When you first hear the name Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, it doesn’t seem to hold much significance – it’s a name that doesn’t really make you pause and think for a moment. However, on 21 May 1991, Rajaratnam alias ‘Dhanu’ or ‘Gayatri’ carried out an assassination that was both spectacular and horrific at the same time, and it shocked the world. Her target was the former prime minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi and the brutal manner in which he was murdered had never happened before to a major head of state. Rajiv Gandhi had been campaigning for the upcoming Indian parliamentary elections in Sriperumbudur, which is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. Due to the involvement of Indian peace keeping forces in the Sri Lankan Civil War and his vow to disarm the LTTE or Tamil Tigers, if he ever came back into power, Rajiv Gandhi was a top target for the militant group. Despite repeated warnings about the threat to his life, he continued campaigning in the state. On 21 May he got out of his ca...
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By S. M. Hali Pakistan has been presenting arguments demonstrating the fallout of drone attacks on its territory but its pleas have fallen on deaf ears; meanwhile the collateral damage continues with each attack. A new research and investigation report by leading US institutions rejects the US State Department’s view regarding the use of drones in Pakistan and concludes that the strikes are counterproductive and damaging; kill innocent civilians, constantly terrorizing the people of tribal areas, depriving children of education and even targeting rescuers. The study titled: ‘Living under Drones’, released earlier this week, the product of extensive nine months’ research, conducted by the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School (Stanford Clinic) and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU Clinic), seeking a review of the drone policy, concludes that: “The number of high-level militants killed as a percen...
By Jerry E. Davis Building Bridges with WTPN started out as an idea for Lynn Nichols of Canada, and Co- Founder and Executive Director of WTPN, The first episode aired on May 1 st , 2012. The premier episode with Ceylan Ozbudak, Aylin Kocaman, Ebru Altan and Ece Koc, Along with their guest Roger Landry, founder of the WTPN organization, set the stage for a platform of education, communication and a catalyst for reaching across the boundaries of global borders to connect all people of all races, cultures and religions. Building Bridges has since hosted many interesting and knowledgeable guest such as David Aaron, Senior fellow at the legendary RAND Corporation, an internationally renowned think tank. He is the author of several books, has served as an advisor to U.S. Presidents, and was an ambassador to the OECD, Philip Jenkins, the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities at Pennsylvania State University, as well as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Ins...
“—When black people are attacked, they call it Racism. When Jewish people are attacked, they call it anti-Semitism. When Women are attacked, they call it Gender Discrimination. When Homosexuals are attacked, they call it Intolerance. When they attack your Country, they call it Counter- Terrorism. When a Religious Sect is attacked, they call it Hate Speech. But when they attack the dignity of the Prophet of Islam, Prophet MUHAMMAD (P.B.U.H), they call it “Freedom of Expression”—. Samuel Huntington’s “The clash of Civilizations” planted the thought that Christianity and Islam may be headed for a clash. His idea probably was that thinking minds would work to avert such a catastrophic confrontation but unfortunately there were those who considered such a clash desirable and began work to bring it about. These were the Evangelicals who claimed divine guidance—remember former President Bush flabbergasting the French President by talking of ‘G...
What might Netanyahu do when his American mob tells him Romney won’t win? By Alan Hart Even before his latest reported gaffe the polls were indicating that Romney will fail in his Zionist-backed bid to deny President Obama a second term in the White House. After the Republican presidential candidate tried and failed to make political capital out of the killing of the American ambassador and three of his colleagues in Libya, Obama said (on CBS’s 60 Minutes ) “Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later.” Staying with the shooting metaphor, it seems to me that with his latest gaffe Romney has shot himself in both feet and possibly elsewhere in his anatomy. Here is what he said to a behind-closed-doors meeting with Republican funders: “There are 47% of the country who will vote for the president no matter what.” And this 47% are people, he added, “who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, w...
S. M. Hali The annals of Pakistan’s history indicate that till recently, the Army was treated as a holy cow. Even if its personnel were involved in corruption, their trial or other administrative action taken against them would be hushed up and the general public or media would not even get a whiff of the case. Some senior officers of the Pakistan Navy and Air Force on the other hand, have been tried and the cases have been public knowledge however, this is the first time that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has made public the names of three senior army officers, Major General Khalid Zaheer Akhtar, Lieutenant Generals Khalid Munir and Afzal Muzzafar to be involved in what is now being termed as the National Logistic Cell (NLC) scam. It goes to the army’s credit that instead of hushing the scandal up, it ordered investigations and recording of Summary of Evidence (SoE), which is the preliminary step in requisitioning a Court Martial. The Army Chief, under his discretio...
I was prompted to highlight this issue because people were going crazy on the social media specially facebook over the blasphemous anti-Islamic film. Yes, the film is blasphemous and the makers of the film should be punished because there is a clear difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. But the thing that I am going to highlight is the pictures that are being spread all over the facebook, for example have a look at this one: Translates : Hitler writes in his book My Struggle that "If I had wanted I could have killed all the jews of the world but I left a few for the world to know why I killed them" Now, the book My Struggle was published in 1924 and the Holocaust happened in 1930, how could Adolf Hitler wrote about Holocaust six years prior to its happening ? Take a look at this picture: Does the maker of this photo even know that it was Hitler's holocaust that led the zionists accelerate their activities in getting a homeland ? N...
A US consulate in Benghazi, Libya where the US ambassador was allegedly killed, NEVER existed. It was an office which was never set up for any purposes. The only vacancy advertised was for a driver on the 23rd of August, 2012, one day prior to the official opening of US embassy in Tripoli, Libya. Apart from this one vacancy there is no other proof of any consulate offices being present in any city of Libya apart from the main US embassy in Tripoli, the capital. There is no proof of existence of a US consulate in Benghazi according to the US state department's webiste. www.usembassy.gov Keeping in mind that Chris Stevens was not an ordinary official at the embassy in Tripoli but the ambassador himself. libya.usembassy.gov/index.html There are a few questions that need to be answered and no one currently has asked these questions nor has anyone mentio...
By: Nabil Ahmed As the insulting video about the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) makes headlines, I have a few points to share. As much as I am enraged and insulted by the actions of these imbecile individuals who published the offensive video, but what really pisses me off are the violent responses of the Muslims across the world. These so called Muslims, easily get triggered by these blasphemous actions and begin protesting in large mobs, chanting hateful slogans and burning flags and buildings, thinking they are doing JIHAD (striving in the way of GOD). Little do they know that these situations are strategically planned with the sole intention of provoking them in the first place. Instead of tackling the issue like a sensible, practising Muslim and following the teachings of the one they claim to love enormously, these barbaric people get in rage and do the most unislamic things possible. My question to those individuals is: what really boils your...