#1
The PRC will never give up their claims of sovereignty oer Taiwan as it is the latter is their opportunity to break the natural + geopol barriers of the "First Island Chain", + is the key short of war for expanding China's control, influence toward CENTPAC + EASTPAC - DITTO FOR NORTH KOREA + ALSO OKINAWA [Ryukyus vassal kingdom] AS ADJUNCT TO TAIWAN + OTHER IN SE ASIA.
"Hainan" is NOT Rising China's "PEARL HARBOR/HAWAIIAN ISLANDS" for access into the deep Pacific - TAIWAN IS, as followed or flanked by Okinawa + Philippines [NORPHIL = Manila Bay, Subic, + Clark areas].
Govt-PLA + International Chinese strategists, etc. have said so, + have described or inferred the OKINAWA-TAIWAN-PHIL TRIANGLE AS CHINA'S MOST IMPORTANT = PRIMARY STRATEGIC FRONT AGZ THE US IN ANY MAJOR US-CHINA WAR OER TAIWAN = EAST ASIA.
One of the reasons China continues to purchase JAPAN'S DEBT = T-BILLS is because it hopes to econ pressure Japan into granting base rights on Okinawa.
#2
ION WAFF > CHINA SCRAMBLED TWO FIGHTERS [SU-27's] TO REPEL US SPYPLANE LAST MONTH.
* SAME > CHINA LAUNCHES LARGEST DOCK LANDING SHIP, whose design is believed as akin to the USN's SAN ANTONIO-class.
HMMMM, HMMMM, US "GATOR NAVY" = CHIN "PANDA" = "BEAR" = "TIGER" NAVY, as per Amphib Warfare???
* SAME > CHINA'S NEW CONCEPT AIRCRAFT CARRIER. Bimaran = Double-Hulled.
Not bad CGI, albeit personally I'm more inclined to think "MOTHERSHIP" ANDOR "FIRE/ARSENAL SHIP" than just newbie "Aircraft Carrier".
ASYMMETRIC = UNIVERSAL/GLOBALIST? DESIGNS FOR AYSMMETRIC = UNIVERSAL/GLOBALIST? THREATS.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUMS > TAIWAN WORRIES ABOUT EMP ATTACK FROM CHINESE MAINLAND.
* FREEREPUBLIC > [Delassified 2005 Rpt] REPORT: CHINA WAS TESTING [on animals]FOR EMP ATTACK ON TAIWAN.
versus
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUMS > IRAN SUPREME LEADER KHAMENI CALLS IRAN [desired-in-future] NAVAL PRESENCE ON HIGH SEAS "PROMISING", + Worthy of the Iranian + World Peoples.
GOOD FOR OWG NUCLEAR "CALIPHATE", UMMAH, FOR KIDDIES + CAMELS!
* TOPIX, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA READY TO DISCUSS/ADMIT PAKISTAN LINK TO [West China]XINJIANG VIOLENCE.
DHAKA - The suspected mastermind of the serial bomb blasts that last week killed at least 19 people in Mumbai and injured over 130 more is in Bangladesh, according to Indian media reports.
Abdullah Khan, of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), probably orchestrated the blasts and his movements had been tracked over the past few months, the Times of India quoted investigators as saying in a July 17 report.
If proven true, that report and others like it may stifle the progress that India and Bangladesh have made in improving ties over the past two years.
Given Bangladesh's track record at fighting terrorism since 2009, a coordinated manhunt between the two countries to track down Khan, who goes by the aliases of Khurram Khaiyam and Nata, could turn out be a blessing in disguise for India's developing neighbor.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was one of the first leaders to offer condolences to her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, in a letter expressing her "deep shock and concern over the death of innocents" in three consecutive explosions that took place during the Indian financial capital's rush hour at the crowded Zaveri Bazar at 6:54pm, the Opera House a minute later and at the suburb of Dadar at 7:04pm local time on July 13.
Soon after the explosions, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the timing of the blasts showed a coordination that made it "quite obvious that some terror element is involved in the attack".
Mumbai police said they suspected the bombs to be the work of the IM, although Chidambaram declined to speculate who was behind them. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan denied that there had been any intelligence failure.
Abdullah Khan is now "operating the IM module which is assigned to maintain liaison with the Bangladesh-based Harkat Ul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI) and, in a joint venture, has recruited a few new cadres for their outfit", according to the Times of India article. "Investigators said even six months ago, he [Khan] was stationed in Nepal and used to shuttle between Bangladesh and Pakistan."
On July 18, rediff.com reported that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India arrested Riazul Sarkar from Bihar in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts. The report quoted intelligence bureau sources as saying Sarkar "may have links with HuJi in Bangladesh", although it added that the agency didn't have many details about the alleged link.
The report also mentioned that the National Investigation Agency, India's top unit to combat terror, was homing in on IM members across India and was already questioning a suspected operative known as Haroon, who is in a Kolkata jail after being arrested in June.
An Intelligence Bureau (IB) source referred to a change of tactics by the IM after the terror strike on multiple targets, including five-star hotels, by 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, left 166 people dead and many injured.
"After 26/11, with Pakistan under the scanner for their role in sheltering handlers and perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage, the IM had started conducting training camps in Bangladesh," the source told the Deccan Chronicle in a July 18 report.
IM terrorists find it easier to penetrate India from Bangladesh through West Bengal with support from the HuJI, the source said in the report.
The source also speculated that since one of the IM founders, Amir Raza, is from Kolkata, his awareness of "the topography of West Bengal" makes it more convenient for him to coordinate movements along the border.
LeT members had planned a simultaneous attack with the 26/11 atrocities in Mumbai, in the shape of a strike on the US Embassy and Indian High Commission in Bangladesh. However, as two of the three terrorists who had ordered the attack, India-born US citizen David Coleman Headley and Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, had been arrested in Chicago in October 2008, and the third, Pakistani-born Abdur Rahman Sayeed was arrested in Pakistan around the first week of November, Bangladesh detectives foiled the plot. Mufti Harun Izahar and two associates from Chittagong were arrested, along with three Pakistani LeT members.
In November 2009, Indian authorities also arrested two Indian nationals and LeT members - T Nasir and Sharfaraz - who crossed the border into India from Bangladesh. The pair were part of the 15-member squad that failed to attack the US Embassy and Indian mission in Dhaka, the authorities said at the time.
In a bid to combat such cross-border terrorism, organized crime and the drug trade, during Hasina's visit to India in January 2010, Bangladesh and India decided to form a coordination committee comprising representatives of law-enforcing agencies and the two countries' intelligence wings to "deal with international terrorism and drug smuggling, investigation and completion of trial in such crimes". The agreement has yet to be ratified by either country. But the continued movement of terrorists across the border makes it highly likely that it will be signed off during a planned visit to Bangladesh by Manmohan in September.
The signing of the initial agreement and the arrest of numerous high-profile terrorists was behind the United States in August 2010 lauding Bangladesh's efforts "to deny domestic and transnational terrorists safe haven and targeting opportunities in Bangladesh". Bangladesh and India now have to join hands to apprehend suspected IM terrorists. At stake are bilateral ties between the neighbors, whose cooperation framework has the potential to improve livelihoods significantly and save lives in both countries.
The admirable decision not to participate in the upcoming UN "anti-racism" extravaganza should serve as a wake-up call for other democracies.
News broke Friday and Saturday that the Czech Republic and Italy have decided to pull out of the upcoming UN "anti-racism" extravaganza known as Durban III. Canada, Israel, and the United States have already given thumbs down to the event, which the UN is bringing to US shores on September 22, 2011.
While Americans will be mourning the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the United Nations in New York will be "commemorating" the 10th anniversary of the first Durban conference, an outpouring of the kind of intolerance and xenophobia which fuels terrorism in the first place.
The Czech and Italian moves came a few days after UN negotiators quietly circulated a draft of the final declaration that will be adopted at the conclusion of Durban III.
Although if one goes to the actual conference, there will be prostitutes, catered meals, and diplomatic parties...and the frisson that comes from doing something so important that global warming must be caused. Not to mention days of Two Minute Hates in the company of hundreds of the bien pensant.
Although the writing had been on the wall for a very long time, the alarm bells could no longer be ignored. The "political declaration" focuses particularly on what it calls "victims of racism." And the Durban Declaration emanating from South Africa names only one state victimizer, Israel. The Palestinian people are listed as victims of racism.
The Zionism-is-racism mantra, the Durban formula being its most recent incarnation, has been circulating around the UN for decades. It is the cornerstone of the effort to delegitimize the Jewish state and invoke lethal politics when other weaponry falls short. These days, the campaign is headquartered in a working group of the UN General Assembly that is tasked with squaring the circle: reaffirming the contemptible message of the Durban Declaration under a veil of human rights gibberish.
Czech and Italian diplomats, however, can read. The current draft of the final declaration for Durban III says that the UN must "incorporate the implementation of the Durban Declaration into the human rights mainstreaming in the UN system" and demands an intensification of "efforts at the local, national, regional and international levels aimed at the full and effective implementation" of instruments like the Durban Declaration and beyond.
And there's more. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation managed to insert a demand for "cultural diversity, solidarity and harmony." That's the typical UN prescription for stifling free speech, avoiding any action to stop Syrian butchers, for example, and generally keeping criticism of Islamic anti-human rights predilections off the table.
The countries from the so-called non-aligned movement, which comprises 115 developing countries, have also incorporated into the political declaration a claim that "poverty," "underdevelopment," and "economic disparities" are "closely associated with racism and racial discrimination." That's a familiar form of extortion that starts by labeling donor countries racists.
The Czech Republic and Italy rightly decided they'd had enough. The next round of "negotiations," at which Western states are dressed-down and manipulated by the racism charge coming from the Islamic world and others, will be held at UN headquarters on July 28.
Earlier this month, Dutch diplomats told the same Durban III negotiators that the Netherlands would only agree to a Durban III political declaration that categorically rejected the part of the original Durban Declaration that singled out Israel. In the words of the Dutch diplomats, this part of the Durban Declaration was not relevant in the fight against racism. The Netherlands is expected to follow the Czech and Italian moves in the near future.
Other Western states, however, are playing a quite different role, in particular Norway and Switzerland.
One expects that of Norway, but Switzerland is a bit surprising.
These two countries have decided to take the lead in championing the Durban Declaration in all its manifestations and to fall in lock step with Arab and Islamic priorities.
Still other European Union countries like Britain and France have expressed a willingness to go the cover-up route, although their verbal gymnastics defy imagination. In June the General Assembly adopted a resolution on the organization of Durban III that stated: "the closing plenary meeting will comprise "the adoption of a short and concise political declaration aimed at mobilizing political will." That's an odd sentence apparently ending in mid-stream. It was the EU's idea to omit the words which came after "political will." In December 2010 the General Assembly resolution promoting Durban III referred to mobilizing political will "for the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration." When the EU floated the idea of not finishing the sentence or of incorporating a technical reference to the December resolution that nobody would read, the meeting's co-chair gave them a nod and said he appreciated their interests in subterfuge.
Whatever rhetorical devices are contrived behind closed doors, the bottom line remains: Durban III is all about commemorating an event that is forever tainted with anti-Semitism and intolerance. The admirable decision by the Czech Republic and Italy is a wake-up call for other democracies still pretending otherwise.
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.
