h/t Gates of Vienna
In the U.S. mainstream media the developments that have followed the misnamed Arab Spring have been curiously under-reported. The reason seems clear: In recent weeks those developments have taken a clear turn away from Western-style democracy, pluralism, tolerance, respect for human rights, etc. (as weve warned, repeatedly, that they would). The turmoil has undermined the regions authoritarian secularists to the benefit of far more authoritarian Islamists.
The Mexican Supreme Court ruled today that crimes involving human rights violations by the Mexican military can be tried in civilian courts, according to Mexican news sources.
The new ruling contradicts a ruling made last May which said that military personnel do not have to be tried in civilian courts for crimes committed against civilians during military operations.
The May ruling was issued as part of the legislative process for the new National Security law now held up in process on procedural grounds. The issue of venue for crimes committed by the military as part of operations has long been a point of objection, especially amongst leftist politicians who say such rules increase the power in the hands of the president. To read the Rantburg report on the May Mexican Supreme Court ruling on military justice, click here
Much of the fear by the Mexican left is well founded. The Mexican military was used against political movements in the 1960s and 1970s from which several politicians of the mainstream left are now in leadership positions in Mexico.
For example, Jesus Zambrano Grijalva, the current national chairman of the Partido Revolucion Democratica, as a communist was held as a political prisoner for two years in the 1970s in the midst of Mexico's Dirty War against leftist groups including armed groups.
Members of Mexico's now mainstream left do not want to see a return to those days and have fought hard to prevent a recurrence.
Currently, Mexico's Code of Military Justice Article 57 gives the military full control of jurisdiction for crimes committed by soldiers against civilians in military operations.
The new national security law currently held up in process seeks to keep soldiers suspected of serious crimes such as murder and rape within military jurisdiction. To read the last Rantburg report on the new Mexican national security law, click here
The new ruling effectively says now that not only can Mexican military personnel be investigated and tried by civilian courts, anything regarded as a human rights violation under international law allegedly committed by Mexican military personnel can be investigated and tried by civilian courts.
The only exception is in federal cases in which Mexican federal judges are allowed discretion.
The new ruling presents some obvious problems for Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa. The new ruling guts not only the mild provisions in the national security law, but it stands military justice on its head.
The ruling can be seen as a gift to Mexican drug cartels, who are under no constrictions as a matter of law. The ruling could not have been more generous if the justices had sent Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin Loera Guzman a marijuana blunt and a case of Twinkies.
Understandably, the ruling applies to all cases in which the military is used be the targets drug cartels or armed political groups. However the total lack of context of the ruling makes clear the military could conceivably be hamstrung by civilian courts in its counternarcotics operations in the future.
The Mexican Army and Marines behave professionally in the Mexican Drug War. For all the literally hundreds of gunfights and operations in a year the US State Department in its annual human rights report could only dredge up five incidents in which the military committed crimes or human rights violations. It is an astounding record of restraint. To read the Rantburg report on the US State Department Human Rights report on Mexico, click here and here.
In the shooting gallery Mexico has become,the US State Department should have given the Mexican Military a human rights award. It has one coming.
#2
From the original articles comments, on the basic function of ratings agencies: Their main role, again, appears to be to tell everyone that things are fine, until a real crisis emerges at which point they will pile-on credit downgrades at the least opportune moment, making a difficult situation even more difficult for the authorities to manage.
That is exactly what's been happening for the last 4 years.
An admitted jihadist who killed an American soldier on U.S. soil will be tried next week in Arkansas on a state charge of capital murder - not terrorism. This is odd, considering that the Obama administration recently went out of its way to bring a Somali-born jihadist into U.S. federal court to face terrorism charges for what he may have done overseas. Perhaps the White House thinks that if it turns a blind eye toward domestic Islamic terrorism, it won't really exist.
Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad is a textbook case of homegrown terrorism. He was born Carlos Bledsoe in Memphis, Tenn., and converted to Islam at age 20. He was active in radical circles, traveled to the Middle East and married a Yemeni woman. In 2008, he was arrested in Yemen for a visa violation and was found to have counterfeit Somali identification documents. He was held in jail and interviewed by FBI agents but was allowed to return to the United States in 2009. He was interviewed once by the bureau upon his return but reportedly was not placed under surveillance.
On June 1, 2009, Mr. Muhammad allegedly opened fire on an Army recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark., killing Pvt. William Long and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, who were outside taking a break. Mr. Muhammad was picked up by police later that day; in his vehicle they found an SKS assault rifle, a scope, a laser sight, a silencer, two pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He said he was angry at the U.S. treatment of Muslims and involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He wanted to kill as many service members as he could.
The Little Rock shooting did not get the attention given to higher-profile jihadist incidents such as the Fort Hood massacre in November 2009 or the botched Christmas Day 2009 underwear bombing attempt. In all three cases, the bureaucracy ignored clear warning signs of potential terrorist activity. In all three cases, there was a known link to Yemen and American-born al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki. Like Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, Mr. Muhammad is a homegrown jihadist.
The Justice Department's lack of interest in the Arkansas shooting case is consistent with the administration's attempts to delink radical Islam from terrorism. This also was the case with the Fort Hood shooting, where the administration doggedly ignored all aspects of Maj. Hasan's jihadist motives for the attack and initially refused to classify it as terrorism. This was a neat trick considering Maj. Hasan yelled the jihadist war cry "Allahu akbar!" before opening fire.
It's not as though the administration is afraid of bringing terrorists to federal courts. Mr. Obama ordered the Justice Department to do an end run around Congress to charge accused Somali terrorist Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame with federal crimes and grant him full due-process rights even though he is not an American citizen and had not conducted an attack inside the United States.
Mr. Obama seems desperate to have foreign jihadists face federal judges and equally driven to deny that jihadism has sprouted on American soil. Perhaps Mr. Obama believes that the president on whose watch Osama bin Laden was killed cannot be called soft on terrorism, but the case of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad may prove otherwise.
#1
I still hold that Radical Islam for the time being deems CONUS-NORAM as a "secondary front" to RUSSIA, CHINA, + INDIA, etc. peripherals for routine Terrstrikes + Jihad, ala "attacking where the US = US-NATO/West are not".
RUSSIA, CHINA, + INDIA, etc. = NUCLEAR ARSENALS, MILTECHS, + NEW RESERVES OF $$$, FIGHTING MANPOWER.
JASMINE-LED POLITICAL, LEGAL JIHAD = Legally electorally taking over formerly anti-Islamist, pro-US or "moderate" Govts-States in the ME + North AFrica + espec converting their already PRE-EXISTING CIVILIAN NUCENERGY PROGRAMS INTO NUCWEAPS DEV, PRODUCTION PROGRAMS.
E.g. "2012" + IRAN , WORLD NEWS > IRAN MOVES NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME INTO UNDERGOUND BUNGER [Fordow Nucplex].
* TOPIX > NEW SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE CHANGING SECURITY ENVIRONMENT AROUND ISRAEL.
ARTIC = Even iff one presumes that pro-Islamist movements, e.g. MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD in Egypt, fail to achieve potent or dominat political power in various ME + North African States, THEIR MAINSTREAM POPULARITY IS SUCH THAT ANY FOLLOW-ON, DEDICATED ANTI-ISLAMIST REGIMES = COALITION GOVTS. WILL LIKELY STILL HAVE TO CATER TO THE POPULAR WILL + SUPPORT PRO-ISLAMIST, ANTI-ISRAELI ANDOR ANTI-US-WEST AGENDUMS IN ORDER TO HOLD LT NATIONAL POWER.
By extension, the above includes procurement of advanced MilTechs, Nuctechs includ NucWeaps to support anti-Israeli andor anti-US-Western public policies.
IOW, the Indians + their Chiefs will still have to wipe out Custer even iff the Chiefs per se don't want to.
[Dawn] ALL those who frown at the Imran Khan ... who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... options in politics, they presumably are the indefatigable optimists who still believe that so-called progressive politics still has a future in this country; or they are people who exist at a comfortable distance from Lahore and have no idea of the long reigning monotony in the city.
For those who cannot escape Lahore and have fallen off the progressive cocoons, Imran Khan has already livened up the proceedings with his new spell. He has displayed his growing street power in Bloody Karachi as well as in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . In Punjab, which he should be very keen on impacting, he has spun an impressive show in Multan and is now set to take his campaign to Faisalabad.
What is more, he has sought to fulfil the long-voiced demand of a programme from him by coming up with a 100-day crash plan on reforming Pakistain. In the tradition of a true guerilla fighter, the keyword that sustains his advance is withdrawal.
Mr Khan says that should his party come to power he is going to focus on political approaches to end the war on terror. Force will be the last option. Indeed, the PTI would withdraw from the war on terror and declare a war on corruption instead. The troops would be withdrawn from Fata and Mr Khan's favourite grand jirga would be constituted to bring in peace.
The government will be inclined to say that this is exactly how they viewed the Fata situation before they were compelled to employ force as a last resort. Imran Khan goes beyond this when he promises such drastic steps as the setting up of a commission to probe rights violations in Fata and Swat, cancellation of visas of all foreign security operators, not to speak of a ban on drone attacks and a blockage of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... supplies.
Within the first 100 days of power, Imran Khan promises: an independent accountability commission under a new anti-corruption law; dismantling of sugar, cement, fertiliser cartels; a Pakistain infrastructure fund contributed to by overseas Paks; reduction in indirect taxation on fuel; end to deficit financing; elimination of the power circular debt and hawala transactions.
If not an exact opposite of the current government policies, Imran Khan's 100 is anti-status quo and as ambitious a vote-catcher as one can hope for. In a nutshell, it reads like a collection of all the pro-people, anti-establishment stories the journalists have a bias for in times such as these. It is reflective of the sentiments of large sections of Paks. This is not about power, at least not as yet, and not about whether Mr Khan has the ability or the right conditions to change. He may not be exactly poised for a landslide in elections -- he is popular enough and his calls are being reciprocated sufficiently by the public for other politicians to make adjustments accordingly. It does serve as a serious enough agent that is seeking to break the monotony of Pak politics.
You have to be permanently living in Lahore since the Zia days to realise how desperately some of us crave diversity and an anti-thesis to the present theme. It's been the same faces, the same politics in which the Sharifs have been -- sometimes only academically -- pitted against the PPP.
All those who have sought to engage the Sharifs from a non-PPP platform have faded away quickly. As have people who have
taken them from the PPP's platform.
The Sharifs remain, in ever diversified manifestations, but, ultimately, as one single entity. There is Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who is as vocal and possessive about his initiatives as ever. There is his son Hamza who, when he is presiding over a meeting of officials somewhere, has to be doing so as a representative of Punjab's ruling family. There are so many other MNAs belonging to the PML-N itself who do not get to chair even one such official meeting in their tenure.
Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... is not even an MNA. Yet he gets to chair in Lahore's own imposing 'nine zero' meetings that are called to decide important matters of the government. He was back at 'nine zero' the Mall last week, to oversee some corrective work of very basic nature on the famed but somewhat stalled Walled City Project.
This omnipresence of the Sharifs obviously has its merits. For beginners, the old dictum that you could never accuse the Sharifs of idleness still holds true as whatever takes place in the province by way of governance carries the Sharif stamp on it.
Boring stuff, ultimately.
Imran Khan injects an element of the expected-unexpected in the air. Those who have been on the tour before Mr Khan, like the passengers on the Islamic Jamhoori Ittehad's establishment-driven bandwagon, realise what miracles on-way hospitality from the right quarters can lead to. Consequently, there is visible anxiety in the Raiwind camp, which in a recent statement, considered Mr Khan to be worthy enough playing for President Zardari.
This is not about power but about something that is more profound and permanent. The increasing discussion about Imran Khan and his politics as an option signals the establishment of new benchmarks in Pak politics upon which the future moderates and not will be judged.
Through a long process, the Right has gained ground in the country as it has elsewhere in the world. It is now looking to consolidate. With past progressives failing to listen to pro-people stories crying out to be heard, it may essentially turn out to be a fight among the Right to decide who gets the consolidation contract. From among their ranks will emerge leaders who we are going to address as forward-looking.
Imran Khan is an important player in the game who is in need of partners. He once had a team even if he was not known for carrying out expert plans. Today he has got a plan and should go looking for a team.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] I HAVE said it before, let me scream it again: 'Not in my name', your shenanigans, sirs!
I aim my angry shout at those who have brought our country to its present sorry pass -- no prizes for guessing who 'they' are, of course -- the recent raft of allegations being akin to several last straws on the poor camel's back. The camel being our poor country, of course.
Whilst we will leave Saleem Shahzad's brutal murder aside for a bit, it is poetic justice, is it not, that the dagger that has plunged deep into the back of the Deep State was wielded by none other than its own one-time hero, the oft-crowned with gold crowns (I kid you not) father of Pakistain's bum, Dr A.Q. Khan, aka Mohsin-i-Pakistain.
By golly was he a sight to behold once upon a time; doing what he willed; striding across the Pak stage like a colossus; giving not a whit for elected prime ministers and other such, encouraged by the generals who had complete control of our bums and the factory out of which they came, and whatever went on within its secretive walls. And now that same man accuses a former COAS and another general of bribery.
Before we go any further, a little anecdote about His Arrogance. In 1989, when I was the sorely missed Benazir Bhutto's press secretary, Khalid Hasan did a critical piece on AQ Khan in The Mohammedan, an English-language newspaper that used to come out from Islamabad.
AQ scrawled the prime minister a letter in pencil, on a paper torn from a child's notebook (I ask you) to the effect that the
government was so ineffectual that it could do nothing about journalists like Khalid Hasan etcetera.
The PM marked the letter to me which I returned some minutes later with the remarks that there was complete freedom of the press and the government could do nothing at all in the matter; that the only course open to AQ was to sue Khalid Hasan/the paper.
I also added that he needed a quick course in staff duties, especially in the proper and appropriate way to address a D.O. letter to the prime minister of the country. Do I have to say that the note, file and all, disappeared, never to be seen again?
It is ironical is it not, that it was none other than the army high command who raised A.Q. Khan to the level of a demigod, so much so that even relatively junior officers would not hear a word against this hero. I remember a cousin and platoon-mate and buddy who was a colonel at the time, walking out of my house just because I said AQ was getting too big for his boots -- this was 1989 -- I had left the army in 1976.
Then you-know-what hit the fan and the then army chief kicked him off the totem pole and (like the Commando he was/is) went on kicking him until he was black and blue.
All of the blame was put on AQ as if anyone would believe that he was the only one involved in selling nuclear materials and know-how to others. Indeed, he simply could not have proliferated without the tin-hats knowing; I mean for God's sake, C-130s take off in the middle of the night from Chaklala airbase and no one knows? Duh?
Remember also that AQ was the most well-protected, well-watched, well-spied-on person in the Land of the Pure. And they didn't know he was flying off to North Korea, or was seeing off his precious cargo?
I am not saying Jehangir Karamat or that other chap mentioned in the letter leaked by AQ himself took those dollars and jewels, what I am saying is that AQ could not have sold nuclear technology by his lonesome self. And that the tin-hats (or some of them) would have asked for their share of the loot ... I mean we, er, know their proclivity to make money. The fact is that our country has been very poorly served by the tin-hats -- to the point that we are the pariahs of the world with all of us carrying the can for them. Serve them right that their own creation has come to haunt them.
Of course, the propagandists of the Deep State are again spreading it about that this is, what else, but a Jewish/Indian/American plot to do in Pakistain. Why do they simply not ask AQ to say he did not leak the letter or that it is a fake?
So then, the Ghairat Brigades led by our Rommels and Guderians must be thrilled that the Americans are putting the brakes on military aid -- just what our illusory sovereignty needed, if you ask me.
One hopes one will see a demonstration on the lines of the one praising the ISI with well-painted and expensive placards that was taken out in Islamabad after the Osama/Abbottabad affair, to the effect that Pakistain's ghairat is at last restored.
What we will wait to see, however, is what other sources of military aid our geniuses come up with, to ensure their continued angry belligerence towards the rest of the world.
And now to Saleem Shahzad's horrific murder. Surprise, surprise that the commission looking into it has announced its disappointment at people not coming forward to testify.
I should have warned the concerned to beware of Justice Saqib Nisar who is not afraid to say it like it is -- good on you, My Lord -- as I noticed during the hearings on the 19th Amendment in the Supreme Court. Well, they are terrified of being beaten to death themselves, even those who know exactly what happened to Saleem: please understand that you are dealing with a monster, My Lord.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION NOT-PAKISTAIN, PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > UNWISE MOVE:PHILIPPINES TO SEEK UN RULING IN WATER DISPUTE, South China Sea, vee UN ILOS Tribunal.
Don't think Beijing will go along regardless of how positive is the mutual diplomatic rhetoric.
CMF POSTER - belabeled the PHIL move a CLEAR SIGN OF PHIL WEAKNESS?
* SAME > CHINA-NORTH KOREA TREATY THE BIGGEST BARRIER TO PENINSULAR REUNIFICATION?, vee South Korea + SOKOR interests?
[HOME SIMPSON's infamous "DOH!" here].
* SAME > REPORT: FRANCE TO OPEN UP PERMANENT OFFICE IN PYONGYANG, in support of Franco-DPRK Cultural Exchange.
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
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
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
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
Punjab
Nawaz Sharif
North Korea
