Comparing Mumbai to 9/11 Diminishes Both Tragedies

Published on Thursday, December 4, 2008 by The Guardian/UK

by Priyamvada Gopal
(http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/04-7) 

We must not let ’9/11′ become a horrific status symbol signalling arrival into the fraternity of wounded superpowers.

Every brutal massacre of defenceless innocents must draw from us a kindred horror, whether it is Hiroshima 1945, Deir Yassin 1948, Sharpeville 1960, Halabja 1988, New York 2001, Gujarat 2002, or Haditha 2005. But each also bears the imprints of its place and time and we must commemorate them accordingly.

Pakistan: Scotland Yard Should Quit Flawed Bhutto Inquiry

Independent International Investigation Needed to Conduct Credible Probe

(Taken from www.hrw.org)

(New York, January 24, 2008) – The UK’s Scotland Yard should not be part of a flawed Pakistani investigation into the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged Pakistan to seek an independent international investigation of the murder, such as under United Nations auspices.Human Rights Watch said that the Pakistani government has a well-documented record of failing to conduct impartial investigations of human rights abuses, including political killings.  
 

Benazir e-mail implicates Musharraf in death

Benazir e-mail implicates Musharraf in death
28 Dec 2007, 2118 hrs IST,CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA,TNN

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto implicated military ruler Pervez Musharraf in her death in an e-mail she sent to a friend, it has been revealed, even as the US media began an unsparing review of Washington’s support to the dictator and the country’s pervasive military.

US aid ‘diverted’ in Pakistan

US aid ‘diverted’ in Pakistan

More than $5bn in US military aid to Pakistan has often failed to reach frontline units fighting al-Qaeda and the Taleban, the New York Times says. It quoted officials saying much of the money was diverted to weapons systems designed to counter India, rather than to fighting Islamist militants.

The US provides the money to reimburse Pakistan for military operations carried out in its “war on terror”.

Obituary: Benazir Bhutto

Obituary: Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics, and both of them died because of it – he was executed in 1979, she fell victim to an apparent suicide bomb attack.

Fallen Hero of Our Time: Ahmad Shah Massoud

Sunday, Nov. 05, 2006

Ahmad Shah Massoud

By Peter Bergen

The two Arab TV journalists who had been hanging around for weeks to secure an interview with the storied Afghan military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud finally got their chance to speak with him on Sept. 9, 2001. They set up their gear and asked a question about Osama bin Laden. Then one of them detonated a bomb hidden in a camera, killing himself and mortally wounding Massoud. The journalists were, in fact, al-Qaeda assassins, and it was bin Laden who had ordered the hit just before the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.

Who Violates Human Rights the Most?

Who violates human rights the most?

By Paul Reynolds World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

The annual Human Rights report issued by Britain’s Foreign Office lays particular stress this year on the denial of human rights by terrorist groups and not just governments.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who introduced the report himself, told a mixed news conference of reporters and human rights activists: “We must look at non-state forces as well as state forces when we look at human rights.”