Pakistan Cyber Force: December 2013

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Pakistan Cyber Force [Official]

Monday, December 30, 2013

Wasting "Useful Idiots" - NATO Captures TTP Commander Ikram Ullah

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KABUL : Wasting "Useful Idiots" in Afghan War continues as NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Saturday, has detained commander Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (Mohamand Agency chapter) Ikram Ullah Alia Turabi.

According to sources, Turabi was held by ISAF authorities at District Lal Pura in Nangharhar province of Afghanistan. Ikram Ullah was on his mission from Mohamand Agency to Afghanistan to finalise schedule and arrangements for upcoming meetings with Afghan intelligence National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials.

It is pertinent to note here that NDS is the domestic intelligence agency of the stooge government of Afghanistan which directly reports to the Indo-American pawn President Karzai and the National Assembly. Heavily infiltrated by CIA and India's RAW, the NDS has about thirty departments and different branches all across Afghanistan. It employs an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 people, mostly trained by the United States Department of Homeland Security, India and some other NATO states.

NDS is also responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information and intelligence in support of law enforcement, national security, defence and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. The assembly and propagation of this information is known as intelligence analysis or intelligence assessment.

The detention of Ikram Ullah has also highlighted the established links between NDS and TTP, sources said adding that apprehension of TTP commander had also endorsed Pakistan’s stance about these links which had been denied by both TTP and NDS.

Moreover, Pakistani government and political parties had been demanding of the Afghan government to hand Molvi Faqeer and other wanted TTP terrorists hiding at safe havens inside Afghan soil. The new chief of TTP Mullah Fazlullah is also reportedly residing in Afghan province Nuristan along with his thousands of followers and activists.

It is also worth mentioning that another senior TTP commander Latif Mehsud was held by ISAF forces in Afghanistan a few days before the killing of TTP Chief Hakimullah Mehsud in drone attack.

Analysts at Pakistan Cyber Force strongly believe that desperate times call for desperate measures and for the sake of getting out of Afghanistan safely, the US-NATO alliance has finally gone down on its knees and has started accepting Pakistan's demands that their mercenary proxies along Pak-Afghan border carrying out bombings in Pakistan be cleared before they are allowed a safe passage back from the Afghan War which has broken the economic backbone of both European Union and the United States.

(Edited by Pakistan Cyber Force Web Desk)
Pakistan Cyber Force

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Monday, December 16, 2013

Yemen Parliament Bans Drone Attacks

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SANAA: Yemen's parliament passed on Sunday a law banning drone strikes, Saba news agency said, days after one such attack reportedly hit a wedding motorcade and killed civilians.

“Lawmakers have voted to ban drone strikes in Yemen,” Saba reported after a parliamentary meeting. The US military operates all unmanned aircraft flying over Yemen in support of Sana's campaign against Al Qaeda, and has killed dozens of militants in an intensified campaign this year.

Saba said lawmakers Sunday stressed “the importance of protecting all citizens from any aggression” and “the importance of preserving the sovereignty of Yemeni air space.”

On Thursday a drone attack in Rada, in the central province of Bayda, killed 17 people, mostly civilians, in a wedding motorcade, triggering protests in the impoverished Arabian peninsula country.

The Supreme Security Committee, headed by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, issued a statement on Friday insisting that the strike had targeted a car belonging to a leader of Al Qaeda.

In the car “were top leaders who plotted several terrorist attacks against the armed forces, police, civilians and vital government installations,” it said.

The statement did not give a death toll for the strike, nor refer to any civilian casualties or acknowledge that the attack was launched by a US drone.

Security sources and witnesses said two missiles were fired, and that mostly civilians had died.

Amnesty International said confusion over who was behind the raid “exposes a serious lack of accountability for scores of civilian deaths in the country.”

Relatives of the dead blocked roads to protest the killings and demanded an official apology as well as compensation.

“If the government fails to stop American planes from... bombing the people of Yemen, then it has no rule over us,” tribal chief Ahmad al-Salmani told AFP on Saturday.
(Dawn.com)
Pakistan Cyber Force

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Iftikhar Chaudhary illegally issued 5th License to Geo TV: Chairman PEMRA

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Ex-Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, known by many as "Cheap Justice" & "Kana Dajjal" across Pakistan
Chairman of PEMRA has said that his authority had issued fifth licence to Geo TV on the instructions of a bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Speaking in Khara Such hosted by Mubasher Lucman which is a private television programme, PEMRA Chairman Rasheed Ahmed admitted that the regulatory body issued five licences to Geo. He also acknowledged that, according to PEMRA legislation, the authority could issue only four licences to one media group.

According to the Rules, Section 13(1) of The PEMRA Rules, 2009, was added “to ensure that fair competition is facilitated, media diversity and plurality are promoted”.

The programme host, Mubashir Lucman, said that Justice Chaudhry ignored the corruption of Geo group.

Pakistan Cyber Force

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Japan Scrambles Fighter Jets to track Russian Bombers

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Tupolev Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber (archive)
TOKYO, December 6 (RIA Novosti) – Japan placed its air force on alert on Friday after two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers flew near its airspace, the Japanese military said.

The two Russian bombers reportedly flew near Japan’s northernmost Hokkaido island and flew above the Sea of Japan past the Honshu island.

The Russian aircraft did not violate the country’s airspace, but Japanese fighter jets were put on alert, the Japan Self-Defense Forces said.

Two similar incidents, involving Russia’s Tu-95 and Tupolev Tu-142 reconnaissance planes, were reported in November.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force was put on alert 105 times between July and September because of flybys by Russian aircraft, according to military authorities.

Japan remains very sensitive to the Russian military activity near its borders as bilateral relations have long been overshadowed by a territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands in the north Pacific.

The four disputed islands – Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai – were occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II and are still claimed by Japan.

The two states never signed a permanent peace treaty following the end of World War II because of the row over the islands, which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories.

Pakistan Cyber Force

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Demise of Dollar: Kentucky Town to Pay Police Chief in Bitcoin

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City employees in Vicco, Kentucky could be receiving their paychecks in the form of bitcoin as early as this month after officials there agreed on Monday to begin compensating the chief of police with the emerging crypto-currency.

City officials said on Monday this week that there won’t be a problem with paying Vicco Police Chief Tony Vaughn electronically using bitcoin, an online-only digital form of currency that has in recent months been accepted at an increasing number of retailers around the world.

Bitcoin allows users to securely pay for goods and services with near total anonymity, all while avoiding the regulations and restrictions often imposed by state-controlled currencies, such as the dollar.

Cris Ritchie for Kentucky’s Hazard Herald reported on Wednesday that Vaughn made his request last month, and this week city officials said they finished their research and would be willing to pay the chief’s salary in bitcoin if that’s his preference.

"We done a checkup on it, and that's the way he wants paid, and that's the way the city is going to pay him," City Commissioner Claude Branson told the Herald. “Basically his next paycheck” could be in bitcoin, Mayor Johnny Cummings said to the paper. “They've set up the accounts for Vicco and for Tony, so it can be transferred.” "We just want to be on top of things, and up-and-coming and more progressive as a city," the mayor added.

All applicable federal and state taxes will still be chopped from the top of Vaughn’s salary each pay period, Cummings added, but the remainder will be electronically converted and put in the control of a city-run bitcoin account where funds will then be instantaneously transferred to Vicco’s own digital wallet.

"I'm excited about it; it's a first for Vicco again," Vaughn told Richie, referring to an ordinance passed by the city earlier this year that outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation. Last month, the United States Senate approved of a similar bill that functions on a federal level — the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA — but that act has yet to clear Congress.

But while the EDNA may eventually make its way to President Barack Obama’s desk and be signed into law, no measures whatsoever have been proposed in Congress just yet that would require the government to pay federal employees in bitcoin. Meanwhile, though, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wrote to the Senate recently that virtual currencies, like bitcoin, "may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure, and more efficient payment system."

One bitcoin is currently worth US$1,230, up from $240 just one month earlier. Earlier this year a Canadian man attempted to sell his Alberta home for bitcoin, and the University of Nicosia in Cyprus recently became the first institution of its type to accept the virtual currency for tuition.
(RT)
Pakistan Cyber Force

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Chinese Army to Establish "Death Star" Base on Moon

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The Chinese Long March-3B Rocket (File)
A report appearing in the pro-regime China Times brags that China’s launch of the Long March-3B rocket earlier this week is part of a long term plan to turn the moon into a Star Wars-style “death star” from which the PLA could launch missiles against any target on Earth.

It all sounds like something straight out of The Onion, but upon checking the sources it appears that this is indeed what Communist Party officials have been discussing this week following China’s flagship launch of a lunar rover, which is Beijing’s first spacecraft to land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.

The article appears on the Want China Times website, the English-language outlet of the The China Times Group, which is based in Taiwan and considered to be pro-unification and pro-Beijing. The article cites the Beijing Times, which is affiliated with the People’s Daily, as the source for the original report.

Under the headline PLA dreams of turning moon into Death Star, says expert, the report cites “experts in China” who are wargaming how the moon, “Can be transformed into a deadly weapon. Like the Death Star in Star Wars, the moon could hypothetically be used as a military battle station and ballistic missiles could be launched against any military target on Earth.”

“Various weapons testing sites could also be established on the moon,” the article adds, noting that the launch of the Long March-3B rocket is the start of “a more ambitious program.” This report again reminds us that some of Beijing’s most jingoistic and aggressive rhetoric is often hidden in plain view, with Chinese military planners perfectly willing to go on the record and brag about their agenda to turn China into a forceful military superpower.

Last month, Chinese state-run media released a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear attack launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force. Top Chinese generals have also occasionally threatened America with nuclear strikes if the U.S. becomes embroiled in any future conflict involving Taiwan.

Tensions between the United States and China are currently running high after Beijing imposed an “air defense zone” over the disputed Senkaku Islands and hinted that it may shoot down any foreign aircraft entering the area. The U.S., Japan and South Korea quickly rendered this threat toothless by performing several overflights of the area without notifying Chinese authorities.

According to the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the escalating crisis represents a “watershed moment for the world,” could signal the start of a new cold war, and means “Asia is on the cusp of a full-blown arms race.”

China has acted with increasing military aggression in recent months, first by sending warships to the coast of Syria to in September to “observe” the actions of U.S. and Russian vessels in the region and then by sailing a surveillance ship through Hawaiian waters for the very first time in an unprecedented move which was described as a provocative retaliation to America’s naval presence in the East China Sea.
(InfoWars)
Pakistan Cyber Force

American JSOC's ongoing Secret Wars in 120 Countries

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S. Special Operations forces were deployed in 75 countries, up from 60 at the end of the Bush presidency. By the end of this year, United States of Zionism's Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me, that number will likely reach 120. We do a lot of traveling -- a lot more than Afghanistan or Iraq, he said recently. This global presence -- in about 60% of the world's nations and far larger than previously acknowledged -- provides striking new evidence of a rising clandestine Pentagon power elite waging a secret war in all corners of the world.

The Rise of the Military's Secret Military
(The Knights Templar)

Born of a failed 1980 raid to rescue American hostages in Iran, in which eight US service members died, US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) was established in 1987. Having spent the post-Vietnam years distrusted and starved for money by the regular military, special operations forces suddenly had a single home, a stable budget, and a four-star commander as their advocate.

Since then, SOCOM has grown into a combined force of startling proportions. Made up of units from all the service branches, including the Armys, Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, and Marine Corps Special Operations teams, in addition to specialized helicopter crews, boat teams, civil affairs personnel, para-rescuemen, and even battlefield air-traffic controllers and special operations weathermen, SOCOM carries out the United States of Zionism's most specialized and secret missions. These include assassinations, counterterrorist raids, long-range reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign troop training, and weapons of mass destruction counter-proliferation operations.

One of its key components is the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, a clandestine sub-command whose primary mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists. Reporting to the president and acting under his authority, JSOC maintains a global hit list that includes American citizens. It has been operating an extra-legal kill/capture campaign that John Nagl, a past counterinsurgency adviser to four-star general and soon-to-be CIA Director David Petraeus, calls "an almost industrial-scale counterterrorism killing machine."

This assassination program has been carried out by commando units like the Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force as well as via drone strikes as part of covert wars in which the CIA is also involved in countries like Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen.

In addition, the command operates a network of secret prisons, perhaps as many as 20 black sites in Afghanistan alone, used for interrogating high-value targets.

Growth Industry

From a force of about 37,000 in the early 1990s, Special Operations Command personnel have grown to almost 60,000, about a third of whom are career members of SOCOM; the rest have other military occupational specialties, but periodically cycle through the command. Growth has been exponential since September 11, 2001, as SOCOM's baseline budget almost tripled from $2.3 billion to $6.3 billion. If you add in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has actually more than quadrupled to $9.8 billion in these years. Not surprisingly, the number of its personnel deployed abroad has also jumped four-fold. Further increases, and expanded operations, are on the horizon.

Lieutenant General Dennis Hejlik, the former head of the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command -- the last of the service branches to be incorporated into SOCOM in 2006 -- indicated, for instance, that he foresees a doubling of his former unit of 2,600. "I see them as a force someday of about 5,000, like equivalent to the number of SEALs that we have on the battlefield. Between [5,000] and 6,000", he said at a June breakfast with defense reporters in Washington. Long-term plans already call for the force to increase by 1,000.

During his recent Senate confirmation hearings, Navy Vice Admiral William McRaven, the incoming SOCOM chief and outgoing head of JSOC (which he commanded during the bin Laden raid) endorsed a steady manpower growth rate of 3% to 5% a year, while also making a pitch for even more resources, including additional drones and the construction of new special operations facilities.

A former SEAL who still sometimes accompanies troops into the field, McRaven expressed a belief that, as conventional forces are drawn down in Afghanistan, special ops troops will take on an ever greater role.

Iraq, he added, would benefit if elite U.S forces continued to conduct missions there past the December 2011 deadline for a total American troop withdrawal. He also assured the Senate Armed Services Committee that “as a former JSOC commander, I can tell you we were looking very hard at Yemen and at Somalia.”

During a speech at the National Defense Industrial Association's annual Special Operations and Low-intensity Conflict Symposium earlier this year, Navy Admiral Eric Olson, the outgoing chief of Special Operations Command, pointed to a composite satellite image of the world at night.

Before September 11, 2001, the lit portions of the planet -- mostly the industrialized nations of the global north -- were considered the key areas. "But the world changed over the last decade", he said. "Our strategic focus has shifted largely to the south... certainly within the special operations community, as we deal with the emerging threats from the places where the lights aren't."

To that end, Olson launched "Project Lawrence," an effort to increase cultural proficiencies -- like advanced language training and better knowledge of local history and customs -- for overseas operations. The program is, of course, named after the British officer, Thomas Edward Lawrence (better known as "Lawrence of Arabia"), who teamed up with Arab fighters to wage a guerrilla war in the Middle East during World War I. Mentioning Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mali, and Indonesia, Olson added that SOCOM now needed "Lawrences of Wherever."

While Olson made reference to only 51 countries of top concern to SOCOM, Col. Nye told me that on any given day, Special Operations forces are deployed in approximately 70 nations around the world. All of them, he hastened to add, at the request of the host government.

According to testimony by Olson before the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year, approximately 85% of special operations troops deployed overseas are in 20 countries in the CENTCOM area of operations in the Greater Middle East: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. The others are scattered across the globe from South America to Southeast Asia, some in small numbers, others as larger contingents.

Special Operations Command won't disclose exactly which countries its forces operate in. "We're obviously going to have some places where it's not advantageous for us to list where we're at", says Nye. "Not all host nations want it known, for whatever reasons they have -- it may be internal, it may be regional."

But it's no secret (or at least a poorly kept one) that so-called black special operations troops, like the SEALs and Delta Force, are conducting kill/capture missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen, while "white" forces like the Green Berets and Rangers are training indigenous partners as part of a worldwide secret war against AL-CIA-DA and other militant groups.

In the Philippines, for instance, the US spends $50 million a year on a 600-person contingent of Army Special Operations forces, Navy Seals, Air Force special operators, and others that carries out counterterrorist operations with Filipino allies against insurgent groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf.

Last year, as an analysis of SOCOM documents, open-source Pentagon information, and a database of Special Operations missions compiled by investigative journalist Tara McKelvey (for the Medill School of Journalism's National Security Journalism Initiative) reveals, America's most elite troops carried out joint-training exercises in Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Germany, Indonesia, Mali, Norway, Panama, and Poland.

So far in 2011, similar training missions have been conducted in the Dominican Republic, Jordan, Romania, Senegal, South Korea, and Thailand, among other nations. In reality, Nye told me, training actually went on in almost every nation where Special Operations forces are deployed. Of the 120 countries we visit by the end of the year, I would say the vast majority are training exercises in one fashion or another. They would be classified as training exercises.

The Pentagon's Power Elite

Once the neglected stepchildren of the military establishment, Special Operations forces have been growing exponentially not just in size and budget, but also in power and influence. Since 2002, SOCOM has been authorized to create its own Joint Task Forces -- like Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines -- a prerogative normally limited to larger combatant commands like CENTCOM. This year, without much fanfare, SOCOM also established its own Joint Acquisition Task Force, a cadre of equipment designers and acquisition specialists.

With control over budgeting, training, and equipping its force, powers usually reserved for departments (like the Department of the Army or the Department of the Navy), dedicated dollars in every Defense Department budget, and influential advocates in Congress,

SOCOM is by now an exceptionally powerful player at the Pentagon. With real clout, it can win bureaucratic battles, purchase cutting-edge technology, and pursue fringe research like electronically beaming messages into people's heads or developing stealth-like cloaking technologies for ground troops.

Since 2001, SOCOM's prime contracts awarded to small businesses -- those that generally produce specialty equipment and weapons -- have jumped six-fold.

Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, but operating out of theater commands spread out around the globe, including Hawaii, Germany, and South Korea, and active in the majority of countries on the planet, Special Operations Command is now a force unto itself.

As outgoing SOCOM chief Olson put it earlier this year, SOCOM "is a microcosm of the Department of Defense, with ground, air, and maritime components, a global presence, and authorities and responsibilities that mirror the Military Departments, Military Services, and Defense Agencies."

Tasked to coordinate all Pentagon planning against global terrorism networks and, as a result, closely connected to other government agencies, foreign militaries, and intelligence services, and armed with a vast inventory of stealthy helicopters, manned fixed-wing aircraft, heavily-armed drones, high-tech guns-a-go-go speedboats, specialized Humvees and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, as well as other state-of-the-art gear (with more on the way), SOCOM represents something new in the military.

Whereas the late scholar of militarism Chalmers Johnson used to refer to the CIA as "the president's private army", today JSOC performs that role, acting as the chief executive's private assassination squad, and its parent, SOCOM, functions as a new Pentagon power-elite, a secret military within the military possessing domestic power and global reach.

In 120 countries across the globe, troops from Special Operations Command carry out their secret war of high-profile assassinations, low-level targeted killings, capture/kidnap operations, kick-down-the-door night raids, joint operations with foreign forces, and training missions with indigenous partners as part of a shadowy conflict unknown to most Americans.

Once "special" for being small, lean, outsider outfits, today they are special for their power, access, influence, and aura.

That aura now benefits from a well-honed public relations campaign which helps them project a superhuman image at home and abroad, even while many of their actual activities remain in the ever-widening shadows.

Typical of the vision they are pushing was this statement from Admiral Olson: "I am convinced that the forces... are the most culturally attuned partners, the most lethal hunter-killers, and most responsive, agile, innovative, and efficiently effective advisors, trainers, problem-solvers, and warriors that any nation has to offer."

Recently at the Aspen Institute's Security Forum, Olson offered up similarly gilded comments and some misleading information, too, claiming that US Special Operations forces were operating in just 65 countries and engaged in combat in only two of them.

When asked about drone strikes in Pakistan, he reportedly replied, "Are you talking about unattributed explosions?"

What he did let slip, however, was telling. He noted, for instance, that black operations like the bin Laden charade, with commandos conducting heliborne night raids, were now exceptionally common. A dozen or so are conducted every night, he said. Perhaps most illuminating, however, was an offhand remark about the size of SOCOM.

Right now, he emphasized, US Special Operations forces were approximately as large as Canada's entire active duty military. In fact, the force is larger than the active duty militaries of many of the nations where America's elite troops now operate each year, and it's only set to grow larger.

Americans have yet to grapple with what it means to have a “special” force this large, this active, and this secret -- and they are unlikely to begin to do so until more information is available.

It just won't be coming from Olson or his troops. "Our access [to foreign countries] depends on our ability to not talk about it", he said in response to questions about SOCOM's secrecy. When missions are subject to scrutiny like the bin Laden raid, he said, the elite troops object. The military's secret military, said Olson, wants “to get back into the shadows and do what they came in to do.”
*** Nick Turse is a historian, essayist, and investigative journalist. The associate editor of TomDispatch.com and a new senior editor at Alternet.org, his latest book is The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Verso Books). This article is a collaboration between Alternet.org and TomDispatch.com.
Pakistan Cyber Force

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Nature Collapsing - GMOs Spreading Uncontrollably Around The World

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Monsanto is known globally for its aggressive
takeover of the world’s food supply.
Credit: msdonnalee via Flickr
Testbiotech, a nonprofit organization started with independent (‘non-biased’) biotech research in mind, recently released a report on the spread of genetically altered plants. The organization says GMOs are spreading throughout the world without any controls in place to stop them. They have escaped their intended areas and are moving into the environment and even infringing on wild plant populations. This is happening everywhere and something must be done to stop it before it worsens.

In the U.S., Canada, Central America, Japan, China, Australia, and Europe, genetically modified organisms are spreading into the food system. This is happening with corn, rice, cotton, flaxseed, bentgrass, and poplar trees, according to the Testbiotech report.
“Coexistence between genetically engineered crops and biodiversity is not possible if crops are spreading into wild populations without control. Industry is contaminating biodiversity and our future seeds – who will hold them responsible?” says Margarida Silva from the GMO-free Platform in Portugal, according to GM Watch.
Just 3 examples of GM contamination can be seen here:
  • GM Wheat – An unapproved strain of genetically modified wheat was discovered in an Oregon field earlier this year. The Roundup Ready strain was nixed in 2005 when global resistance to Monsanto forced the company to stop working on it. It was never approved for use, let along growing and exporting.
  • GM Rice – During 2006 and 2007, three different strains of genetically modified rice were found in US rice exports and subsequently the world over. There were three specific strains of rice—one of which was approved in the U.S. and the other two which were not. Still, none of the strains were approved for cultivation or consumption anywhere else in the world. In total, the GM rice was found in more than 30 countries.
To make matters worse, the USDA now considers GMO contamination “normal”.

Testbiotech says there are several reasons for “transgene escape”. They say the future impact of this unregulated spread of GM technology is, quite simply, unknown.

Apart from commercial cultivation and experimental field trials, losses from the import and transport of viable grains for food and feed production are a source of uncontrolled dispersal. The consequences cannot be reliably predicted, and from the cases documented in the overview it is evident that no prediction can be made on how these plants will behave in the long-term or interact with biodiversity.

The organization is calling on EU Commissioner Tonio Borg, who is pushing for GMO authorization throughout the EU, to honestly assess the consequences of GM technology.
Christoph Then for Testbiotech says, “EU Commissioner Tonio Borg who is currently pushing for the authorisation of genetically engineered plants in the EU, should be aware of the consequences of this technology on a global scale. We need regulations to ensure that the release of genetically engineered organisms is prohibited unless they can be removed from the environment if required.”
But, if they’ve infiltrated even wild plant relatives, removal is doubtful.
(Natural Society)
Pakistan Cyber Force

Monday, December 2, 2013

Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Attacks, Infertility, Migraines linked to Plastic Cups, Bottles

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Drinking water from plastic cups or bottles could be giving millions of Britons headaches.

New research shows that a controversial ‘gender-bending’ chemical in synthetic packaging may trigger migraines.

Bisphenol A (BPA) has already been linked to a range of heath problems including obesity, Diabetes, infertility and heart attacks.

Now the latest study – published in the journal Toxicological Sciences – points to BPA causing the debilitating headaches which afflict one in seven UK adults.

New link: Researchers have found that drinking water from plastic bottles containing the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) may cause migraines

The authors urge sufferers to strip out potential sources of contamination from their daily diet, which include plastic microwave trays, bottles and office water coolers.

Their report states: 'A previously performed study using a "fresh foods" dietary intervention demonstrated a significant decrease in urinary BPA (66 per cent reduction) in patients after just three days.

'These findings combined with our results suggest that a clinical trial to decrease BPA exposure and levels in migraine sufferers...may reduce headache frequency and/or severity, revealing strategies that may increase the quality of life of migraineurs.'
 The University of Kansas study emulated human exposure to BPA in the laboratory. Researchers observed the behaviour of rats, half of whom were administered the chemical once every three days. Within half an hour of the dose, those exposed to BPA became less active, steered clear of loud noise and strong light, were easily startled and showed signs of tenderness to the head.
 
The rats’ brains also gave off telltale signals of an influx of oestrogen. Migraines have been linked to sudden changes in levels of the female sex hormone, which BPA mimics.
 
The report states: 'The behavioural measures used [were] designed to model many of the symptoms humans experience during a migraine attack.

'Rats exposed to BPA demonstrated significantly augmented migraine-like behaviours. 'These results imply that BPA has the ability to amplify symptoms that are used to diagnose the disorder in human patients, suggesting that exposure to BPA would increase both the incidence and prevalence of this disorder.'
 
Researchers suggest migraine sufferers should limit their risk of exposure to BPA by cutting out the use of plastic microwave trays, cups and bottles

Around five million Britons suffer from migraines though women are three times more likely to have them. Neurologist Dr Fayyaz Ahmed, of the Migraine Trust charity, said: 'We know Bisphenol A is used in materials such as food packaging, plastics and tins.

'In most sufferers, attacks are genetically linked and the triggers only generate them in those who are predisposed. 'But if BPA is implicated in the genesis of migraines than this would certainly be a milestone in headache research.' Bisphenol A is so commonplace because of the range of products it’s found in, everything from car dashboards to shower curtains to till receipts and cosmetics.
 
Countries across the world – including EU member states, Canada and China - have moved to ban the chemical from baby bottles. The previous study which tested a ‘fresh foods’ diet picked families from San Francisco who ate canned food and were exposed to BPA through at least two of four other sources: drinking from personal water bottles; drinking from office water coolers; eating meals away from home and eating eating meals microwaved in plastic.
(dailymail.co.uk)
(Edited by Pakistan Cyber Force Web Desk)
Pakistan Cyber Force

The Balochistan Frankenstein

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Before I express my condolences for the murder of Rationalism within the Baloch Community and martyrdom of ‘realization’ from the rest of the Pakistani society, I would like to share some relevant information about our insensitivities as Pakistanis. So much for the Aman ki Asha program aimed to build intra-cultural relationship with the neighboring India, one wonders why such a program is not launched to build strong bonds within the country first?

What does a student from LUMS University Lahore knows about a student from Bolan Medical College? What are the political views of Peshawar University students and how do Karachi University students perceive certain political issues in the country? The lack of communication among the youth of Pakistan should be more concerning than the so called bridging the gap between Pakistan and her neighbors, as ‘charity begins at home’, isn’t it?

That is why I call it a martyrdom of ‘realization’; because the way I see it, there is yet to be an effort, not necessarily expected from the government but from the private sector, to bridge communicational and geographical differences within Pakistan. And this absence of realization is simply causing enough vacuum, which is being filled with something not healthy for Pakistan’s national unity. Also, what we see now is an increasing number of challenges from Sub-Nationalism in the Balochistan province.

My observation, after living in such an environment, is that the insurgency in Balochistan is not big enough to literally threaten an East Pakistan like consequence, which was due to our weaknesses both politically and militarily; but they are strong enough to keep the condition chaotic and anarchic in the entire province. There are three major elements of this insurgency; brainwashing campaigns, armed struggle, and sufficient funds to carry on that armed struggle. But I am going to speak about the mother of all problems – the brainwashing campaigns.

Effective Brainwashing Campaigns;

Both on the provincial and the national level; for example, other parts of the country are injected with the disinformation that the ongoing struggle is for their basic rights, as if there are enough rights in interior Sindh, Punjab, KPK and FATA; while on the provincial level, the brainwashing is extremely effective, where the masses are fed with the fairy tales of Pakistan’s occupation of Balochistan. Let me remind you that in Balochistan, they don’t even use the term “forceful annexation”, which is unfairly propagated on the national television screens of Pakistan, but rather, in the province it is even worse. This is carried out by various different methods; there are anti-Pakistan books, easily available in cities and districts of Balochistan, which support the enemy’s narration of history. The domestic newspapers and political seminars, by using the banner of Baloch Students Organization-Azad, are extremely lethal in manufacturing hardcore militants out of hatred for Pakistan.

Imagine, if you are convinced, since your birth that you are occupied, your land is snatched away and almost all the bad things that you view are due to this particular country, most likely, you won’t accept the slavery, would you? Same is the case with most of the people of Balochistan, who don’t have access to the Internet, who don’t have any alternate information which could convince them that Pakistan is their home.  It is such a pity for any country to not have the state’s narration of history; of course there is a more logical and authentic state narration about Balochistan’s history, but it is almost non-existent on the surface. Even those who are able to watch television channels find the same narration of the enemy being delivered by so called prominent journalists, and this keeps them intact to the anti-State version of history. See a few examples of these innocent young angels who are being indoctrinated with hatred for the state from a tender age.

This girl is holding a calendar, what they term as “Shuhada’s Calendar”, listed with the names of some famous anti-Pakistan BLA sympathizers. These Calendars are largely available in Quetta. Which country allows such anti-state material to be openly exposed to her population?

This is another example of the child brainwashing campaign, publically launched in 2006 by BSO-Azad, Chapter Khuzdar, where the Baloch separatists came to the conclusion that an active propaganda campaign must be launched to brainwash the minor children, in order to prepare a generation that is anti-Pakistan. This has met lots of success, not because of their propagative tools but simply because of the absence of any counter narrative. This is where I see that the awareness campaign in Balochistan is more important than anything else. It would be wrong to say that almost every child has been convinced to hate the country, because we still have an overwhelming majority of sane elements in Balochistan who are resisting this menace on their own, but they are surely waiting for the state to practically step in to stop these activities.

People who are being convinced by this horrifying propaganda are now seeing Balochistan as a country, not as a province. This is another challenge for the state – to break this perception and define ‘what a province is’. It has come to a point that even national political parties give a picture that Balochistan is a country and not a province; they don’t say it, but they simply go with the flow without contradicting the militant ideology whenever they hold any political seminar. They start with the slogans of Balochistan Zindabad, and they end it with the same slogan, without mentioning Pakistan anywhere, and I have personally seen the JUIF and the PPP do this a number of times. There comes a point when people are forced to think that maybe Pakistan has abandoned its own people, which is obviously not true, but the state has definitely become more insensitive and indifferent towards this grave issue.

The brainwashing campaign has many ingredients, such as the unemployment and inflation which are cashed in the militant struggle by the propagators. Other elements are; not enough education infrastructure, even the places where you have infrastructure are extremely poor, so that the militants start comparing it to the top level universities in Punjab and Karachi, hence, this comparison helps to fuel up more fire. All these elements that contribute to manufacture militants and hatred for the state are actually very little compared to the major element which I have previously discussed; and that is the very narration of history, which asserts that Pakistan has occupied Balochistan and that the Baloch identity is in trouble by associating it with Pakistani identity. This alone is enough for spawning the hate mongers.

Considering my personal experience, my observation of the situation and with all my research and knowledge I can say with complete confidence that this brainwashing campaign is more powerful than the armed struggle itself. Baloch nationalism, like any other nationalism, is fueled up with nationalistic mythologies consisting of extreme exaggeration of past rulers and warriors. You will be surprised to know that one of their usual propaganda to children is that one Baloch is equally powerful to 11 Pakistanis; and you will be more shocked to know that in their texts as well as verbal propagation, they even prohibit people to eat “daal” which they refer to as a Punjabi recipe, and I have personally witnessed it. In such a hateful environment that is designed by a bunch of sub-nationalists, it is shameful for all those Pakistani intellectuals who are not doing just enough to counter this home grown monster, which I see as a Frankenstein created by this senseless nationalism, which is in turn killing innocent people; because the way I see it, not even the Baloch are now safe from these ethnic militants.

Maula Bakhsh Baloch from National Party and Ghulam Mohammed Baloch from Baloch National Front Party are two huge examples of those who were killed by the same groups over petty disagreements. For now, it is irrelevant to discuss the destruction, as the monster is already created, and this monster is an ideology that is based on sub-nationalism and hatred and stands opposed to Pakistan’s ideology based on Islamic nationalism. For the victims of such brainwashing campaigns, Pakistan is just any other foreign country that has invaded their land; they are designed as secular in nature, because the intelligent propagators know that the only thing which undermines Pakistan’s existence and that can make the people see it entirely differently is the strange mixture of secular Marxism/Communism. It is important to know that many Baloch militants drive their inspiration from Communism.

How successful are these propagandists so far? The answer is simple; they are successful enough to peacefully carry out hate preaching, which transforms into violence later on. They are successful enough to undermine the entire country openly in public forums, including schools and colleges. Just see the shocking examples of their success.


They have successfully convinced a certain segment of people (not majority) that Pakistan is an alien country, and that their Baloch identity is contrary to Pakistani identity; for this they had, in the 1980s, designed a so called National Flag of Balochistan, which is now also the flag of the Balochistan government in exile. This move to launch a flag of their own to symbolize their struggle was a very significant move, but what was even more strange is the Indian involvement even in reshaping the Baloch nationalism. Let me remind you – India has not just aided the Baloch separatist militancy, but also had a part in shaping Baloch nationalism, by directing their stooges such as Khair Bakhsh Marri in the 70s and 80s. When Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was gaining momentum in Kashmir – an indigenous Kashmiri party that seeks Kashmir’s independence from India based on Kashmiri nationalism; the Indians decided to discredit Pakistan with the help of their proxies in Balochistan, in order to distract her focus from Kashmir to her western border. Many RAW officials met Baloch separatist leaders in Afghanistan, and designed a flag for Balochistan People’s Liberation Front (BPLF) – a militant separatist organization of the 70s, headed by Khair Bakhsh Marri, and this flag resembles that of Maqbool Bhat’s JKLF of Kashmir. See the similarities.


Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front’sFlag (1977)

Balochistan People’s Liberation Front (1985)

This was an attempt by the Indians to distract Pakistan’s focus from Kashmir to its eastern borders, so that India continues her brutalities on the Kashmiris with maximum comfort; and the intention of such a flag was to gather all the disintegrated Baloch separatist groups under one umbrella of their cause.

The Role of India didn’t stop there. I noticed another strange similarity between the current BLA flag with the flag of the Popular Front of India, which consists of Muslims who were blamed by the Kerala state government, once in 2006, to spread communal hatred.


Flag of Popular Front of India

Flag of Balochistan Liberation Army

I do not know whether I should call it a coincidence or a part of Indian involvement, but there are many signs in the Baloch nationalist struggle which seem to be designed by Indians. Even their so called revolutionary songs consist of the lyrics of Indian revolutionary songs – produced for Bollywood movies themed on the colonial rule in the subcontinent – translated into Balochi language. I was surprised to witness many Azadi songs of Hindi movies being used in Baloch Students Organization Seminars.

These minor successes of Baloch separatists are enough to keep an anti-state environment alive, without any interruption from the state itself. No one is there to stop them, because if anyone dares to express his difference of opinion from these nationalist groups, he or she will no longer be alive after that. Many Balochs are victims of these nationalist groups.

Flags were just one chapter, which they have opened to symbolize their nationalism against Pakistan; the other chapter is the so called National Anthem of Balochistan. This is hilariously strange, that a cultural song sung by Yasmin Baloch from Sindh in the 80s would be adopted as a national anthem by a group of people, and that too without the consent of Yasmin Baloch. However, this beautiful cultural song – ma chuke balochani  (We are the sons of Baloch), that simply speaks about Baloch history and culture, is being misused against the Pakistani state, where nationalists are programing the children to oppose the Pakistan national anthem in order to sing their own.

All is not under the control of the Baloch separatist groups, despite the state’s indifference to their propaganda. There is still an overwhelming majority of Balochs who not only believe in Pakistan, but also know the difference between right and wrong. They are not secular as they are projected by the separatist leaders. Their entire family structure is based on Islamic principles. They just want the Pakistani state to step into Balochistan and counter the propaganda, to save their lives from these nationalistic bigots.

It is not difficult to win this war, but it is a question of political will. It is a question of spreading awareness; Pakistanis in particular need to participate and try to discredit senseless historical narrative, even if delivered by the likes of Hamid Mir, who reads a BSO-Azad pamphlet and shows up to deliver the speech on its history. We need to aggressively stop them because this is harmful; I retreat that this is not the war of rights, of course the sense of deprivation is there, but it is present everywhere in Pakistan. In Balochistan, it is the question of identity. People need to be convinced that there is a concept of the multi-cultural state. They need to be told that being a Pakistani doesn’t compromise their ethnic identity and culture. There is an aggressive campaign also on the social media, particularly by the Balochs from the Middle East and the Gulf states who are not accepted by the Arab society, and now they are shown this green grass of a free country of their own in South East Asia; so they are the major propagandists and even fund raisers for the terror outfits, simply because they are desperate for a separate identity.

All we need to do is to own the Baloch culture. Just keep this in your heart that you have to own the Baloch and Balochistan culturally; and the moment you do this, I promise you that the separatists will meet an immediate defeat. Their only weapon is to create a sense of alienation from the rest of Pakistan. Their weapon is to make the Baloch see Pakistan as a completely different country; imagine if the Pakistanis start singing patriotic national songs in Balochi; imagine if the Pakistanis promote Balochi traditional dresses and food in different parts of the country; imagine if the Pakistanis are able to convince them that being a Pakistani Baloch is very much possible; then I am very much sure that we will win this war and all these fake flags will be thrown down the drain.

Like I said in the beginning, the Balochs have inherited love for their cultural identity, and if the Pakistanis own it, then they, too, will be able to own the rest of the country. Otherwise, this brain poisoning will continue to breed violence and hatred for the state. The government may have abandoned them, but the people should not. Many journalists are playing the role of prostitutes by selling their integrity for some petty materialistic means, so don’t follow them. All we need for now is a strong state’s narrative of Balochistan’s history being aggressively propagated on every level, and to own all the cultures of our great country; secondly, to support the idea of using force against the separatists and propagandists; no state tolerates such a nonsense, then why should we? Combined efforts of the society and the military can eradicate them completely.

By Nauroz Baloch (Shaheed)
Note: The writer was a vibrant social media activist and a die hard Pakistani patriot. He was martyred on 1st Dec by the Indian sponsored BLA terrorists. His contribution in exposing the Indian sponsored Baloch separatist insurgencies is unparalleled. He served his country with all the passion and love. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

P.S., This article is taken from PKKH.
Pakistan Cyber Force

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