan has, over the decades, drifted closer to the Middle East power blocs, as it has stayed close to the pro-West security architecture. Our relationship with monarchies have remained strong in defence matters, trade and in the export of manpower. With the departure of the Shah regime in Iran, it has been difficult to maintain a balance in our relationship between the two regional rivals. There is much greater need today to stay away from the Middle East conflicts than ever before. There is a danger that Pakistan —  because of the personal connections of PML-N leaders with the Saudi monarchy and traditional security ties with monarchies in the region — may get involved in the Yemen conflict. That will be internally divisive and will not serve our national interests.

Pakistan - Yemen - Hard Choices

Over the past week, Pakistani intelligentsia and large portions of civil society have unanimously made it clear that the people of Pakistan do not want to be part of another war. There is a consensus that such a war will severely damage our effectiveness against local militants and exacerbate sectarian conflict. The government has been told: Pakistan must choose neutrality. The high-powered government delegation that left for Riyadh to negotiate Pakistan’s role in the Yemen crisis is certainly empowered to make that choice; the Defence Minister, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security, several senior officials from the Foreign Office and three representatives of the armed forces take part. But has the choice already been made for them?
While the state still maintains that it is undecided on the matter of intervention in Yemen, objectively it seems the state, especially Nawaz’s government will find it impossible to ignore the Kingdom’s request. Along with historically close ties between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Nawaz Sharif’s government has often relied on the Saudis for support and they would expect the same from him. How the premier will convince the rest of the government, including the military, remains to be seen?
Will he take the parliament’s consent before making the decision?

Will the military go along?

Even if the government chooses to join the Arab Coalition – which unfortunately seems like the most probable result – it must keep its involvement to the barest minimum. Providing the Kingdom logistical support, akin to what the United States is doing, and giving assurance that Saudi Arabia’s territorial borders will be protected would be reasonable compromise. Perhaps such an indirect method of support would not be seen as a divisive factor in the local sectarian tussle. Iran, whose foreign ministry contacted Pakistan’s ambassador in Tehran to propose talks with the government over rumours that it is set to join the coalition – and to convey warnings crouched in diplomatic talk, might also see such limited support as grudgingly acceptable. This would allow the government to maintain its relationship with Iran and prevent sectarian violence from escalating. Anything more, from air strikes to sending ground troops to physically enter Yemen, would be the wrong move, which would inevitably suck Pakistan into a war that is not its own.

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Pakistan - PM should take opposition in confidence on Yemen: Asif Ali Zardari

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Former President and Co-Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should take all opposition parties in confidence on the Yemen’s issue before reaching a decision in this regard.

The former president had convened a meeting at Bilawal House in Karachi to discuss the Yemen conflict and review Pakistan’s options. Speaking on the occasion, Zardari said that protection of Harmain and Sharifain is the duty of Muslim Ummah adding that Saudi Arabia has always helped Pakistan in difficult times. However, he maintained that the government should take steps after reaching a consensus in this regard by keeping all political parties in the loop.

The meeting expressed the firm belief that the centrality of Saudi Arabia was pivotal to the Muslim world and Pakistan’s response should reflect this belief.

Participants at the meeting called for an All Party Conference to discuss the issue further and reach a unanimous decision in view of the national interests. The political leaders decided to review the issue on the Parliament’s floor as well.

The opposition leaders stressed that Pakistan should play a role of mediator to resolve Yemen’s conflict.

The meeting was called in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s formal invitation to Pakistan to support the former’s offensive in Yemen against Huthi rebels.

Representatives of all major political parties including Awami National Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement attended the meeting.

Later, presenting the details of the meeting at a joint communique, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman said that all opposition leaders have unanimously called upon the government to review the Yemen issue and “propose a way forward.”

She stressed that the gravity of the situation demands a unified national policy not a decision made by few individuals.

Speaking on the occasion, MQM’s central leader Farooq Sattar said that the government should consult all political parties to devise a national policy on Yemen’s issue.

Ex-president Zardari said that PPP has always preferred dialogue on national issues. He said that Pakistan should make a very careful move on Yemen’s conflict. He added that Saudi Arabia hosts 1.5 million Pakistani manpower and around 300,000 works in other Gulf countries.
Source: Daily Capital