In 58 posts with close to 100k words, we shared a lot in 2024! Explore 2024’s biggest geopolitical shifts, cultural battles, and bold insights with Drishtikone’s year in review. See you in 2025! Happy New Year! Be safe!
When you see Russia get into existential war over Ukraine, or Israel bomb Syria or India battle with Pakistan or Bangladesh, it is not because of some whim. It has a historical and geographical context. That is critical to understand for analyzing geopolitics.
Dive into the shadowy world of the Deep State—its hidden structures, powerful networks, and the far-reaching impact on global events and control.
Pakistan pushes for talks with India. Modi refuses. Pakistan goes into FATF Grey list but not Black. A Nuke Bazaar was ousted, Bin Laden caught and Jihad unleashed - no consequences! Why?
Image by Herbert Aust from Pixabay \ Rakotzbrücke, aka the Devil's Bridge, across the Rakotzsee River in Rhododendron Park, in Kromlau, Saxony, Germany
“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” ― Mark Twain
It is always important to know your enemy. Specially one which is ready to sell himself in order to create power for himself.
We have known Pakistan as a country which backs terrorists and unleashes those Jehadis around the world.
What we have not known properly is how their intelligence organization actively backed 9-11 hijackers.
Long before 9-11, however, the Pakistanis had created a scenario where a sitting US President was lying through his teeth to the Congress for years on end while his own State Department was betraying the US Intelligence and federal agencies by enabling Pakistan to get the nukes.
This is a story as outlandish as any.
The lessons of this story point to the cunning and power that a person who is ready to sell anything can garner. So, before we make any judgment, remember his precedents. See what he can do if he simply does an encore.
In April 2001, Ahmad Shah Massoud was in Brussels giving a speech in his address to the European Parliament, where he clearly talked about the Al Qaeda and Taliban connection and that a major terrorist attack – not outside, but in the US – was imminent.
In the Spring of 2001, he went to France and gave a speech. This is what he said:
I am sure that if there is no interference by Pakistan and his soldiers/Taliban and atrocities by Osama bin Laden on behalf of Pakistan, Pakistan not with standing, there's no need to have strength to us. Our people, he even put an end to the Taliban, people of Afghanistan is quite capable of defeating the Taliban by their own. My message is to Bush is this: If peace is not restored in Afghanistan if it does not help the Afghan people, it is certain that the problem of Afghanistan will also affect the United States and many other country. (English Translation)
On the sidelines, he told his CIA operative friend.
“If I die, take it as a signal”.
Signal of a major attack. On the US.
Around the mid of 2000, ISI Chief Lt Gen Mahmoud had become particularly religious – said to be “born again Muslim” by his colleagues. In 1999, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (variously referred to as Omar Sheikh or Sheikh Sayed) was released by Indian Government in exchange for the passengers on the hijacked plane IA Flight 814. By summer of 2000, Omar Sheikh was in regular touch via phones with the ISI chief Lt. Gen Mahmoud.
Between June and September of 2000, over $100,000 was transferred to Mohammad Atta (the lead hijacker of 9-11) by someone in the United Arab Emirates. Also, in August of 2001, just a month before the 9-11, another tranche of $100,000 was sent to Mohammad Atta by Omar Sheikh. In 2002, Indian Intelligence gave evidence of the calls to the author of the book “Who Killed Daniel Pearl?” – Bernard-Henri Levy about the calls between Omar Sheikh and Lt. Gen. Mahmoud. Washington sources confirmed that to be true. In fact, Indian intelligence actually gave the phone number of Omar Sheikh used to call Lt. Gen Mahmoud before the sending of money to Mohammad Atta.
This action of Omar Saeed sending over $100,000 to Mohammad Atta was also shared by CNN. Atta did not just receive that money, he also distributed it to the other hijackers. (Source)
This source said U.S. investigators now believe Sheik Syed, using the alias Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad, sent more than $100,000 from Pakistan to Mohammed Atta, the suspected hijacking ringleader who piloted one of the jetliners into the World Trade Center. Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil that destroyed the World Trade Center, heavily damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead. (Source)
Now, here is the funny thing - Atta not just receive the funds and distributed it to the other hijackers, he wired the “excess funds” back to Omar!
In addition, sources have said Atta sent thousands of dollars -- believed to be excess funds from the operation -- back to Syed in the United Arab Emirates in the days before September 11. (Source)
How more blatant should the terrorists be? Call White House up?
On September 9, 2001, Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir was killed in a suicide attach by two Tunisians posing as Morrocan journalists from Belgium. By then it was too late to save the US from the plane attacks two days later!!
Before the US Troops attacked Afghanistan to avenge 9-11, a remarkable event happened.
The Kunduz Airlift.
What was that?
The United States took the unprecedented step this week of demanding that foreign airlines provide information on passengers boarding planes for America. Yet in the past week, a half dozen or more Pakistani air force cargo planes landed in the Taliban-held city of Kunduz and evacuated to Pakistan hundreds of non-Afghan soldiers who fought alongside the Taliban and even al-Qaida against the United States. What’s wrong with this picture? (Source)
Sounds strange? Every foreign media correspondent knew about it. Actually first it appeared in The Hindustan Times and then the other foreign correspondents picked it. In fact, the BBC correspondent was thrown out of Pakistan for breaking it first from the Afghan border. The fact was that thousands - some say over 4000! - people were evacuated.
Taliban, Al Qaeda and Pakistan Generals and troops were gone in one night!
Western reporters actually in Kunduz in the days after it fell this week found much to dispel that doubt. Reports first appeared in the Indian press, quoting intelligence sources who cited unusual radar contacts and an airlift of Pakistani troops out of the city. Their presence among the “enemy” may shock some readers, but not those who have paid attention to Afghanistan. Pakistan had hundreds of military advisers in Afghanistan before Sept. 11 helping the Taliban fight the Northern Alliance. Hundreds more former soldiers actively joined Taliban regiments, and many Pakistani volunteers were among the non-Afghan legions of al-Qaida. (Source)
The Northern Alliance fighters, after their hero Massoud had been assassinated were seething with anger. They wanted to kill all of them. But US allowed them - actively - to get away.
“We had decided to kill all of them, and we are not happy with America for letting the planes come,” said the soldier, Mahmud Shah. (Source)
One of the soldiers who fought alongside Ahmed Shah Massoud was Amrullah Saleh, the current Vice-President of Afghanistan. He discusses about Pakistan’s role in attacking, cheating and betraying the US and how the US takes everything lying down.
What is happening in Afghanistan is an invasion and colonization by Pakistan via Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Last year, the US had put sanctions on even China when its troops had tried to take over overt control of Hong Kong.
The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on 14 Chinese officials on Monday, the U.S. Treasury’s website showed, in new designations linked to Beijing’s disqualification of elected opposition legislators in Hong Kong. (Source)
The Russian occupation of Crimea also invited sanctions.
How is it that Pakistan has always escaped the sanctions for working to not just occupy Afghanistan via the Taliban, but also to attack the US Troops and to underwrite the entire 9-11 operation.
That Pakistani terrorist Sheikh Omar Sayed, who was allowed to walk free without punishment in the Daniel Pearl’s killing, sent money to the hijackers of 9-11 is one factoid that makes things look unbelievably bad.
But even worse is that Osama Bin Laden, the main culprit as identified by the US, was found hidden and shielded by the very organization - the ISI - in its compound, that sent funds to the 9-11 hijackers.
A Canadian think-tank, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, writes about what happened to Osama Bin Laden in the months and years after 9-11.
Even though Pakistan was helping Osama Bin Laden at every step - providing security, housing, logistics and anonymity - yet Pakistan kept refusing to tell the world where Osama Bin Laden was.
On September 26, 2006, when Jon Stewart poured tea for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and as they took their first sip Jon asked: (Source)
“Where’s Osama Bin Laden?”
The audience laughed.
Musharraf smiled and said “I don’t know. You know where he is? You lead on, we will follow you.”
And the joke for the audience was over.
Little realizing that the joke was on the Americans and the American leadership.
The Pakistanis have always played with the Americans.
They would get the money - in billions - use that money to train terrorists, and to fund the 9-11 hijackers and then ensure that Americans in the US and American troops in Afghanistan were killed in a simple target practice!
Even the mighty China and Russia have not been allowed to get away with murder, then how is it possible that Pakistan is always let off by the US with absolute blatant day-light murder?
People in the US are mad at what Putin did in the last election. How Russia blatantly infiltrated and compromised the elections.
But long before Putin insulted and compromised the integrity and security of the US, Pakistan had made it their national sport!
Barlow is now destitute and living in a trailer (Source)
So said Danielle Brian, executive director, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), in a Congressional hearing in June 2009.
Now who is this Barlow? His name is Richard Barlow. Once upon a time he was a rising star and a decorated analyst (CIA’s Exceptional Accomplishment Award in 1988) in CIA.
His greatest mistake?
He went after Pakistan’s Nuclear Program and the progress Pak had made in getting all the components from US and Europe right under the nose of the administration.
Worse with the collaboration of Ronald Reagan’s Government.
The evidence against Reagan’s administration was so damning that a high level official once said, that if US is ever attacked with a Nuke, you know WHO to blame it on!!
Danielle Brian also continued about Barlow that:
As a CIA intelligence officer and later in the Pentagon, Rich Barlow learned that top US officials were allowing Pakistan to manufacture and possess nuclear weapons. Barlow also discovered that US officials were hiding these activities from Congress. Barlow objected and suggested to his supervisors that Congress should be made aware of the situation… he was fired.
These allegations and statements exactly mirror the assertions made by two British journalists, Adrian Levy and Catherin Scott-Clark in their Investigative book “Deception”.
You see, it was in late 1980s that Richard Barlow had made a startling discovery – that the State Department was not only keeping the intelligence inputs back from the nation and Congress, it was actually facilitating the Nuclear Proliferation to Pakistan.
What the Commerce Department had refused to clear due to proliferation issues, was being given surreptitiously by the Reagan US State Department to the Pakistani Embassy in Washington.
That was just the tip of the iceberg.
Worse was then discovered!
That someone – someone very high up – was actually tipping the Pakistani authorities and their allies in the US about the operations of CIA and US Customs.
The example that Barlow gave was that the CIA knew how Pakistanis used a company in Oklahoma but before they could raid it, everyone had flown out!
So, someone with secret clearance to view the very confidential CIA operational material was the source for these tip offs!!
Dick Kerr looked over the evidence. Abraham Sofaer for State reviewed it too. Both had little appetite for another inquisition, and yet the men accused of blowing the Pervez (Arshad Pervez) sting were extremely close to the White House: Robert Peck, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs, and another official at the under secretary level. The accusations were devastating. The lawyer dryly put his thoughts to a criminal investigator working for the State IG, “I am fully aware of the cable traffic and documents on this issue”. There was cold proof of sabotage from within the State Department. The State Department’s lawyers considered their position, and eventually would argue that a Justice Department probe into Peck or his colleague would necessitate the spilling of state secrets and possibly invoke an independent counsel’s investigation. While they dumped the probe, the president made his annual Pressler amendment certification to Congress in December 1987, saying, “Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device”. (emphasis added) [Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons, page 167 and 169]
Reagan made a statement to the same effect on March, 25 1988.
Four years later, on 29 December, 1993, Benazir Bhutto landed in Pyongyang and delivered CDs containing uranium enrichment data to North Korea on a state visit in return for data on missile technology. (How Benazir delivered Nukes design to North Korea in an overcoat!)
What China and Russia have not gotten away with, how is it that Pakistan can get away with such blatant level of criminality? Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s report has an answer. (Source)
That is why the country which should ideally be in the ultimate blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is still in the Grey list. Barely so.
The power of Pakistan comes from its ability to remain steadfast in its agenda of terrorism no matter what the cost. It is its strategic depth and the tool which it has used to even ensure that Reagan betrayed his own country. That is how potent Pakistan’s machinations are.
So instead of interaction with that establishment, despite the attacks by Pakistan and their proxy, the Modi government is running the Pakistanis up a road where they will pump their country dry.
But never underestimate a man who can sell himself.
Karachi Bakery Closes: Bandra’s Karachi Bakery, which was besieged by MNS workers objecting to its “Pakistani” name, rolled down shutters recently. The bakery is part of the Hyderabad-based chain run by Sindhi migrants from Karachi, Pakistan. However, bakery manager, Rameshwar Waghmare, said the closure was not provoked by the renaming controversy. “We shut shop after the old lease agreement lapsed. Our landlord had been demanding a higher sum as rent which was unviable for us. The lockdown had already caused business volumes to drop.” An ice cream parlor has opened in its place. The historic confectionery that has branches nationwide is owned by the Sindhi Hindu Ramnani family, which migrated to India after Partition. (Source)
Best Indian Cities to Live in: Indore municipality ranks 1 in performance, NDMC tops among small civic bodies. India's cleanest city Indore has also emerged as the best performing municipality among all million-plus municipalities in the first-ever such ranking by the Centre. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been ranked as the best among municipalities that have less than one million population. The EoLI has been carried out on four parameters of quality of life, economic ability, sustainability, and citizen survey. The ‘Quality of Life’ covers aspects such as affordable housing, access to clean water, basic education, healthcare facilities, safety and security, and recreation avenues. (Source)
Land Acquired for Ram Jamnabhoomi Expansion: In accordance with its plan to expand the temple premise from the existing 70 acres to 107 acres of area, the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust has purchased a 7,285 square feet land adjacent to the Ram Janmabhoomi premises in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, PTI quoted a trust official as saying. The land purchased by the trust is located next to the Ashrafi Bhawan. The trust which has been entrusted with the responsibility of constructing the Bhavya Ram Mandir in this holy town of Uttar Pradesh has paid one crore rupees for the 7,285 square feet land to its owner at a rate of Rs 1,373 per square foot. (Source)
Solar Hurricanes: Typical hurricanes are easy to spot in satellite imagery: Swirling clouds surround a quiet eye. These storms usually form in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, closer to Earth's surface, and unleash heavy rain and strong winds. Space hurricanes are wholly different beasts. A study published in the journal Nature Communications last month describes the first space hurricane ever spotted. In August 2014, satellites observed a swirling mass with a quiet center more than 125 miles above the North Pole. (Source)
200 new Billionaires in China during COVID: OVER 200 billionaires were created in China last year despite the rest of the world being crippled by the Covid pandemic. A booming stock market and a flood of new company listings offset the damage caused in China by the crisis, a new global tally shows. The size of China’s exclusive billionaire’s club has almost doubled in the past five years as the world’s No. 2 economy continued to outpace most others. The Hurun Global Rich List showed that 259 Chinese broke into the billion-dollar club in 2020 - more than the rest of the world combined. It takes the country to a total of 1,058 billionaires, the first to break the 1,000 mark. (Source)
Very little is known about the Australian Aborigines. Most of them are gone. Who were they? Who are they? What is their culture and what is the significance of their culture to the world? Here is the first meaningful work that I have seen on this little-known civilization that was destroyed by folks from Europe in the quest for power, religion, and money.
The old Garimala Yakar, tells firsthand how their world is accompanied by the sound of the didgeridoo, the beat of their tradition, which keeps them together and attached to the land. These tribes have had to defend their country from the impositions of the white man when he came to Australia for the first time. The aboriginal culture has faded over time but they never cease to tell their story to the youngest and keep the hope that someday find their truth.
Watch it with some time on hand and contemplate.
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