Iran Meets Pakistan Over IPI Pipeline Project

This story links back to the previous post here. Now we get to see how Pakistan plays into all this.

clipped from www.hindu.com Islamabad, (PTI): Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, on Friday met his Pakistani counterpart Inam-ul Haque and both the leaders reviewed progress in the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project, in which India is the third party. The two foreign ministers reviewed progress in talks about the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, officials said. Recently, Iran and Pakistan held talks in Tehran, without India's participation, to finalise crucial agreements for the project. Mottaki also met President Musharraf who called for expediting work on the gas pipeline project. Musharraf, during meeting with Mottaki, backed Iran's efforts to make peaceful use of atomic energy and opposed the use of force to resolve the issue of its nuclear programme.

US-Pakistan Policy Post Bhutto

Council on Foreign Relations put out an analysis of the rippling effect of the death of Bhutto towards US-Pakistan relations . Highlights:

clipped from www.cfr.org Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and key South Asia policymaker in the 1990s, told CFR.org he believes Bhutto’s assassination was intended to destabilize Pakistan. “Her death brutally exposes how little success Pervez Musharraf has had in cracking down on the jihadists,” writes CFR Senior Fellow Max Boot in Commentary’s blog. “They have only grown stronger on his watch.” The U.S. Congress, too, has questioned the effectiveness of nearly $10 billion in aid to Musharraf in the war against terrorism. Last week, it imposed new restrictions (AP) on U.S. assistance to Pakistan. According to Manjeet Kripalani, BusinessWeek’s Bombay bureau chief, U.S. influence in the country is likely to diminish. “Bush's continued focus on extremists in Pakistan, rather than on reform of the Pakistani military, is likely to create more muddled policy,” she writes.

The Hindus are moving into Iran

India is to invest billions to develop Iranian oil fields while Pakistan votes on who gets murdered next. Strange times. Sorry, my cynical side is showing.

clipped from sify.com ONGC and Hinduja Group may invest $10 billion for developing oil and gas fields in Iran. R.S. Sharma, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director, told newspersons here today that, “the development of South Pars gas field Phase-12 and Azadegan oil field will cost $5 billion each.” The Azadegan oil field may hold reserves of as much as 40 billion barrels, he said. “Our first round of discussions has been very positive. We are proceeding cautiously but steadily. The areas have huge potential,” he added In fact, Hindujas have evinced interest in picking up a majority stake in the refinery project. ONGC’s subsidiary Mangalore Refinery is to hold 26 per cent stake in Kakinada Refinery Petrochemicals Ltd, the company set up to implement the refinery project. IL&FS is to hold 51 per cent stake and the balance is expected to with an Andhra Pradesh Government-appointed agency.

The Turning of Tables

I am curious as to what brought about the turn of perspective.

clipped from www.strategypage.com Saudi Clergy Turn On Al Qaeda December 20, 2007: Three years ago, Saudi cleric Salman al Awdah, and 25 like-minded preachers, issued a religious ruling, that it was justifiable for Iraqis to fight American "invaders." Al Awdah had also been a supporter of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. But now al Awdah has changed his tune, as have many of his supporters, and he has come out against Islamic terrorism. This has ignited a controversy on pro-Islamic terror web sites, because al Awdah has long been seen as a major supporter of bin Laden among the senior Saudi clergy. While the Saudi government has been pressuring senior clerics to at least stop encouraging Saudis to support al Qaeda, the switch to being anti-al Qaeda appears to be a recognition that most Moslems have come to view the slaughter of so many Iraqis by terrorists as beyond the pale. In that respect, al Awdah is simply reflecting what most Moslems believe, and what he can no longer defend.

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Winning the Oil Endgame

Amory Lovins, while at TED, talks about how to wean the US off of its oil dependency. He makes a very reasonable argument about how to do so while both helping the economy and maintaining national secuirty.

Download the book "Winning the Oil Endgame"

Source: TED

Enjoying the Arts

Found a website called FFFFOUND. Has an assortment of contemporary art and images. A number of pictures that caught my eye:

CIA Agent Talks About Waterboarding

Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou talks about his use of waterboarding:
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John Kiriakou told US broadcaster ABC that "water-boarding" was used when his CIA team questioned suspected al-Qaeda chief recruiter Abu Zubaydah.

He said it might be torture but that it "broke" the detainee in seconds.

US authorities are investigating the CIA's destruction of tapes of al-Qaeda suspects being interrogated.

Mr Kiriakou told ABC the day after water-boarding was used on Abu Zubaydah, the detainee told his interrogator Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate.

'Principles compromised'

"From that day on, he answered every question," the retired agent said.

"The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks."
But he added:

"Like a lot of Americans, I'm involved in this internal, intellectual battle with myself weighing the idea that water-boarding may be torture versus the quality of information that we often get after using the water-boarding technique. And I struggle with it."

He said he felt water-boarding's use had "compromised [American] principles in the short term" and was unsure the technique would be justified any longer.

"At the time, I felt water-boarding was something we needed to do," he told ABC News.

"And as time has passed, and as September 11th has, you know, has moved farther and farther back into history, I think I've changed my mind."
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Source: BBC News

Bona Fide

Ibn Khaldun Didn't Predict the Future...Did He?

One of the most brilliant thinkers of the Islamic world, and in all of history for that matter, is Ibn Khaldun. The man was an historian, philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist. One of his most famous works is the Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomenon in Latin). The selection below is one of the more well known pieces and talks about the natural ages of the state. This concept was a precursor to the idea of cyclical nature of history and society.
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....And the ages of the state, too, may differ according to astronomical conjunctures. Nevertheless, generally speaking, it is rare that the age of the state should exceed three generations, a generation being the average age of an individual, that is forty years or the time necessary for full growth and development....

We said that the age of the state rarely exceeds three generations because the first generation still retains its nomadic roughness and savagery, and such nomadic characteristics as a hard life, courage, predatoriness, and the desire to share glory. All this means that the strength of the solidarity uniting the people is still firm, which makes that people feared and powerful and able to dominate others.

The second generation, however, have already passed from the nomadic to the sedentary way of life, owing to the power they wield and the luxury they enjoy. They have abandoned their rough life for an easy and luxurious one. Instead of all sharing in the power and glory of the state, one wields it alone, the rest being too indolent to claim their part. Instead of aggressiveness and the desire for conquest we see in them contentment with what they have. All this relaxes the ties of solidarity, to a certain extent, and humility and submissiveness begin to appear in them; yet they still retain much of their pristine spirit because of what they have seen and remembered of the previous generation, with its self-confidence, pursuit of glory, and power to defend and protect itself. They cannot entirely give up all these characteristics, even though they have abandoned some of them.

They still hope to regain the conditions prevailing in the previous generation, or even have the illusion that these virtues are still to be found in them.

As for the third generation, they have completely forgotten the nomadic and rough stage, as though it had never existed. They have also lost their love of power and their social solidarity through having been accustomed to being ruled. Luxury corrupts them, because of the pleasant and easy way of living in which they have been brought up. As a result, they become a liability on the state, like women and children who need to be protected. Solidarity is completely relaxed and the arts of defending oneself and of attacking the enemy are forgotten.

They deceive people by their insignia, dress, horse-riding and culture; yet all the while they are more cowardly than women. If then a claimant or aggressor appear, they are incapable of pushing him back. Consequently, the head of the state is compelled to rely on others for defence, making extensive use of clients and mercenaries, who may to some extent replace the original free warriors....
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I think one can draw an analogy to the 'first generation' being the generation that survived the Great Depression and WWII ("The Greatest Generation"); the 'second generation' being those who grew up in the 60s and 70s ("Baby Boomers"); and finally the 'third generation' being those who grew up in the 80s and late 90s ("Generation x").

Many people have questioned whether today the citizens of the US are becoming too apathetic and allowing for their resolve to expire too easily. The US already relies heavily on private armys, such as Blackwater, to fight in Iraq. This seems as it is going as Ibn Khaldun had predicted. Lets hope he is wrong, for our sake.

Source: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Chapter3/Ch_3_12.htm