[TorontoSun] Donald Trump has been U.S. president for a little over 100 days, but there hasn’t been a week where he’s found respite from his critics, who are already whispering "impeachment".
The latest "scandal" heaped on Trump is the Washington Post claim he leaked highly classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about Islamic State (ISIS).
The only other American officials in that meeting, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster and his deputy, Dina Powell, have publicly denounced the Post story, entirely based on anonymous sources, as "false".
But even if the allegation that Trump shared intelligence about ISIS with Russia is true, isn’t the fact both Russia and the U.S. are fighting ISIS relevant to the Post, or to other commentators who immediately took to the air to denounce Trump?
For over 50 years, I have keenly followed the travails of 11 American presidents, protesting their crimes in Vietnam, Chile and my native Pakistan.
But never have I seen the outrage that has greeted Trump.
Is it because he vowed during his campaign last year to "drain the swamp" of the forces that really run Washington?
Trump, is like a bulldozer, shrugging off all the attacks on him.
Next week, he heads to Saudi Arabia, where the guile and cunning of its rulers have manipulated American presidents for 70 years.
However, the way the Trump administration has dealt with Turkey gives us hope.
Despite fierce opposition from that country, Trump has approved supplying arms to Kurdish YPG (Yekineyen Parastina Gel) fighters to support an operation aimed at retaking the Syrian city of Raqqa from ISIS.
The Turks howled in protest saying arming Kurds in Syria would pose a threat to Turkey, but U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis made sure Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s temper tantrums would not cause the U.S. to betray the Kurds.
If the Saudis lure America with a $100 billion order for jet fighters, let that not be the bait to suck America into the kingdom’s power struggle with Iran.
For all its bluster, Iran does not yet possess nuclear weapons.
Pakistan does, along with delivery systems, and these are available to Saudi Arabia.
The BBC reported this as early as 2013, saying, Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and "could obtain atomic bombs at will".
The BBC report cited a senior NATO decision maker saying, "he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery."
There are also reports the Saudis are trying to whip up an anti-Shia uprising within Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan province.
This as a way to divert attention from the 70-year-old Balochistan freedom movement in Pakistan and turn that nationalist movement, similar to the Kurdish struggle, into an anti-Iranian, Sunni Islamic militancy.
Perhaps it is time for Trump to arm the nationalist Baloch in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan just as he’s armed the YPG in Syria.
A free Balochistan, secular and liberal, rid of ISIS, the Taliban, al-Qaida and the anti-India Lashmar-e-Taiba (LeT) at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, should be America’s goal and Trump’s priority.
After all, banking on Islamabad in Pakistan, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Ankara in Turkey has failed, because the Islamist double-speak of the dictators ruling these countries has consistently fooled America.
Posted by: Angarong Angaviter4237 ||
05/18/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps it is time for Trump to arm the nationalist Baloch in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan just as he’s armed the YPG in Syria.
#2
The BBC reported this as early as 2013, saying, Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and "could obtain atomic bombs at will".
...And Auntie Beeb was still about twenty-seven years late:
Short Version: the Saudis have had Chinese-built IRBMs since the early 80s, originally to remind the Iranians and Iraqis that three could play at that game, but also to give them something to eventually use with the Pakistani bombs that they were paying for. (I have seen at least a couple sources that indicate the Saudis asked about Pershing IRBMs, but we wouldn't sell.)
Mentioned the Saudi missiles during a conversation late one night in the Magic Kingdom in 1995, and I was told - quietly but firmly- to shut the hell up and forget I'd ever even known about them. It was a VERY touchy subject.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/18/2017 5:46 Comments ||
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#3
...And Auntie Beeb was still about twenty-seven years late:
I suppose it says something positive about the Saudis that they never used the things on Israel, though America would have been seriously annoyed with them if they had.
[DAWN] THE national flag carrier has suffered another blow to its image with the news that a consignment of heroin has been seized from one of its aircraft at London’s Heathrow airport. Apparently, the contraband was hidden inside the structure of the aircraft itself, since the authorities allowed all passengers to disembark before searching the plane. It is almost impossible that the contraband could have been placed in the aeroplane without the involvement of some members of the ground handling staff or maintenance personnel. The Anti-Narcotics Force had cleared the plane before departure. The crew was not under suspicion because they were released after being briefly detained at the airport. All this indicates that the UK authorities had prior intelligence alerting them to the presence of the consignment in the aircraft, and the information was accurate enough to allow them to let all the passengers disembark before starting their search.
The episode illustrates the multiple dysfunctions that the airline has fallen prey to. First, the strength of the rackets that operate within its abundant workforce is so powerful that it can be a conduit for narcotics smuggling. Second, where the UK authorities had prior intimation of the presence of drugs in the plane, the Anti-Narcotics Force seemed to have had no idea. It is not clear who was supposed to retrieve the consignment at London Heathrow, but clearly, whoever was behind this attempt, had made arrangements. It is imperative that the matter be investigated thoroughly at Pakistain’s end, starting with the drawing up of a list of all those who came into contact with the aircraft before its departure and who could have been in a position to plant the narcotics. This is about more than just the image of the airline. More such incidents involving PIA could have adverse consequences for all international flights operated by the airline. It will be difficult to investigate much over here without at least some cooperation from the UK authorities. According to some reports, an inquiry has been launched by the customs department, but given that the concealment of the heroin in the panels and other recesses of the plane suggests the involvement of other airport personnel as well, clearly the investigation needs to be on a broader level. PIA has suffered enormously at the hands of the powerful rackets that operate within it, and it needs to be rescued from their clutches if it is to survive.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] THE national flag carrier has suffered another blow to its image with the news that a consignment of heroin has been seized from one of its aircraft at London’s Heathrow airport. Apparently, the contraband was hidden inside the structure of the aircraft itself, since the authorities allowed all passengers to disembark before searching the plane. It is almost impossible that the contraband could have been placed in the aeroplane without the involvement of some members of the ground handling staff or maintenance personnel. The Anti-Narcotics Force had cleared the plane before departure. The crew was not under suspicion because they were released after being briefly detained at the airport. All this indicates that the UK authorities had prior intelligence alerting them to the presence of the consignment in the aircraft, and the information was accurate enough to allow them to let all the passengers disembark before starting their search.
