The Pope washed a Muslim's feet,Does this mean Catholics cannot defend themselves against the global jihad?

(TheTelegraph)

Pope Francis continued his gleeful abandonment of tradition by washing the feet of a young Muslim woman prisoner in an unprecedented twist on the Holy Thursday tradition.
While popes have for centuries washed the feet of the faithful on the day before Good Friday, never before had a pontiff washed the feet of a woman. That one of the female inmates at the prison in Rome was also a Serbian Muslim was also a break with tradition.
“There is no better way to show his service for the smallest, for the least fortunate,” said Gaetano Greco, a local chaplain.
Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates aged 14 to 21, among them the two women, the second of whom was an Italian Catholic. Mr Greco said he hoped the ritual would be “a positive sign in their lives”.
Catholic traditionalists are likely to be riled by the inclusion of women in the ceremony because of the belief that all of Jesus’ disciples were male.
The pontiff, who has largely disregarded protocol since his election earlier this month, urged his fellow clerics before the ceremony to prioritise the poor.
“We need to go out to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters,” he said at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica.
“It is not in soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord.”
Francis, the first leader of the Catholic Church from Latin America, led a mass with a mixed group of young offenders at the Casal del Marmo prison outside of Rome.
The 76-year-old, who was archbishop of Buenos Aires until chosen as pope, has already made a name for himself as a champion of the disadvantaged. In his homeland of Argentina he was known for his strong social advocacy, working in slums and shunning the lavish lifestyle adopted by some senior clerics. He lived in a small flat near the cathedral, flew to the Rome conclave in economy class, and chose to travel with his fellow cardinals by minibus rather than in the papal limousine.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio - as Pope Francis was previously known - had already washed and kissed the feet of women in past ceremonies in Argentinian jails, hospitals and old people's homes, including pregnant mothers and AIDS patients.
Before performing the traditional feet washing, in his first general audience on Wednesday, Francis called on the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics to reach out to “lost sheep” over the coming days.
“Holy Week challenges us to step outside ourselves so as to attend to the needs of others: those who long for a sympathetic ear, those in need of comfort or help,” Francis told thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square.
On Good Friday, Francis will recite the Passion of Christ – the story of the last hours of Jesus’s life – in St Peter’s Basilica, before presiding over the Via Crucis ceremony by the Colosseum, where thousands of Christians are believed to have been martyred in Roman times.
While last year his predecessor, 85-year-old Pope Benedict, presided over celebrations from under a canopy next to the Colosseum, Francis is expected to take part in the procession and even carry the wooden cross on his shoulder for part of the way.
On Saturday, the pontiff will take part in an evening Easter vigil in St Peter’s Basilica, and on Easter Sunday the he will celebrate Easter mass in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims in St Peter’s Square and then pronounce the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to Rome and the world.
Also on Thursday, the Pope made his first appointment of a bishop, naming Mario Poli, 66, to succeed him as archbishop of Buenos Aires and the top churchman in Argentina.
Francis also put his first people on the path to sainthood, unveiling a list of 63 people including victims of the Spanish Civil War, Nazism and Communism. The largest number are considered martyrs of faith killed during the 1931-45 conflict in Spain.

Turks in Germany are a Time Bomb

(FSM)

March 22, 2013

"The Turks in Germany are a time bomb, at least the majority of them". This is the statement with which Peter Cohen, an American visiting professor at Munich University, concludes his recent study in Germany.
Three million Turks live already in Germany already, while 2.5 million of them have German nationality, and the majority of them are conservative Muslims.
Are they integrated in the German society? Not really.
The majority of them speak broken German, especially the elderly.
"They don't want to integrate in the German society," says Hartmut, who doesn't want to be identified for fear of reprisals by violent Turks. "They even hate to be called ‘migrants'. They feel very Turkish. They happen to be in Germany as the elderly generation in the 1960s had been recruited to work in the car and coal industries. Now, culturally the majority of Turks, even the young, here in Germany feel very Turkish. " Adds Hartmut, who is a social scientist at a German university.
Professor Cohen subscribes to what Hartmut says about Turkish migration, "In the USA, for instance, migrants usually integrate in the American society, latest when the second generation is there. My survey indicate that the majority of Turks insist on keeping their Turkish identity and their cultural heritage. They feel at home in the Turkish culture."
Very few Turks in Germany have a regular job; about 20%. The other 80% live on the so-called Hartz IV (state social benefits). 70% of their children have no GCSE; they left school before they finished their basic education.
"They cannot find a job? That is not true. There are jobs out there. But they prefer to live on state benefits and lead an easy life. Why should they work? Further, the German social benefit system doesn't encourage them or force them to accept any job." Says Hartmut.
Hartmut also said, "Some of those who live on state benefits have very often a part-time job of which neither the Job Center nor the Finance Office are aware of.
According to the German state benefit system, every adult citizen who possesses the German nationality, unemployed and cannot find an appropriate job, is entitled to get monthly 482 € ($627). Additionally, parents get for each child under 18 years old, 200 € ($261), plus all their monthly expenditures in terms of rent, heating, power, health insurance, and public transport.
"Amazingly enough some Turks who live on the generous state benefits can afford to buy a house or an apartment and drive luxurious cars like Mercedes or BMW." Says Klaus, a landlord whose tenants are a case in point.
Kamal (46 years old) and his wife Shadia (42 years old) have ten children under 18 and live on Hartz IV (the German social benefit system). They have a monthly net income of about 3000 €. In addition, all their spending on rent, health care, transport, heating, etc. are paid by the state.
Kamal never worked or had a regular job, never finished school, and never learned a profession. Now he claims that he is "ill." Klaus, the landlord of Kamal says, "The man is fit." He even confessed to Klaus that he lies when he says he is ill. "He told me once, 'Why should I work if I can live well without/'" Klaus quotes Kamal.
Kamal is obliged to regularly report his joblessness to the Federal Employment Office (Bundes Agentur für Arbeit) in his town. He does so when he is invited for a job interview. But he always alleges that he is "sick:" He allegedly has "unbearable pains in his back and joints." Therefore, he cannot take any job. The only one who knows the truth about Kamal is his landlord Klaus.
Klaus and many other Germans are outraged about Kamal and his like. "It is us, taxpayers who have to finance odd buggers like Kamal. This makes me sick." Klaus frowns at me.
On the other hand, Kamal's neighbour, Dieter works for a mail company. For working 8 hours daily, he merely get 800 € ($1000) at the end of the month. From this salary he has got to pay his rent and the rest of his expenditure. Left for him is something around 400 € ($500).
Besides, for Turks living in Germany, having children is a lucrative business. Some Turks turn to corruption to make this work.
Generally speaking, German citizens can enter Turkey with simply showing their personal identity card. Hence German Turks, particularly women, travel to Turkey and come back with a "leased" baby. They get the baby temporarily from relatives and claim at the German border that it is their baby who was recently born in Turkey.
Khaled, a Turk, told me that you can get "a false birth certificate" in Turkey for $10.
Back in Germany, the "new" baby is registered at the town hall administration, and the "mother of the baby" starts getting 200 € ($261) monthly.
Living on the state benefit system has become a basic part of the culture of the Turkish community in Germany.
Nicole, a German school teacher told me once, when she asks her students what they want to become in the future, the majority of Turkish students say, "Hartz IV Empfänger" (state benefit receiver). When she asked one of her students, "Why is that?" The girl answered, "My parents live on Hartz IV and lead an easy life. They sleep longer in the morning, and always have got enough money."
In private, German policemen and women complain about the "Germans" of Turkish descent. Helmut in Berlin told me, "Most car accidents are caused by Turks or east Europeans. They are really careless motorists. They do not respect traffic rules." Then he turned to his colleague and added, "But who dare say that in public?"
Indeed, the German media and politicians always talk about "integration," but they never point their fingers at the Turkish community and demand abiding by the law like all citizens.
Hartmut asserts that "The German public, are better informed. They know that it is the Turks who do not respect rules, and don't want to integrate in the German society."
"I don't know what kind of experience the others have made, but my experience is very clear. I live in an area where the speed limit is 30 km per hour. But guess who drives fast in this area? It is mostly Turks." Jürgen said.  
His friend Michael added, "But who dare say that? Then you're accused of being an old Nazi. This is bizarre! The NPD is a Nazi party, but they are not so violent as some Turks are. Some Turks are really violent, in particular those Salafists amongst them. During a demonstration a couple of months back, a Salafist stabbed two policemen with a sharp knife. "
Ulrich, a German citizen, agrees. "I drive almost every day. Who steals your right of way? It's often Turks. They are usually rude and reckless. My wife works as a teacher at a primary school. She says, most students who disturb classes are usually of Turkish descent, and their parents never attend school parents assemblies."
To add insult to injury, when Turks are killed or burn to death, they rush to point their fingers at the right-wing party, the NPD and ideologically similar organisations.
A couple of years back, 8 Turks, owners of restaurants, were killed. Promptly and without delivering any evidence, the Turkish community accused the NPD of carrying out these killings. Until now, however, and despite intensive investigation, the police have not been able to establish who killed the 8 Turks. Some even claim that those killings were maybe carried out by the Turkish mafia.
Most recently, a Turkish woman and her seven children died over the night by fire. Again, the Turkish Ambassador to Berlin and the Turkish media accused the NPD of deliberately sparking the fire.
Experts, however, indicated that the fire was most probably ignited by the woman's wood stove, which most probably was faulty.

"The German media and German politicians across the board do everything in their power to avoid naming things by their name. They fear that that might create two inconsolable fronts: the German on one hand and the Turkish on the other, taking into account the fact that you have more than three million Turks living in Germany, most of them are Muslims and many of them sympathise with Islamist terrorists." Cohen says.  
Two weeks ago a Salafist cell was discovered. These Muslim extremists were planning to kill the head of Pro NRW (a right-wing organisation). Four men were arrested. As their apartments were searched, arms and grenades were discovered.
The media reported, "Four men were arrested, one of them is Albanian and the other three are German!"
The three men, the media referred to, were Turks. But the media and politicians avoided saying that.
Almost every day the German media quote German politicians who demand banning the NPD. The have drafted a petition that will be submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC). In the petition they appeal to the FCC to ban the NPD. Some politicians and legal experts, however, believe that  the FCC won't approve the ban. They argue, it's unconstitutional.
"All this," Hartmut believes "is intended to distract from the real enemy of the German society, namely the Turks and not the NPD. It's Turks who are increasingly disrupting peace in this country, not the NPD."
Turkish ghettoes are building every where in Germany. The majority of Turks cluster in certain neighbourhoods. No Germans live there or dare to live there.
"Disintegration is the right word which applies to Turks in Germany and not ‘integration,'" believes Hartmut.
"The dream of having an Ottoman Empire is not dead among the Turks." Says Jalal, a Kurdish freelance journalist living in Germany. He added, "The Turkish establishment believes that the Turks in Germany constitute a valuable spearhead for the resurrection of the Ottoman Empire. What could not be accomplished by force in the 15th century might, many Turks believe, become a reality in the 21st century in Germany, the heart of Europe. Besides, don't forget that demographically, while the German population growth is almost null, it is even contracting, the Turks in Germany have an annual birth rate of more than 5%. Therefore, demographers assume that by 2050 the majority of people living in Germany will be of Turkish descent."
I commented, "That is why the Turks do not want to integrate in the German society." "That is true," Jalal responded. He added, "You cannot imagine how valuable the Turkish community is for the Turkish government. The Turkish community in Germany is the most valuable human asset in the Turkish reality."
I said, "This might be regarded rubbish by German politicians and the German media." Jalal responded, "That might now be rubbish, but not in 50 years. Besides, the Turks want to get rid of two nightmares: delivering independence to the Kurds and acknowledging their massacre they inflicted on the Armenians."
On every visit to Germany by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the man urges his country men and women to stick to their Turkish identity in all respects, in terms of language and culture. Many people in Germany, according to Cohen's recent study, believe that that is a stern call on Turks in Germany not to integrate in the German society.
The Turkish community in Germany responds positively to this appeal. "De facto, the Turks in Germany, live geographically in Germany, but culturally they are living in Turkey. Some Turks are even convinced that their culture is superior compared to the German." Cohen comments.
In fact, the German political public is concerned about the lack of integration of Turks in the German society. The German political establishment and its media might say this is all rubbish. But in the long run, this rubbish is fuelling a time bomb which many people are anticipating, but not the German politicians and their media.

Supreme Court seems willing to restore gay marriage in California

(LAT)


The sharply divided justices also appear uncomfortable with legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

March 26, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, hearing arguments on the emotionally charged issue of gay marriage for the first time, appeared willing Tuesday to restore marital rights to gays and lesbians in California but uncomfortable with legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

The justices sounded sharply divided as they considered Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage, and wary of going too far, too fast. None of them spoke up for a sweeping ruling that would require every state to change its marriage laws.

But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who probably holds the deciding vote, said in the day's most poignant moment that he was troubled by the effect of Proposition 8 on the nearly 40,000 children in the state being raised by same-sex couples. The court should hear "the voice of these children," he said. "They want their parents to have full recognition and full status" that goes with marriage.
Kennedy, who has written two previous decisions in favor of gay rights, sounded anguished, admitting he was "wrestling" with whether to extend the same anti-discrimination protection to gays that the court gives to women but also expressed concern about taking the court "into unchartered waters" or over a "cliff."

The court's liberal justices more forcefully attacked the argument by Proposition 8 proponents that the purpose of marriage was for procreation, with Justice Elena Kagan asking at one point whether states could ban marriage between couples older than 55.

Charles J. Cooper, who argued for Proposition 8, said that would not be constitutional, adding that at least one member of an elderly couple would probably still be fertile, drawing laughter from the courtroom.

"Lots of people who get married can't have children," said Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

The arguments opened two days of hearings by the court on the controversial issue of same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, the justices will hear a constitutional challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which bans federal benefits for 130,000 legally married gay couples, including 18,000 couples in California.

The Obama administration and gay rights advocates say the provision is discriminatory and denies the married couples the "equal protection of the laws." Appeals courts in Boston and New York have ruled it unconstitutional.

CHEAT SHEET: Your guide to Prop. 8 and DOMA

California's voters approved Proposition 8 in 2008 to limit marriage to a man and a woman. However, the referendum was challenged in federal court in San Francisco and struck down by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last year on the grounds it took away from gays and lesbians a right to marry that they had won in the state courts.

If the Supreme Court had turned down the appeal in the California case, it would have had the effect of restoring gay marriage in California. Such a move would not have set a legal precedent nor would it have forced a change in the states that forbid gay marriage.

Kennedy's comments, combined with those of the four liberal justices, suggest the five will combine to seek a narrow approach in the California case. They could reject the appeal from the sponsors of Proposition 8 on the grounds that they lack legal "standing" to speak for the state of California. They could dismiss the appeal and let stand the 9th Circuit's ruling. Or they could write a limited opinion that finds the California ballot measure unconstitutional. All three options would have the effect of allowing gay marriage in California.

Tuesday's arguments highlighted deep philosophical divisions between liberals and conservatives over the potential effects of extending the right to marry to same-sex couples.

On the court's right wing, Justice Antonin Scalia jumped most forcefully to defend Proposition 8. "There's considerable disagreement among sociologists as to what [are] the consequences of raising a child in a single-sex family, whether that is harmful to the child or not," he said.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. questioned whether a court should change "this institution that's been around since time immemorial."

"When the institution of marriage developed historically," Roberts said, it "didn't include homosexual couples."

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., a third conservative member of the court, suggested it was too soon to make a decision, another point made by those backing the California ban.

"You want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution, which is newer than cellphones or the Internet," Alito told Theodore B. Olson, the attorney challenging California's ban. "I mean we … do not have the ability to see the future."

Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky found dead in Britain( UK )

(TOI)

LONDON: Boris Berezovsky, a self-exiled and outspoken Russian tycoon who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been found dead in southeast England. He was 67.

In recent years, the one-time Kremlin powerbroker-turned-thorn in Putin's side fended off attacks on his character and on his fortune - sometimes successfully, sometimes not - in cases that often bore political undertones.

Thames Valley police said Berezovsky's death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers west of London.

A mathematician-turned-Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatisation of state assets in the early 1990s. In return for backing former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, he gained political clout and opportunities to buy state assets at knockdown prices, making a fortune in oil and automobiles.

He also played a key role in the rise of Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin, but later fell out of favour with the new leader and fled to Britain to seek political asylum in the early 2000s.

After coming into power, the Russian president effectively made a pact: the oligarchs could keep their money if they didn't challenge him politically. Those who refused found themselves in dire circumstances. Some were imprisoned, like the former Yukos Oil chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky, while others, like Berezovsky, fled.

In the UK, Berezovsky allied himself with an array of prominent Kremlin critics. Among them was ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who fled Russia with Berezovsky's help after accusing officials there of plotting to assassinate political opponents.

Berezovsky, who considered Litvinenko a close friend, consistently denied the allegations.

Berezovsky recently has made headlines for costly legal battles, which have dealt serious blows to his finances. Last year, the Russian business magnate was ordered to pay USD 53.3 million in legal costs to fellow Russian Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, after losing a multimillion-dollar legal battle against him.

Earlier this week, The Times of London newspaper reported that Berezovsky was selling property to settle his debts.

The Russian president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a telephone interview on state television that Berezovsky had sent a letter to Putin about two months ago asking to be allowed to return to Russia.

Sanjay Dutt did more than just keep a gun for self-protection in 1993

(IndianExpress)



The masterminds of the 1993 bomb blasts in Bombay had a twin agenda. One was to attack the city through a series of explosions, and the other was to arm members of their community well enough to hold their own in communal clashes the blasts were expected to trigger.

For this, assault rifles, pistols and hand grenades were brought from Pakistan and several young men were also taken to Pakistan and given arms training, police officers linked to the investigation recalled after this week's Supreme Court verdict in the 20-year-old case.

The arms landed at two places in Raigad district and one in Gujarat. The Gujarat consignment was hidden in the cavity of a vehicle and brought to Mumbai by road, driven by Abu Salem, who went on to become a prominent gangster.

Salem and his accomplices needed a quiet place to open the welded cavity and remove the arsenal. The office of Magnum Productions, owned by Hanif Kadawala and Sameer Hingora, on Linking Road in Bandra, was chosen. Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees called Hingora and Kadawala and told them to allow Salem to use their compound.

The partners, however, were involved in a dispute with their landlord and did not want to risk catching his attention and suggested using actor Sanjay Dutt's house instead.

Dutt was contacted and he agreed. Hingora went with Salem after the latter feared he would not be allowed inside by the guards, and the vehicle was taken to Dutt's garage.

"The Mumbai Police had provided some guards for Sunil and Sanjay Dutt in light of the 1992-93 riots, and the garage was in direct line of sight from where they were stationed. Dutt asked them to move over to another gate, after which the cavity in the vehicle was opened and the arsenal extracted," said one officer.

"Dutt kept some of it, including three to four hand grenades and the rest was taken away by Salem. Dutt provided the tools for the task as well as duffel bags for loading the weapons," he added.

Dutt later called Anees and told him he was not comfortable keeping grenades at home as he felt they were unsafe. Mansoor Ahmed, who worked with Salem, went to Dutt's house and took the grenades away.

Police got to know of Dutt's involvement after they picked up Hingora and Kadawala. The actor was shooting in Mauritius at the time and the police decided to stay silent until he returned. However, one newspaper reported the development, causing Dutt to panic and call his friend Yusuf Nullwala and ask him to get rid of the weapons.

Nullwala took the guns to a foundry in Marine Lines and tried to destroy them. However, the barrel of the AK-56 rifle could not be destroyed and Nullwala took it to his house, from where it was recovered when police arrested him. Also, a 9 mm pistol could not be destroyed and Nullwala returned it to Dutt. It was recovered from his house when police arrested him.

Dutt later claimed he had retained only one gun for self protection, a claim investigating officers have scoffed at. "It would still be understandable, if not permissible, if Dutt had called up Anees and asked for a 9 mm for personal safety. However, we have evidence of the telephone calls between Dutt and Anees, where the actor asked Anees to take the grenades away, and we had submitted this in court as well," said another officer.

"While the world thinks there is only an Arms Act case against Dutt, what isn't widely known is that he had been charged for aiding and abetting the entire crime, with evidence to back the charge up," he said.

The TADA court, however, acquitted him of the terror charges and this was upheld by the Supreme Court too.

Justice Katju’s sympathy for Sanjay Dutt is misplaced

(FirstPost)



Is actor Sanjay Dutt’s sentencing to additional three-and-half years in prison the biggest tragedy of the Supreme Court (SC) verdict in the 1993 Mumbai terror blasts case in which 257 people were killed and 713 injured?

At least that is the impression that stands created by the celebrity focus of the news coverage on the SC verdict and the bleeding heart response from Bollywood.

Adding to this sentiment, rather distressingly, is former Supreme Court judge and Press Council of India chief, Justice Markandeya Katju, who has appealed to Maharashtra Governor K Sankarnarayan to pardon Dutt.

Ranging from actor-turned-politician Jayaprada’s poorly-worded comment outside Parliament: “He is innocent…” to actor-MP Jaya Bachchan’s flippant outburst: “Where was the government all these years? Suddenly you have realised he has to go to jail? This is rubbish…” the dominant voice in Bollywood went emotional. “He’s such a nice guy, why is he being sent to prison again?” was what many said.

One can understand Bollywood’s theatrics. But why should Katju—who now rides the high horse of journalism as the PCI chief—lose his sense of balance and go to the extent of seeking pardon for Dutt only because he’s a celebrity?

Katju justified his appeal by saying that Dutt had not been held guilty of terrorism but of a far lesser charge of illegal possession of weapons under the Arms Act. Also, that the blasts had happened as far back as 20 years ago and since then, Dutt had “suffered a lot and had to undergo various tribulations and indignities”.

Another point that Katju made in his appeal was that Dutt had “revived the memory of Mahatma Gandhi through his films” and was thus worthy of pardon.

It is disturbing that a former Supreme Court judge should take such a comical stand in a case as grave as the 1993 Bombay blasts in which a few thousand families were devastated. Suffering day in and day out, some of the maimed survivors would, in fact, have wished that they too were dead.

Going by Katju’s logic, he should be seeking pardon not just for Dutt but for all those convicted of lesser charges like Dutt because they and their families too had suffered as much, if not more than Dutt. After all, none of the poor convicts have the celebrity status, money and influence that Dutt possesses.

Thursday’s news coverage was such that the death sentence on the mastermind and fugitive criminals Dawood Ibrahim and his associate Tiger Memon didn’t evoke as much of a reaction as Dutt’s conviction. Perhaps, because both are out of India’s reach, running their criminal empires safely and comfortably from Pakistan.

As things stand today, India neither has the capability nor the influence to go after Dawood in the way in which the US went after Osama bin Laden and hunted him down.

Thus, effectively, the five-year jail term for Dutt was the biggest highlight of the verdict. This was followed by other highlights such as confirming of the death penalty on Tiger Memon’s brother Yakub Memon who had surrendered to Indian authorities; the sentencing of 33 persons to life imprisonment for the rest of their lives and the commuting of the death sentence to life imprisonment for 10 convicts.

Understandably, Sanjay Dutt’s sister and Congress MP, Priya Dutt was in tears and at a loss for words. While Sanjay Dutt, in an elaborate statement, tried to evoke sympathy for himself by saying: “I have suffered for 20 years and been in jail for 18 months. If they want me to suffer more, I have to be strong. I am heart-broken because today along with me, my three children and my wife and family will undergo the punishment.”

In Bollywood, better sense prevailed in the reactions that came in later on Thursday. Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt acknowledged that his fraternity of filmmakers and film stars was bound to get emotional about Dutt. He then added that the convicted actor “should be man enough” to accept the verdict and face the punishment handed out to him.

Veteran journalist Bhavna Somaiya did not get carried away by Bollywood’s emotional run and said on TV that those who were rushing to Dutt’s house to offer their sympathy, were essentially people who had crores of rupees invested in or committed to films starring Sanjay Dutt. They were more worried about their investments than about the grim future that stared Dutt in the face.

The former IPS officer-turned-lawyer YP Singh had little sympathy for Dutt who, he said had clearly benefitted from the advice of professional image managers to evoke public sympathy and project himself as a victim of circumstances.

Singh noted that Dutt had in fact been let off lightly because he was convicted under the Arms Act and the charges under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act (Prevention) Act (TADA) under which he was booked originally, had been withdrawn in a questionable manner. In his view, there was no reason to feel sorry for Dutt who was paying the price for his own foolishness.

Bollywood’s bleeding hearts, Sanjay Dutt’s fans and anyone feeling sorry for his plight needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

After taking into account all the imperfections of the criminal-judicial system in India and the power and influence of celebrities, politicians and bureaucrats to manipulate the system to their advantage, it is to the credit of the investigating officers and the public prosecutor that a watertight case was built against Dutt.

Many more Sanjay Dutts of India, like the convicted white collar criminals Rajat Guptas and Raj Rajratnams in the United States, need to go behind the bars to set an example before society.

Like in the case with Dutt, a similar wave of sympathy was whipped up for Gupta, with top Indian industrialists projecting his humble background and humane qualities to influence a lighter verdict.

Celebrities have the advantage of wealth, power, powerful friends and all the accompanying charm which can be used to exert considerable pressure and influence in their favour. This same advantage is non-existent for the common criminal who, with all the disadvantages of poverty, is a much more hapless victim of his circumstances than celebrities like Dutt. Once convicted, his children and family suffer far more than celebrities and their families.

For all his fine acting and pleasant nature, Dutt stands guilty of a serious crime in the context of the Bombay bomb blasts which destroyed the lives of hundreds of innocent people and their families. As the SC verdict noted, this was the first-ever terror attack in the world in which RDX was used in a big way after the Second World War.

One of the biggest regrets that investigating officials have in this case is the withdrawal of the charges under TADA against Dutt. Both, former Mumbai police commissioner MN Singh who investigated the blast case, and special public prosecutor for the Maharashtra government, Ujjwal Nikam have termed it a “mistake” that the TADA charges were dropped against Dutt.

While Singh acknowledged that he came under considerable pressure from the late actor-Congress MP Sunil Dutt to rescue his son from the mess he had landed himself into, Nikam said that the withdrawal of the TADA charges was done by the CBI which should be questioned about it.

Singh noted that it was not possible to show any favours to Dutt as that would have had serious implications and would have weakened the entire case of the prosecution itself.

While Jaya Bachchan was angry that it took it 20 years to close the case, Nikam noted that part of the blame rested with the accused themselves who changed their statements and disputed anything and everything presented by the prosecution- right down to the deaths of the people in the blasts. This is not to say that the pace of the judiciary in India is satisfactory; certainly, we need a faster system and a faster verdict.

More than anything else, it is Sanjay Dutt’s conviction that will convince Bollywood and celebrities from other fields to keep an arm’s length from the world of crime.

Even if the case has taken 20 years to come to a close and the masterminds are absconding, the common man in India would not be entirely disillusioned with the state of the law enforcement machinery in the country.

Saudi Wahabis erase archaeological evidence of idol worshipping in Medina

(The Independent-UK)

The photos Saudi Arabia doesn't want seen – and proof Islam's most holy relics are being demolished in Mecca

Archaeologists fear billion-pound development has led to destruction of key historical sites
Why don't more Muslims speak out against the wanton destruction of Mecca's holy sites?
Mecca for the rich: Islam's holiest site 'turning into Vegas'

Medina: Saudis take a bulldozer to Islam's history

Last night's viewing - Islam: the Untold Story, Channel 4; Accused, BBC

The authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun dismantling some of the oldest sections of Islam’s most important mosque as part of a highly controversial multi-billion pound expansion.

Photographs obtained by The Independent reveal how workers with drills and mechanical diggers have started demolishing some Ottoman and Abbasid sections on the eastern side of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

The building, which is also known as the Grand Mosque, is the holiest site in Islam because it contains the Kaaba – the point to which all Muslims face when praying. The columns are the last remaining sections of the mosque which date back more than a few hundred years and form the inner perimeter on the outskirts of the white marble floor surrounding the Kaaba.

The new photos, taken over the last few weeks, have caused alarm among archaeologists and come as Prince Charles – a long-term supporter of preserving architectural heritage – flew into Saudi Arabia yesterday for a visit with the Duchess of Cornwall. The timing of his tour has been criticized by human rights campaigners after the Saudis shot seven men in public earlier this week despite major concerns about their trial and the fact that some of the men were juveniles at the time of their alleged crimes.

Many of the Ottoman and Abbasid columns in Mecca were inscribed with intricate Arabic calligraphy marking the names of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions and key moments in his life. One column which is believed to have been ripped down is supposed to mark the spot where Muslims believe Muhammad began his heavenly journey on a winged horse, which took him to Jerusalem and heaven in a single night.

To accommodate the ever increasing number of pilgrims heading to the twin holy cities of Mecca and Medina each year the Saudi authorities have embarked upon a massive expansion project. Billions of pounds have been poured in to increase the capacity of the Masjid al-Haram and the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina which marks where Muhammad is buried. King Abdullah has put the prominent Wahabi cleric and imam of the Grand Mosque, Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, in charge of the expansion while the Saudi Binladin Group – one of the country’s largest firms – has won the construction contract.

While there is little disagreement over the need to expand, critics have accused the Saudi regime of wantonly disregarding the archaeological, historical and cultural heritage of Islam’s two holiest cities. In the last decade Mecca has been transformed from a dusty desert pilgrimage town into a gleaming metropolis of skyscrapers that tower over the Masjid al-Haram and are filled with a myriad of shopping malls, luxury apartments and five star hotels.

But such a transformation has come at a cost. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of Mecca's millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades alone. Dozens of key historical sites dating back to the birth of Islam have already been lost and there is a scramble among archaeologists and academics to try and encourage the authorities to preserve what little remains.

Many senior Wahabis are vehemently against the preservation of historical Islamic sites that are linked to the prophet because they believe it encourages shirq – the sin of idol worshipping.

But Dr Irfan al-Alawi, executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation which obtained the new photographs from inside the Grand Mosque, says the removal of the Ottoman and Abbasid columns will leave future generations of Muslims ignorant of their significance.

“It matters because many of these columns signified certain areas of the mosque where the Prophet sat and prayed,” he said. “The historical record is being deleted. A new Muslim would never have a clue because there’s nothing marking these locations now. There are ways you could expand Mecca and Medina while protecting the historical heritage of the mosque itself and the surrounding sites.”

There are signs that King Abdullah has listened to concerns about the historical destruction of Mecca and Medina. Last October The Independent revealed how new plans for the masjid an-Nabawi in Medina would result in the destruction of three of the world’s oldest mosques on the west hand side of the main complex. However new plans approved by King Abdullah last week appear to show a change of heart with the bulk of the expansion now slated to take place to the north of the Masjid an-Nabawi.

However key sites are still at risk. The Independent has obtained a presentation used by the Saudis to illustrate how the expansion of Mecca’s main mosque will look. In one of the slides it is clear that the Bayt al-Mawlid, an area which is believed to be the house where Muhammad was born in, will have to be removed unless plans change.

The Independent asked the Saudi Embassy in London a number of questions about the expansion plans and why more was not being done to preserve key historical sites. They replied: “Thank you for calling, but no comment.”

Are Americans funding mass sterilizations in India?

(WND)

2013-03-17

Investigation demanded into barbaric practice uncovered in India

WASHINGTON – The barbaric practice of “sterilization camps” where hundreds or thousands forcibly are sterilized to impose a government ethic of population control on people has alarmed and enraged pro-life and civil rights advocates for several years, but now as the Population Research Institute is raising the specter that U.S. taxpayers are funding those operations, an expert opponent to such practices is demanding a full and formal investigation.

“What this shows me is that violence against women, in the form of sterilization, does not require a one-child policy like in China,” Reggie Littlejohn, of the Women’s Rights Without Frontiers organization that fights gendercide and forced abortion.

“It can happen anywhere, where women are devalued,” she continued. “I would call for an investigation of whether USAID funding, family planning money in India, is related to coercive sterilization.”

The Indian television network, NDTV, aired a film in February reporting that 103 women were sterilized by two doctors in a single day at the Manikchak Rural Health Center in the Malda district of West Bengal.

These women were then released from the clinics to return home without any followup medical treatment. There were reports of women who had undergone anesthesia were fainting in pain once they had regained consciousness. Women were loaded onto rickshaws, still bleeding and many falling in and out of consciousness, to be sent home, the report said.

“The camps are happening non-stop right now throughout the country because the end of the financial year – March 31 – is approaching and there is pressure on health workers to meet their sterilization quotas,” Kerry McBroom, an American lawyer with the Human Rights Law Network in Delhi told PRI Review. “We’ll have a constant stream of injured women and dying women as a result.”

India denies having quotas for sterilization, but according to McBroom, they are set by local health administrators and are well publicized.

For example, in 2011, health officials in the district of Rajasthan set a target goal to sterilize 1 percent of the population. To incentivize individuals to undergo sterilization they offered mobile phones, cars, motorcycles and refrigerators to those who agreed.

Paying people to undergo sterilization is illegal in the U.S. and most other countries. Indian officials have publicly denounced it, but the practice of offering incentives to citizens who agree to be sterilized remains prevalent. The amounts or gifts offered vary. They range from 150 rupees (about $2.70 U.S.) to about 600 rupees (about $11 U.S.).

Workers known as Accredited Social Health Activists are also given bonuses for every person from their district that they bring to be sterilized.

HRLN reported that earlier this month that in a village in Bihar a sign hung that stated that every ASHA worker would be required to bring 12 women and one man in for sterilization. It reported further that there are 8,400 ASHA workers in Bihar, meaning ASHA workers were expected to meet a 100,000 person quota.

“The ASHA workers are just other women in the village,” said McBroom. “They’re not usually motivated by ideology or population control. But they are definitely motivated by incentives. Just like all the other women in the villages, they’re trying to eek out an existence.

“These are extraordinarily marginalized women,” added McBroom. Most of them cannot read and are married young. “If the government has money for incentives, it really should be paying for basic health care necessities. These women go to hospitals without running water or electricity.”

Last year, the HRLN filed papers in the Supreme Court of India documenting widespread abuse of the national guidelines for sterilization. The papers dated back as far as 2005, when the Supreme Court ordered state governments to regulate conditions where sterilizations were performed. The Supreme Court also directed states to put an end to coercive practices and compensate women who suffered from complications.

HRLN reports that eight years later, despite the Supreme Court’s directive, unsafe sterilization camps are still the norm throughout India. HRLN included a petition in its filing which included signatures from 53 lower caste women who were sterilized by a single government doctor in just two hours at a local high school in early 2012. According to the petition, the high school has no electricity or running water so the operations were carried out by a flashlight. The women were then given out of date pain-killers and sent on their way.

The Union of India and many states have replied but according to McBroom, the replies have been inadequate.

“They’re basically vague assurances of compliance,” McBroom said.

“The UNFPA, the World Health Organization, all the state governments, they all know about [these abuses]. They are callous and insensitive,” said Devika Biswas, an activist with HRLN.

But programs related to family planning in India continue to receive tens of millions of dollars from the US Agency for International Development, the UK, the World Bank and other outside organizations.

The U.S. budget for health programs in India in the 2011 fiscal year was $78 million, $23 million of which is specifically earmarked for family planning.

Under a U.S. law called the Tiarht Amendment, USAID is prohibited from funding any family planning program that sets targets for sterilization or engages in coercion and or involves financial incentives. If any violation to these requirements is found, the administrator of USAID has 60 days to submit a report of finding to the Committee on International Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives for and the Committee on Foreign Relationship and the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Littlejohn cited a report from just weeks ago by the Congressional Research Service titled “Abortion and Family Planning-Related Provisions in U.S. Foreign Assistance Law and Policy.”

It addresses, among other requirements, the Tiahrt Amendment. That, the report said, puts “requirements on voluntary family planning projects receiving assistance from USAID.”

That specifies that such providers “shall not implement or be subject to quotas or other numerical targets…”

Further, the report said a separate law forbids the use of U.S. money for research “which relates, in whole or in part, to methods of, or the performance of, abortions or involuntary sterilization.”

She also noted that in 2002 the International Criminal Court, headquartered in the Hague, defined forced sterilization as a crime against humanity worldwide.

“If you are financing the infrastructure for forced sterilization, you are complicit,” she said. “If the U.S. taxpayer is being forced to pay, we need to know.”

Littlejohn also added the issue is not partisan, as the Human Rights Watch also has condemned the practice. The organization reported, “Health workers who miss sterilization targets because they give proper counseling and accurate information about contraception risk losing their jobs…”

http://psudo-secularism.blogspot.in/2013/03/are-americans-funding-mass.html MurdikarNewsService en Subscription PressRelease, Blog 2013-03-17 Are Americans funding mass sterilizations in India Americans,mass sterilisations,India NASDAQ:A, NASDAQ:B

Two Christians Beheaded in New Jersey By Muslim Man

(WND)
Date:-March 17,2013

Authorities in New Jersey allege a Muslim man beheaded two Coptic Christians, burying their bodies and heads and hands in separate graves near Philadelphia, bringing the horror of the persecution of Christians in Islamic nations to the United States.

According to New York’s WABC-TV, the Muslim was identified as Yusuf Ibrahim, 28. He was taken into custody after the bodies were found.
The report said investigators alleged Ibrahim killed the victims then severed their heads and hands, and buried the remains in the back yard of a home in Buena Vista, N.J.
The report said the victims were from the Coptic Christian community in the area. One of the victims had come from Egypt not many years ago.
While the report said police did not indicate a motive, friends of the victims wondered if it was something to do with religion.
WABC reporter Jeff Pegues wrote: “To members of the close knit Coptic Orthodox church the pain is real.”
“It’s a shock, something like this doesn’t happen to people like that,” one resident told him.
The report said police described the suspect as “ruthless” and “calculating” and said he belongs behind bars.
Pamela Geller, who blogs about Islam at Atlas Shrugs, said it “appear have been a ritual killing, religious in nature.”
“The victims were Coptic Christians and the murderer was Muslim (and we are painfully aware of the status and treatment of Coptic Christians under Muslim rule in Egypt),” she wrote.
“The killing evokes this passage in the Quran: ‘When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them!” – Quran 8:12.”
Samy Hohareb, a friend of the victims, said, “I leave it for the police and the investigation.”
The New York Daily News reported Ibrahim was nabbed by detectives on Sunday after the bodies were found.
Authorities said the suspect was found driving a white Mercedes Benz that belonged to one of the victims.
Ibrahim was being held at the Atlantic County jail on charges of murder and desecration of human remains.
WND reported in September a jihadi writer who has praised the murderer of a Dutch filmmaker suggested beheading as a way of curbing criticism of Islam. The report came from the Muhib Ru’yat al-Rahman, a senior writer of a leading jihadi forum called Shumoukh al-Islam, suggested that Muslims living in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. kill Westerners who criticize Islam and display their decapitated heads along roads, according to the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor, a unit of the Middle East Media Research Center.
“While expressing respect for those calling to boycott European and American products over the release of the film ‘Innocence of Muslims,’ which negatively depicts Muhammad, Muhib insists that the best way to deter people from insulting Muhammad and his wives is to implement his proposal,” the report said.
The writer praised Dutch-Moroccan Muslim Muhammad Bouyeri, who killed Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh in 2004 over the production of “Submission,” a film criticizing Islam’s treatment of women. Dozens of forum members praised the post, expressing their agreement with the writer’s suggestions, the report said.
Geller summarized the report: “More tolerance and respect from savages demanding tolerance, respect and submission.”
She has waged a battle in New York, Washington and other cities to post a pro-Israel ad after numerous pro-Palestinian ads already have appeared.
WND also previously confirmed a Sky News Arabia report of the crucifixion of dissidents in Egypt.

Closure of Google Reader prompts web storm

(TheHindu)


A decision by Google to close its popular Reader, which allowed users to easily follow updates from around the web, has sparked a storm of criticism by devoted fans of the service.

Google announced the move late on Wednesday as part of a “spring-cleaning” strategy pushed by founder and chief executive Larry Page to cull non-essential projects at the web software giant.

The company announced a shake up of its top ranks on Wednesday with Android chief Andy Rubin stepping aside in favour of Sundar Pichai, boss of the company’s Chrome browser and operating system. Google broke up its mapping and commerce unit, with executive Jeff Huber moving to research division Google X, which is working on projects like Google Glass and the company’s self-driving cars.

Urs Holze, senior vice-president of technical infrastructure, said the decision was made to close down Google Reader because it had been steadily losing users over the years as people switched to Facebook and Twitter to keep track of web updates.

“It’s been a long time since we have had this rate of change — it probably hasn’t happened since the birth of personal computing 40 years ago,” he wrote. “To make the most of these opportunities, we need to focus - otherwise we spread ourselves too thin and lack impact.” Within hours of the announcement, online petitions calling on Google to reverse the decision had attracted thousands of signatures, including one on online petition site that had been signed by more than 63,000 people by midday Thursday.

“Our confidence in Google’s other products - Gmail, YouTube, and yes, even Plus - requires that we trust you,” wrote petition organizer Dan Lewis. “This is about us using your product because we love it, because it makes our lives better, and because we trust you not to nuke it.” Users took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

“Google’s shutdown of #Reader is a painful but important reminder of how much time we invest into platforms we neither own nor control,” said one user.

Conspiracy Theories Behind Pope Francis’s Election

(The Daily Beast)

Backstabbing! Secret deals! Holy grudges! Rumors are flying about how Pope Francis really got elected. Barbie Latza Nadeau reports from Rome on who's feeling snubbed.

Even before the white smoke had settled in St. Peter’s square after the election of Pope Francis on Wednesday night, rumors were already swirling around Rome about what really happened inside the Sistine Chapel during the super-secret conclave.  As the mainstream press wrote profiles of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his journey to the papacy, Vatican experts were whispering about backstabbing and secret deals that went down under Michelangelo’s frescoed ceiling.


Cardinals stand on a balcony while Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (not pictured), elected Pope Francis I appears at the window of St Peter's Basilica's balcony, near a statue of St Peter, after being elected the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on March 13, 2013 at the Vatican. (Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty)

On Thursday morning, Italians woke to screaming headlines about betrayals and dietrologia, a popular Italian phrase for conspiracy theories about what’s really going on behind the scenes.  The most popular theory as to why Bergoglio was elected was put forward by La Stampa’s esteemed Vaticanista Giacomo Galeazzi, who wrote that Italian frontrunner Angelo Scola was “betrayed by his countrymen on the first vote.” According to Galeazzi, the top Italian cardinals in the Roman Curia held “grudges” against Scola and undermined his chances of winning in the first round.  Namely, according to Galeazzi, Vatican secretary of State Tarciso Bertone and the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, were “ridiculously hostile” towards Scola, who they saw as a threat to their power.  Citing an unnamed source, Galeazzi says Scola was banned because of “ancient jealousies and rivalries.”

The Vaticanista from Corriere Della Sera, Massimo Franco, instead theorized that Bergoglio’s win was a compromise to give a nod to the strength of the Latin American faithful and show that the Vatican was willing to at least try out someone from another part of the world. At the same time, the election of Bergoglio, whose father was an Italian immigrant to Argentia, pacified those who wanted either a European or Italian pope. Another front-runner, Odilo Scherer from Brazil, reportedly did not do well at all in balloting. As the Brazilian-born son of German immigrants, Franco says he was too much of a carbon copy of Benedict. And two German popes in a row would surely not sit well with Italians, whose anti-German sentiment has been underscored by the recent European financial crisis in which Italy is seen as the weak underdog to Germany’s strong economy. At the age of 76, the Francis papacy won’t last decades, so giving the job to a Latin American could be considered a “trial run” to see how it works.  Franco also wrote that his sources hinted that a deal was made in which Scola would instead be given the secretariat of state portfolio, effectively giving him the task of doing the dirty work of reforming the Roman curia without the reward of a pontificate.


Twitter reacts to Pope Francis's elevation.
Another rumor floating around Rome is that the cardinals who had wanted Bergoglio, who was a runner-up to Joseph Ratzinger in 2005, finally got their way.  And that Bergoglio’s supporters had held a grudge of sorts during Benedict’s eight-year reign and were hell-bent on putting their man in the papacy.

Many more sources who allegedly spilled the secrets of the Sistine Chapel said the strong American bloc supported Bergoglio because he was “of the Americas” and represented a geographic region that has yet to be represented in Rome. The Americans reportedly also liked the fact that he is virtually untouched by the scandals that have rocked the church, which means he has a better chance of cleaning house once he is installed in the Holy See.  Of course, he has his own baggage to bear with--allegations that he was a bit player in Argentina’s “dirty wars”--but his name has never been affiliated with either the predatory priest child abuse cases or Vatileaks, which have cast dark clouds over the church’s credibility.

In fact, one of the first orders of business Francis will have to deal with is just what to do about the red-covered two-volume report commissioned by Benedict to investigate the source of the documents leaked by his butler to an Italian journalist last year. Unlike so many cardinals in the conclave, Francis won’t find any reference to his own wrongdoings in the dossier.  Instead, he is expected to make major changes in the way the Church does business, which could prove unfavorable to many prelates in power. And if Francis’s actions during his first 24 hours as pope are any indication, he is planning to buck the status quo.  After his appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s basilica, he refused to be held above his peers.  Instead of taking the special papal car with Vatican plates from the Sistine Chapel to the Santa Marta commune, where the cardinals were cloistered during the conclave, he shunned the private vehicle and rode back in the shuttle bus with the rest of the cardinals. When he received the cardinals in the Sistine chapel, he refused to sit in the throne, but instead stood as all 114 cardinals congratulated him.  And when he went to his titular church in Rome to pray on Thursday morning, he again rode in an ordinary car instead of the papal limo. After mass, he stopped by the priests’ house where he had stayed before the conclave to pick up his luggage pay his bill. No doubt, as pope, he could have had someone take care of those pesky details for him, but he said he did it himself to “set an example.”

But perhaps the most telling tale to come out of the conclave is from the post-election dinner on Wednesday night.  According to the Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, his fellow cardinals toasted him and applauded his papacy.  He then thanked them and, raising his own glass, joked, “May God forgive you for what you have done.”  No doubt several cardinals who will be most affected by a thorough curial housecleaning were thinking the same thing.

Tibetan Uprising Day Reminds Us

(HuffPost)


Rajiv Malhotra
Author- 'Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism'

More than a half century ago, on March 10th, 1959, Tibetans revolted against the Chinese military occupation of Tibet that began in 1951. The revolt ended badly for the Tibetans who suffered from a brutal Chinese crackdown. This caused the Dalai Lama, with the help of the CIA, to flee with his supporters to India. On March 31, 1959, after a grueling 15-day journey across the Himalayas on foot, the Dalai Lama escaped from the Chinese and crossed over to India along with 80,000 Tibetans. Ever since then, March 10th has been commemorated as Tibetan Uprising Day with worldwide protest marches to mobilize support for the Tibetan cause.

Even as desperate self-immolations among Tibetans still living in Tibet have increased in the past few years, there seem to be no signs whatsoever of China relenting on its cultural genocide there. At a time when movements like the Arab Spring get mainstream media attention, it is unfortunate that the struggle of the Tibetans seems to be slipping from public consciousness.

Unlike the hot spots of the Middle East, Tibet lacks a natural resource like oil that powerful nations would fight over. The peaceful nature of the Tibetan struggle, unlike agitations in the Islamic world, has certainly generated goodwill for the Tibetans. But since they do not pose a security threat to the rest of the world as exporters of terror or nukes, it seems safe to simply look the other way. China's growing clout and persistence has gradually worn down the uprising, and Tibetans' support base among Western leaders is muted. Tragically, today's youth in the West seem generally less passionate to get involved than the youth of the 60s.

One wonders what lies in store for this movement. With the Dalai Lama aging, the Chinese know that time is on their side and are willing to wait it out. Without a new Tibetan leader of comparable charisma, they hope to accentuate internal clashes among rival Tibetan groups, offer carrots to some ambitious leaders, and use classic divide-and-conquer tactics to finish off the movement. Meanwhile, in Tibet, the land and sacred geography are being rapidly turned into secular tourist attractions under the ultimate control of the communists, and repopulated by the ethnic Han Chinese. Tibetan culture is becoming transformed by China, and "digested" into Mandarin identity.

While this should be a concern for the entire world, India and the U.S. should worry the most. India's mightiest rivers (Brahmaputra, Ganga and Indus) all originate in Tibet, and China has started an ambitious project of rapidly building at least 20 hydroelectric dams in Tibet, each with the potential to divert water away from India and into China. Quenching China's thirst will come at the expense of India where droughts will result in many areas. I had predicted this scenario many years ago before it was fashionable to consider it, but only recently has this suddenly become a hot topic.

Tibet is also the military base for China's nuclear arsenal aimed at India, giving China the ability to reach India within minutes from launch. Tibet is the route through which the China-Pakistan links are transporting military and other goods through modern highways, railroads and pipelines. This enables China to gain access to the Indian Ocean ports that are located in Pakistan, and Pakistan gets instant assistance from China in any conflict with India. Indeed, if Tibet could be neutral, autonomous and demilitarized, the India/Pakistan security situation would have the potential to be more easily resolved as a bilateral rather than trilateral one.
For the United States, China is its main rival and competitor in all spheres, a fact known and understood to both. While China has never hid its intentions, the U.S. has lacked a determined plan to address this. Tibet is China's path for the critical trade routes of the Indian Ocean, the Central Asian oil and gas reserves, and the rich ASEAN countries to the south.

As an example of its myopic foreign policy, the U.S. isolated Myanmar for many years on the grounds of human rights violations, which hurt mostly the poor people of Myanmar rather than the military junta. This played right into the hands of the Chinese. Had the improvement of human rights been the honest motive, the U.S. would have adopted similar measures against China where the human rights violations have been on a far larger scale. Myanmar was simply an easy target to get rid of American guilt and to show muscle. Thus China got a decade of monopoly in Myanmar which it used to solidify long term strategic control over Myanmar's resources and privileged access routes to the Indian Ocean. Tibet is again strategically located to make this possible.

The Tibetans themselves can also do much more than they have. For one thing, they must urgently initiate the rise of a new face on the world stage under the mentoring of the Dalai Lama. The Karmapa is one such young, charismatic leader with a deep grounding in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and sharp intellect. Unfortunately, he remains largely confined in India. According to some sources, the Indian government is unsure if he a Chinese plant -- like a Manchurian Candidate. This matter needs to get urgently resolved rather than after the Dalai Lama is gone from the scene. It is best to let the next generation of leadership become active internationally, and be tested in all respects while the Dalai Lama is able to mentor and watch over the transition.

We should not count on a change of heart among the next generation of Chinese. For China has done a good job in its education system to indoctrinate its youth to view Tibet as an integral part of China, and to demonize the independence movement as a conspiracy by hostile foreign powers with the top Tibetan leaders as co-conspirators.

The odds against Tibet are indeed heavy on such a loaded chessboard. But many other struggles also seemed hopeless in the past. I wish the Tibetan movement finds new champions among the youth of all countries.

Germany bans three Salafist groups as anti-democratic

(The Star Online)

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany on Wednesday banned three ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups which the Interior Ministry said wanted to overturn democracy and install a system based on sharia, or Islamic law.

The ban, which took effect in the western states of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia in the early morning, is the latest step taken by German authorities who have increased surveillance of Salafists who espouse a radical version of Islam.

The ministry said it has banned the organisations "DawaFFM" and "Islamische Audios", as well as "An-Nussrah", which is part of the "Millatu Ibrahim" group that was outlawed in June.

Some 20 people were searched and assets belonging to the organisations were seized, said the ministry.

"Salafism, as represented in the associations that were banned today, is incompatible with our free democratic order," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement.

"(The groups) aim to change our society in an aggressive, belligerent way so that democracy would be replaced by a Salafist system, and the rule of law replaced by Sharia law."

Germany is home to roughly 4,000 Salafists. They make up only a tiny proportion of the total Muslim population of about 4 million.

Friedrich said the step was part of efforts by Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right government to promote a tolerant and respectful relationship with the large number of peaceful Muslims in Germany.

Last year a series of violent clashes between police and Salafists, sometimes goaded by far-right anti-Islam protesters, near the western cities of Cologne and Bonn raised fears about growing militancy among an underclass of Muslim youths.

Profile: Pope Francis

(BBC)


Gavin Hewitt looks at the life and work of the new Pope
Born in Argentina, Pope Francis is the first Latin American to lead the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the first Jesuit.

"It seems my brother cardinals went almost to the end of the world" to choose a pope, he told the crowd in St Peter's Square in his first address - a joke which belied his image as the cardinal who never smiles.

Up until 13 March, he was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.

Analysts did not see him as a favourite for the job of succeeding Benedict XVI and his advanced age - at 76, he is just two years younger than Benedict at the time of his election in 2005 - may have surprised those expecting a younger man as the 266th Pope.

However, he appeals to both Church conservatives and reformers, being seen as orthodox on sexual matters, for instance, but liberal on social justice - through far from being a "liberation theologist".

Humble lifestyle
He was born on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, of Italian descent.

According to his official Vatican biography, he was ordained as a Jesuit in 1969 and went on to study in Argentina and Germany.

Continue reading the main story
Who are the Jesuits?

The Society of Jesus is a male order of the Catholic Church, with 19,000 members worldwide
It was established in 16th Century Europe as a missionary order and members swear vows of poverty, chastity and obedience
The order became so powerful that it was suppressed at the end of the 18th Century but later restored
Have reputation as expert communicators
He became a bishop in 1992 and Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998. At the 2005 conclave, he was seen as a contender for the papacy.

His election took many by surprise in his home city, where many had thought his age ruled him out, says the BBC's Marcia Carmo in Buenos Aires.

But any surprise soon gave way to the jubilant blaring of car horns on the streets.

As Cardinal Bergoglio, his sermons always had an impact in Argentina and he often stressed social inclusion, indirectly criticising governments that did not pay attention to those on the margins of society, our correspondent says.

Francesca Ambrogetti, who co-authored a biography of him, told Reuters news agency that part of his public appeal lay in his "sober and austere" humble lifestyle.

"That's the way he lives," she said. "He travels on the underground, the bus, when he goes to Rome he flies economy class."

In Buenos Aires, he lived in a simple flat in the building of the Archdiocese.

When in Rome, BBC Latin America analyst Eric Camara writes, he often preferred to keep his black robe on, instead of the cardinal's red and purple vest he is entitled to wear.

He is also said to have re-used the cardinal's vest used by his predecessor.

Continue reading the main story

From a humble background in Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has risen to the head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Francis. We look at key moments in his life and career so far.
Continue reading the main story
1/10
According to a profile in the UK's Guardian newspaper, when he was appointed a cardinal in 1998, he urged Argentines not to travel to Rome to celebrate but to give their money to the poor instead.

'Balancing force'
According to Ms Ambrogetti, he is a moderate in all things.

"He is absolutely capable of undertaking the necessary renovation without any leaps into the unknown," she said.

"He would be a balancing force. He shares the view that the Church should have a missionary role, that gets out to meet people... a church that does not so much regulate the faith as promote and facilitate it."

For the Church establishment, it will be a novelty to have a Jesuit in charge - members are supposed to avoid ecclesiastical honours and serve the Pope himself.

Continue reading the main story
Pope Francis

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936 (age 76) in Buenos Aires, of Italian descent
Ordained as a Jesuit in 1969
Studied in Argentina, Chile and Germany
Became Cardinal of Buenos Aires in 1998
Seen as orthodox on sexual matters but strong on social justice
First Latin American and first Jesuit to become pope, the 266th to lead the Church
As a Jesuit, he is a member of perhaps the most powerful and experienced religious order of the Catholic Church, known as expert communicators, writes David Willey, the BBC's Rome correspondent.

It appears that few who know him doubt his conservative credentials.

This is how Monsignor Osvaldo Musto, who was at seminary with him, described him in a BBC News article back in 2005: "He's as uncompromising as Pope John Paul II, in terms of the principles of the Church - everything it has defended regarding euthanasia, the death penalty, abortion, the right to life, human rights, celibacy of priests."

His views have been put to the test in Argentina, the first Latin American country to legalise same-sex marriage with a President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who promotes free contraception and artificial insemination.

When he argued that gay adoptions discriminated against children, the president said his tone harked back to "medieval times and the Inquisition".

However, she welcomed the election to the papacy of a fellow countryman, noting his choice of name appeared to be "in reference to St Francis of Assisi, the saint of the poor" and boded well for unifying "all humans as equal, with fellowship, with love, with justice and equity".

Aside from his universal significance, the former cardinal appears to be a strong Argentine patriot, telling Argentine veterans of the Falklands War at a Mass last year: "We come to pray for all who have fallen, sons of the Homeland who went out to defend their mother, the Homeland, and to reclaim what is theirs."

Junta years
One subject of controversy is his role under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-1983, and particularly the abduction of two Jesuits secretly jailed by the military government, suspicious of their work among slum-dwellers.

As the priests' Provincial Superior at the time, he was accused of having failed to shield them from arrest. It is a charge his office flatly denies.

Quoting his official biographer, Sergio Rubin, AP news agency writes in its profile of the new Pope: "Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them. His intervention likely saved their lives."

Another accusation levelled against him from the "Dirty War" era is that he failed to follow up a request to help find the baby of a woman kidnapped when five months' pregnant pregnant and killed in 1977. It is believed the baby was illegally adopted.


Here is Jorge Mario Bergoglio as a priest in 1973
The cardinal testified in 2010 that he had not known about baby thefts until well after the junta fell - a claim relatives dispute.

"Bergoglio has a very cowardly attitude when it comes to something so terrible as the theft of babies," said the baby's aunt, Estela de la Cuadra. "He doesn't face this reality and it doesn't bother him."

Like other Latin American churchmen of the time, he had to contend, on the one hand, with a repressive right-wing regime and, on the other, a wing of his Church leaning towards political activism on the left.

During Argentina's economic crisis of 2001, Cardinal Bergoglio protested at police brutality during the unrest which saw President Fernando de la Rua swept from power.

"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," he was quoted as saying by the National Catholic Reporter at a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007.

"The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."

One issue for the Vatican may be the state of the new pope's health. He lives with only one lung, since having the other removed as young man because of an infection. Nonetheless, he is said to be in good shape.

He is said to be a football fan, supporting Buenos Aires team San Lorenzo de Almagro.

Ohio town's beloved high school football team to take center stage in rape case

(USNews)


A divisive rape case that has rocked Steubenville, Ohio, goes to trial Wednesday in a small steel town community whose reputation has been severely damaged by cover-up allegations — just hours after the defense won a battle to force the accusers' friends to testify.


Accusations that two Steubenville High School football stars used their hands to violate a drunken 16-year-old girl during a night of victory parties in August became national news because of graphic cellphone photos and video that spread on social media.
A YouTube video of a partygoer cracking crude jokes about the alleged rape — made public by an offshoot of the hacker group Anonymous — brought more attention and outrage.
Team quarterback Trent Mays and wide receiver Ma'Lik Richmond, who will stand trial in Jefferson County juvenile court, have denied the charges that they assaulted the girl in a car and in a basement while she was in a stupor and couldn't give consent.
The girl — who told police she didn't remember the incident — will be one of dozens of witnesses taking the stand.
The prosecution's evidence includes a photograph, which was posted on Instagram, of Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, carrying the teen out of a house by her arms and legs.
Three football players who have not been charged but allegedly witnessed the encounters also are expected to take the stand for the prosecution.
Defense lawyers had asked the court to compel three more teens from neighboring West Virginia to testify. They were originally denied, but late Tuesday night a judge reversed the decision and said two of the teens could be forced to testify.

Harding Stadium, home of the Steubenville High Big Red football team. Two members are going on trial Wednesday for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl in a case that drew national attention.

The third witness — who is the accuser — agreed to do so voluntarily.
On Monday, Mays' lawyer had asked a judge to throw out the case, saying without those "material witnesses," he wouldn't get a fair trial.
The defense motions suggested the trio of witnesses would be asked about the alleged victim's alcohol consumption and what she said right after the incident and the next morning, according to The Associated Press.
"They're crucial because they have a great deal to do with the issue of consent," Mays' lawyer Adam Nemann told NBC affiliate WTOV. "A couple of the witnesses in particular were best friends of the accuser."
If convicted, Mays and Richmond could be held in a juvenile jail until they are 21.
The football-obsessed city of 18,000 where they were once local heroes has also, in some ways, been put on trial.
It took 11 days for prosecutors to charge anyone in the case, and victims' and women's groups have questioned why none of the teens who are said to have witnessed Mays and Richmond allegedly attack the girl have been arrested.
"Big Red football" — as the high school team is known — dominates life in Steubenville, where the local prosecutor and juvenile judge have already had to recuse themselves because of ties to the program.
At a Tuesday press conference, city officials and business leaders declined to comment on the criminal allegations but were upset about the harsh spotlight on Steubenville.
“The case shouldn't be reflective of our town,” City Manager Cathy Davison said, according to WTOV.
In a sign of the tensions surrounding the case, Richmond's grandmother, Linda Wheat, said she has been threatened.
"I thought these guys were innocent until proven guilty, but they're not," Wheat told Reuters. "These people online have made them guilty? Why have they ruined them?"
A lawyer for the girl's family said they are anxious for the trial to begin — and end.
"The family wants this matter over so they can move on with their lives and their daughter's healing," Bob Fitzsimmons told the Associated Press.

Cardinals don't agree on pope

(The Miami Herald)

VATICAN CITY -- Cardinals remained divided over who should be pope on Wednesday after three rounds of voting, an indication that disagreements remain about the direction of the Catholic church following the upheaval unleashed by Pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation.

In the second day of the conclave, thick black smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, prompting sighs of disappointment from the thousands of people gathered in a rain-soaked and chilly St. Peter's Square.

"I'm not happy to see black smoke. We all want white," said the Rev. ThankGod Okoroafor, a Nigerian priest studying theology at Holy Cross University in Rome. "But maybe it means that the cardinals need to take time, not to make a mistake in the choice."

Cardinals voted twice Wednesday morning in the Vatican's famed frescoed Sistine Chapel following an inaugural vote Tuesday to elect a successor to Benedict XVI, who stunned the Catholic world last month by becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign.

The cardinals broke for lunch at the Vatican hotel and planned another two rounds of voting Wednesday afternoon.

The drama - with stage sets by Michelangelo and an outcome that is anyone's guess - is playing out against the backdrop of the church's need both for a manager who can clean up an ungovernable Vatican bureaucracy and a pastor who can revive Catholicism in a time of growing secularism.

The difficulty in finding both attributes in one man, some analysts say, means that the world should brace for a long conclave - or at least one longer than the four ballots it took to elect Benedict in 2005.

"We have not had a conclave over five days since 1831," noted the Rev. Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican," a bible of sorts for understanding the Vatican bureaucracy. "So if they are in there over five days, we know they are in trouble; they are having a hard time forming consensus around a particular person."

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, however, noted that only one pope in the past century - Pope Pius XII - was elected on the third ballot, and that was on the eve of World War II.

"We don't have any reason to talk about divisions ... nor conflicts," Lombardi said. He said it simply takes time to reach consensus - two-thirds of the 115 votes, or 77 votes - on who the pope should be.

The names mentioned most often as "papabile" - a cardinal who has the stuff of a pope - include Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, an intellect in the vein of Benedict but with a more outgoing personality, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian head of the Vatican's important bishops' office who is also scholarly but reserved like Benedict.

Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer is liked by the Vatican bureaucracy but not by all of his countrymen. And Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary has the backing of European cardinals who have twice elected him as head of the European bishops' conference.

On the more pastoral side is Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, the favorite of the Italian press, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the back-slapping, outgoing archbishop of New York who has admitted himself that his Italian is pretty bad - a drawback for a job that is conducted almost exclusively in the language.

The American candidates, however, did get a boost of sorts on Wednesday: President Barack Obama, who has clashed with American bishops over his health care mandate, indicated the Catholic Church could certainly tolerate a superpower pope since Catholic bishops in the U.S. "don't seem to be taking orders from me."

Revolving door of generals takes Afghanistan command

(The Washington Times)

Leadership post unstable at heart of war on terror

When Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford took command of the war in Afghanistan on Feb. 10, he succeeded a line of hard-luck officers who had succumbed to scandal or felt the White House’s sting over requests for more troops.
President Obama has changed top commanders in Afghanistan — which he says is the heart of the war on terrorism — five times in less than five years. Retired officers say this is some kind of record for hiring and firing or shifting four-star officers in a major theater of war.

In contrast, the Iraq War required four, four-star commanders, starting in 2004, over 71/2 years. The last commander served only a year because his job was to oversee the U.S. troop exit, which was completed in December 2011.
“We’re trying to do too many missions with too few forces in Afghanistan,” retired Gen. Ronald Griffith, a former vice chief of the Army, told The Washington Times. “I guess the way you deal with that, if you’re in Washington, is you either change the commander or you change the strategy.”
Retired ArmyGen. Barry McCaffrey, who led a division that ousted Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991, called the rapid turnover of generals “a huge mistake.” Compounding the problem, he said, is that other allied nations leave their commanders in Afghanistan for even a shorter time, sometimes just six months.
“We should have kept a team of senior people together in Afghanistan for five years at a time,” Gen. McCaffrey told The Times. “What kind of medium-complexity business would continually shuffle the leadership? All this turnover at the top had a detrimental effect on the broad direction of the war.”

The parade of generals in and out of Kabul began in 2009, when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced the firing of ArmyGen. David D. McKiernan after one year.
The stated reason: Mr. Gates wanted new thinking on counter-Taliban operations that he did not see in the conventional Army background of Gen. McKiernan, a big player in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. His Army colleagues said the general was in disfavor for wanting more boots on the ground at a time when Mr. Obama wanted to bring them home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
SEE RELATED: Chuck Hagel-Hamid Karzai talks marred by accusations of U.S.-Taliban collusion
“David McKiernan, in my judgment, told them what he needed to do the job with,” Gen. Griffith said. “And it probably made them uncomfortable.”
CNN reported that Gen. McKiernan said at his retirement ceremony: “I was dismayed, disappointed and more than a little embarrassed.”
The search for stability
Next: ArmyGen. Stanley A. McChrystal, a career special operations warrior who hunted down al Qaeda leaders in Iraq. With Gen. McChrystal came a new war strategy and, like Gen. McKiernan, a request for more troops, something Mr. Obama partially met.
Gen. McChrystal lasted only a year. He allowed a Rolling Stone reporter to be embedded with him and his staff, and the ensuing article quoted them as making disparaging remarks about the president and Vice President Joseph R. Biden. Gen. McChrystal was fired.
Analysts said at the time that the command in Afghanistan needed stability with its next leader. The command did not get that stability.
In a scramble, the White House turned to ArmyGen. David H. Petraeus. As a U.S. senator, Mr. Obama criticized Gen. Petraeus for defending the 2007 surge of U.S. troops into Iraq.
Gen. Petraeus remained in Kabul for a year to implement a complex strategy that had American troops working side by side with Afghans to take back the villages.
In a surprise move, as the presidential election moved closer, Mr. Obama installed Gen. Petraeus, a charismatic leader coveted by some Republicans as a candidate, into the lower-profile job of CIA director.
“I have no knowledge he had ever had any political goals,” Gen. Griffith said. “He would have denied he had any political goals. I’m not sure the Obama administration did not see it otherwise.”
Said a Petraeus friend: “Petraeus should have been left in place. They wanted him off the stage.”
Gen. Petraeus last year resigned as CIA director over an extramarital affair.
In Afghanistan, Gen. Petraeus was succeeded by Marine Gen. John Allen, deputy chief of U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Persian Gulf area.
If the NATO command thought this choice would bring a dose of stability, it was wrong again: The White House surprised Washington by saying that his command would be cut short by a move to Brussels as NATO’s supreme commander.
Gen. Allen, however, got caught up in the Petraeus scandal over an exchange of emails with a married Florida socialite, Jill Kelley, and he opted not to take the NATO job. Fox News reported that the White House pushed him into retirement.
Gen. Dunford relieved Gen. Allen of the Afghanistan command on Feb. 10, after having served as assistant Marine commandant.
‘Withdrawal strategy’ decision
It was another head-scratcher in the military retirement community: Gen. Dunford, an Iraq veteran, never served in the 11-year-old Afghanistan War, and there were plenty of other generals who had.
The Times reported that the Army had endorsed Gen. David Rodriguez, who ran day-to-day operations in Afghanistan, to succeed Gen. Allen, but the White House preferred Gen. Dunford.
Retired generals speculate that the Obama administration settled on Gen. Dunford because it believed it would have an easier time in pressing for further troop cuts in Afghanistan with him as the top commander.
In a nine-page analysis of Afghanistan, Gen. McCaffrey said the early planned shift of Gen. Allen to NATO and the passing-over of Gen. Rodriguez have meaning.
“This is a ‘withdrawal strategy’ personnel decision,” he wrote.
The president has announced that 34,000 troops will leave Afghanistan this year after the Taliban “fighting season” ends in the fall, leaving about 30,000 troops.
Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, U.S. Central Command chief, has recommended that 13,600 troops stay after 2014, when most international troops are expected to leave the country.
The high turnover rate in leadership in Kabul perhaps explains why the blogosphere explodes with conspiracy theories when four-stars are replaced at other commands.
There is no exact science for replacing the chiefs of the so-called geographic combatant commands, such as Central, Pacific and European.
Unlike the service chiefs, who serve for four years, and the Joint Chiefs chairman, who normally stays for two, two-year terms, the four-star combatant commanders typically preside two or three years.
The timings of their departures can depend on who is queued up behind them, awaiting their turn at a prestigious “joint” command. At some point, a sitting four-star has to make way for a budding four-star.
When the Pentagon announced that Gen. Rodriguez would replace Army Gen. Carter Ham as head of U.S. Africa Command, bloggers announced that Gen. Ham was sacked over the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 that left an ambassador and three other Americans dead.
But reliable sources told The Times that there is no truth in the theory. The White House needed to find a joint posting for Gen. Rodriguez, a highly respected combat leader, after denying him the command in Afghanistan.
To boot, Gen. Ham is a White House favorite: He led the major in-house 2010 study that resulted in an Obama goal — lifting the ban on open gays in the ranks.
The same conspiracy theories enwrapped Gen. Mattis, a blunt-speaking warrior who led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The conjecture is that he is being ousted from U.S. Central Command for his hawkish views on striking Iran to disable its quest for nuclear weapons.
When Gen. Mattis is relieved by Army Gen. Lloyd Austin on March 27, he will have stayed in place two years, six months — about the average for CentCom.
Army Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told The Times that Gen. Mattis denies any rift with the White House over Iran.
“CoCom commanders serve at the whim of the president and the secretary of defense,” Col. Taylor said. “There is no right, wrong, early, late. There’s no set time line for when somebody takes over and somebody leaves. Now, if somebody took over a CoCom and three months later was removed, that would be a little strange.”