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Section 1. Part 1 (Conspiracy Theories and their Rebuttals)
Conspiracy theories have been quite rampant in the Muslim society throughout the past few decades. These theories form the basis of a Utopian world where the Muslims are surrounded by the nefarious activities and insidious plots of the so called anti Islamic forces such as:
* Masonic (Freemasons)
* Zionists (mainly after the fallout of Israeli Occupation of Palestine),
* The “cruel and tyrannical” (As Pakistani class 6 Social Studies school textbook describes them) The Hindus
* The mysterious “Hindu Zionists”
* Last but not the least Uncle Sam (USA).
These theories portray Muslims as protagonists who are given a special prerogative to enforce their rule across the whole planet. Religion has been an important element of these theories and it has been widely exploited by politicians, army officers, religious scholars, media representatives and “Security Analysts” to justify their opinions. Most of these theories, especially those related to Jews, have been heavily plagiarised from the works of Christians, Russians and other European countries during their persecution of Jews in the early 20th century.
Theory 1.
One such theory is quite popular in Pakistan (an Islamic Country). Apart from the Israeli Palestinian conflict this theory, among others, is used to promote a negative image of Israel among the Pakistani people and justifies Israel’s complicity in destabilizing their country.
The gist of this theory is that during Israel’s independence in 1948, its first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion expressed severe reservations against the newly formed land of pure known as Pakistan. In its independence speech Mr. Ben Gurion then urged the people of Israel to form an alliance with the Hindus in India in order to covertly destabilize Pakistan through propaganda campaigns, secret conspiracy plots and militant proxies. In its 62 years of turbulent history, Pakistani rulers have used such theories to blame and to justify the complicity of “foreign elements” in every crisis the country has faced. This goes on from food, water and electricity shortages to economic/political instability, terrorism and sectarian violence.
The text of this theory as claimed by elements in Pakistan (such as Zaid hamid & Dr Shireen Mazari) goes like this:
In 1948 during Israel’s independence speech – David Ben Gurion said:
“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs. “This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan. “Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work there from against Pakistan. “It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans.”
David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967 edition.
This is not simply a diplomatic statement; it is a pure declaration of war especially when he says “To form bases in India to crush Pakistan”. Also the timing of this is quite significant which is during Israel’s independence. Remember that an independence speech is quite influential towards forming the ideology and constitution of any particular country. (Unlike Pakistan where there is no agreement among its people on what its founder Jinnah actually said during 1947’s Independence speech)
If this a clear ‘Zionist’ Declaration of War and an ideological propaganda (as claimed by Pakistan) then why did Pakistan never take any actions on the following lines during its 62 years history:
* Pakistan’s Foreign Office has never diplomatically responded against this highly offensive statement of David Ben Gurion?
* It never raised this issue in UN Security Council meetings or during the Organizational of Islamic conference (Aka OHHH I SEE) meetings.
* It never shared this critical security threat with its “Sleeping Partner” known as the “PRC” China.
* It didn’t raise this issue with its major “Cold War” exploiter once known as the Mujahedeen backer (USA).
* It never shared this ‘common security threat’ with its restive Zionist Phobic neighbor called “Khomeini’s Iran”
* Pakistan’s military dictators quietly accepted Israeli weapons during “1980s Afghan Jihad” and Israeli humanitarian aid (through third parties of course) during the 2005 disastrous earthquake despite the above quoted declaration of war by ‘Zionists’.
The questions above are quite easy to answer but before pondering over on this, let’s investigate on the authenticity of Mr. Ben Gurion’s statement? Let’s find out whether this offensive quote above really belongs to David Ben Gurion or if this is a skilful propaganda campaign of Pakistan army and religious scholars through their media representatives such as “Defense Analyst” Zaid Hamid or cantankerous “Dr” Shireen Mazari. Even before investigating this, I would like to share a very interesting directive that is given to the Muslims in their most sacred book Quran. In chapter 17 verse 36 of this book, they are clearly commanded by their God to verify every piece of information before accepting. Below is a comprehensive description of this verse by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez (Once an employee of central Government and counselor of Pakistan’s founder Jinnah).
“You should not take a stand (regarding anything) where you have no personal knowledge (Use all means of inquiry and then come to a conclusion – Allah has given you all the faculties for this purpose.) Mind it, the ear and the eye and the heart – all of them shall have to answer in regard to the question whether personal inquiry was made about the concerned matter” Quran Chapter 17, verse 36.
Sadly the gullible believers of conspiracy theories have failed miserably to apply these important messages of Quran and instead wasted their time on issues like “Four Marriages”, “Jihad” and segregation of women through “Shuttle cock” Burqa.
Rebuttal:
The independence speech of Israel’s first prime minster can be found on http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace Pro...claration of Establishment of State of Israel : Israeli Foreign Ministry.
The Original Recording: http://www.knesset.gov.il/docs/eng/megilat_eng.htm :
Israel’s Legislative Body
http://info.jpost.com/1998/Supplements/Jubilee/2.html : The Jerusalem Post (Leading Israeli Newspaper)
After reading the text of all these speeches and after carrying out a comprehensive research on all other speeches by all successive Israeli leaders since its illegal Palestinian occupation, it is hard to believe that David Ben Gurion or any other Israeli leader has ever made any such statement against Pakistan. There is no evidence of such statement even by any influential Israeli Analyst or think tank such as International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
The quote above or any such statement even remotely related to Pakistan cannot be verified by any Israeli supported (newspaper archives, editorials or articles) or by any Israeli military, government and civil society websites. It is not even mentioned or ever used against Israel even by the media networks of Arabs and the Palestinians such as Al Manar TV and Al Aqsa TV.
From my own independent research, I found out that Jacob Wallace, an expert on Israeli affairs and senior fellow at the Council on foreign Relations (A well known American think-tank), has never heard any such statement. Moreover, Pakistani analyst on Terrorism, Imtiaz Gul also doubts the validity of this statement. Some scholars I spoke with at the Quaid e Azam University Islamabad found it unusual why no one has ever heard of this highly offensive, public address.
If I closely examine the above quote then I notice a mysterious reference at the end that goes like this “Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967”
Now Jewish Chronicle is a London based newspaper that was founded in 1841 and is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.
Here is the website: http://www.thejc.com/
Now lets verify the above quote from its 167 years archives: http://archive.thejc.com/search/fra...,161&Arch=&SubsNo=48,101,229,24,61,121,19,168
The above quote does not exist in the archives, which shows that it is a propaganda tactic of Pakistani establishment, Some Army elements, Nationalists, Religious scholars, Politicians etc.
The most unusual thing here is the published date of the newspaper: “9 August 1967”. Whoever invented this quote had miserably failed to realize that this Jewish chronicle magazine was not even published on this date. In fact, this magazine has always been published on Fridays throughout its history and according to the Gregorian calendar, “9 August 1967” happens to be on Wednesday.
I contacted the Jewish Chronicle in London, UK and according to them there is no record of the Jewish Chronicle publishing any such speech by David Ben Gurion. The person I spoke with in their marketing department even told me that although the London based version is the most widely circulated and there are some regional version with very limited circulation that are published in some US states,
All of them have always been published on Fridays and none could have published a story so big without them finding out.
(Please refer to these links for dates confirmation http://www.thejc.com/about and http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1967&country=1)
This shows how much false propaganda against certain nations exists in Pakistan. But Pakistan is not the only country where the ruling establishment depends on conspiracy theories to serve their interests. Similar examples can be found in:
* India (Propaganda predominantly against Muslims and Pakistan). Such as from extreme right wing Hindu nationalists such as Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and RSS.) http://www.education.nic.in/cabe/textbooks.pdf
* Israel (false theories related to the Settlements and conflicts issues where Israel has violated Geneva Convention by shifting its population to occupied areas). Also Israeli Textbooks justify every Israeli war and holds Arabs responsible. In some state school textbooks, derogatory adjectives are used to disrespect Arabs. http://www.ecomtrade.co.il/eMall/shops/1559/imgbank/Israeli Report - September 2000.pdf
* America (mainly during Cold War to demonize Communism and Saddam’s Al-Qaida nexus or Iraq Nuclear fallacy)
* China (mainly to demonize democratic & Pro Human Rights institutions). Any organization that criticizes any element of the ruling communist party becomes a victim of communist propagandists.
However Pakistan is one of those few countries where conspiracy theories play a pivotal role in every institution and they target three countries, India, Israel & the US. These theories are widespread in Pakistan where the militant sympathizers, Anti Westerners and Anti Non Muslims use them to create fear and to legitimize the establishment of a theocratic Islamic caliphate and/or military oligarchy. The corrupt politicians also rely on these theories in order to avoid any corruption charges and concerns on their accountability.
Take the Indus water treaty between India and Pakistan. This was signed between the two nations in 1960 and according to this the country that first completes its project on a river will get the complete rights of that river. According to a research by CRSS Islamabad, Indians due to their better planning and effective water management policies have developed link canals, Dams and hydroelectric projects on the rivers allocated to them through this treaty such as Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Today due to better water storage facilities, India’s storage to water flow ratio is 52% as compared to Pakistan’s 11%. This means that Pakistan allows most of the water to escape into the sea every year which results in impacting its dam’s storage capacity. This is mainly because Pakistani Politicians, Military dictators, Water Planning commissions and implementing bodies have never spent their time to seriously plan and to sort out these grave issues for the poor public and Instead they were either busy filling their bank accounts abroad (mainly in UK and Switzerland) or buying expensive weapons & arming proxy militias to attack neighbouring countries such as arming Afghan Warlords & Taliban to attack Afghanistan and Jash ie Mohammad, Lashkar e Taiba , Harkutul Ansar and Hizbul Mujahedeen for India.
Throughout history, whenever these dictators, politicians and scholars have faced public and media criticism regarding their accountabilities, most of them had ready-made conspiracy theories that extricated them from the outcry of the public and instead shifted the blame directly on “Foreign Elements”. The cherry on the cake is that the public also listens to conspiracy theories of these politicians because they contain religious elements and it is considered taboo and blasphemous to speak against religion or religious leaders, mostly punishable by death. Many also even include their local political or religious rivals as antagonists in their theories such as in the case of Political parties.
Recent examples of Pakistani political parties labelling their opponents either Zionists, Indians, Jewish Lobbyists or Americans are:
* PPP Minister Baber Awan recently utilized the strategy of “Qadiani lobby” conspiracy to evade against the corruption charges. Baber knew that by naming Qadianis, he would get some support as Qadianis are popularly assumed to be an anti Muslim force working to malign the Muslim leaders on behalf on none other than Jews
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=26149
* PPP MNA recently called some journalists as Israeli agents because they were sensationalizing the corruption issues of their leader Asif Ali Zardari.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=26259
* Maulana Fazlur rehman’s JUI party calls a pro Taliban Journalist Ansar Abbasi a Jewish agent just because he exposed their support of President Musharraf and illegal land allotment.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=18354
* Musharraf and his dictatorship supporters termed the lawyers movement as a foreign sponsored Zionist force to destabilize Pakistan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX036XcJNYw
* Pakistan’s Tehreek e Insaaf Party Leader Imran Khan recently called prominent scientist Pervez Hoodboy as an American Agent (Security Advisor).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uBL...A93D25AF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=29
http://iaoj.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/pervez-hoodhbhoy-attacked-by-taliban-khan-imran-khan/ (Hoodboy Answer to Imran)
There are many examples of this conspiracy theory culture in Pakistan and most players effectively play the Jewish card pretty well.
References:
Pakistan Water Crisis Report (http://www.crss.pk/wpager09.php) Please find under June 2009.
http://www.crss.pk/Res-Reports/Story of Jihadi Curriculum in Pakistan.pdf (Pakistani Textbook Anti Hindu)
http://www.thenews.com.pk/editorial_detail.asp?id=178540 (Shireen Mazari article in The News English using David Ben Gurion’s false quote)
Zaid Hamid’s False Claim on David Ben Gurion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xPPwnMTGkE
Israel’s aid during 2005 earthquake: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1129113922099&pagename=JPArticle/ShowFull
Theory 2
Secret Map by US military official Lt. Col Ralph Peters in 2006 to safeguard Israeli security interest and to balkanize Pakistan.
This map is quite frequently used by Zaid Hamid, pseudo journalist Ahmed Qureshi, “DR” Shireen Mazari (Recently sacked by Jung group newspaper for spreading zaid hamidi theories http://thenews.jang.com.pk/print3.asp?id=24368 ) and many other journalists to highlight the American, Indian and Israeli conspiracy in balkanizing Pakistan.
The map is below:
http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/28617/full/The_20Project_20for_20the_20New.jpg
According to these conspiracy theorists, the above map is a part of a secret plan devised to achieve Israeli security, American energy interests in Baluchistan and Indian long time desire for the disintegration of Pakistan.
Here is the link of a so called security report from Zaid Hamids website that is using this map as the best source of evidence against the so called enemies of Islam.
http://brasstacks.pk/pdfs/policypapers/PNACPolicyPaper.pdf
This second link is to a video where he analyzes the map and highlights the Israeli security interest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBPKBgRSH34
Also refer to this “DR”Shireen Mazari article where this map was again used as an evidence for Pakistan’s balkanization.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-n...Oct-2009/Pakistan-trapped-in-the-US-game-plan
Rebuttal:
Ralph Peters is a retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, novelist and respected expert on military and intelligence issues just like experts in Pakistan such as General Hamid Gul, Mirza Aslem Baig or Talat Masood.
http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events/2005/09-21-ralph-peters.jsp (About Ralph Peters)
Let us see how this map is in favour of Israeli security interest.
Before this, let me ask Zaid Hamid, his followers, and other conspiracy theorists the following questions:
• Mr Zaid Hamid, et al, has anyone of you ever attended a math class in school?
• What grades did you obtain in your technical subjects at University?
• Do all of you have fake degrees just like the former minister for religious affairs in Pakistan (Amir Liaquat Husain)
Are all of you so blind in your misperceived patriotism and false pride that you have conveniently ignored a major section of this map by Ralph Peters?
Well my readers must be wondering why I am asking these questions
Hang on.
Can anyone tell me what a “map key” is?
I can find the best definition of map key here:
“A map key is a list of words or phrases or colors — usually within a box in the corner of the map — that usually explains the symbols that that are found on the map itself. Also referred to as a “legend.” (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_map_key)
This is the accepted definition of a map key. I doubt that the conspiracy theorists interpret the map of Ralph Peters through the key provided.
Below is the key extract from the above map.
Now what is this key telling us?
It’s indicating that in this map, those countries that are named in black are gaining territory and those in red are losing territory. There are also those countries shown in the map in grey that neither lose nor gain territory.
Now the most blatant error that Zaid Hamid and Co. are making here is to miss out a fundamental point about Israel’s name in Ralph Peters’ map (Remember red means losing territory)
Please see below the extract from the map showing Israel’s name in red which means the country is losing territory.
How come this map is in favour of Israel and how is it possible that this is anywhere successful in achieving Israeli security (by Zaid Hamid) when the map itself is showing Israel loosing significant territory to Jordon and Lebanon?
In other words how is Israel achieving its so called goal to balkanize Pakistan by simultaneously balkanizing itself?
This is typical of conspiracy theorists like Zaid Hamid and Shireen Mazari that they distort every piece of information and manipulate it to serve the interest of their paranoia. In this map they are only highlighting the balkanization of Pakistan, conveniently ignoring Israeli territorial loss
Full marks should be given to the gullible followers of the conspiracy theorists who can’t even analyse a simple map key and instead choose to blindly follow their baseless diatribe against this map.
Now let’s look at this article from Ralph Peters which came along with this map in the United States Monthly Military magazine in the year 2006.
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1833899/ (Please read it)
In this article titled “How a better Middle East would look” Ralph Peters carried out an experiment by hypothetically changing the borders of certain countries in the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa to address the concerns of the oppressed people in these restive regions. Some of these concerns are:
* Baluchistan in Pakistan: the Baloch people have been deprived of their rights and fair share on local resources by the Pakistani Establishment. (http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=174643). Not to mention the killings of thousands in army operations, extra judicial killings, kidnappings and mass tortures by the security forces which have added to the Balouchi peoples’ misery.
* The Pasthun Durand line, which has divided the Pashtun tribes in two countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan), has been a source of unrest and hostility for decades.
* Gaza, West Bank and Golan Heights: thousands of innocent Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Security Forces through cluster bombs, chemical weapons, aerial bombardment and through brutal oppressive tactics like blocking the supply of electricity and water in the name of security concern by the Israeli forces. Many Israeli citizens have been a victim of suicide bombings and indiscriminate killings.
* Similar territorial issue’s in Iraqi region of Kurdistan which fought with Saddam regime on autonomy and has been a victim of a genocide called Al – Anfal campaign where Saddam Hussein’s regime massacred thousands of Kurds.
Ralph Peters map was merely just a recommendation based on his personal opinion rather than a clear directive of US Foreign Policy by Department of Defence or CENTCOM.
In fact the journal his article was published in has clearly stated its guidelines here:
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/custserv/guidelines/ (Please read the “who we are” section)
According to their website “Armed Forces journal” is a military magazine where retired or current US military officers share their opinions, analysis and reviews on military policy, defence issues, technology, logistics and tactics. It is senseless to think that this journal dictates US foreign policy.
If it is assumed that Armed Forces Journal dictates American foreign policy then why the same journal has an article extremely critical of (War on Terror) Iraq war and the Blackwater security company (Now known as XE).
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/10/2865287/ (Iraq War)
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2009/01/3889281/ (Trail for Blackwater agents)
Also if conspiracy theorists label Ralph Peter’s map as a doctrine of US foreign policy then they contradict their most cherished claim that Israel and Jews rule America. This is because according to Peters’ map Israel is ceding its territories by withdrawing to pre 1967 borders
Interestingly, HAMAS, a political organization classified as “terrorists” by the US, demands the same territorial retreat from Israel as shown in the above hypothetical map. This demand is also accepted by Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chief Mahmoud Abbas and was also the recommendation of the UN Security Council resolution 242.
Please refer to these references for HAMAS’s stance and UN Resolution:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/04/2008615098393788.html
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/240/94/IMG/NR024094.pdf?OpenElement
A similar article was recently released by a prominent Chinese based think-tank called China International Institute for Strategic Studies that caused massive uproar in the Indian media as the article advocated the balkanization of their country into different states based on several ethnicities.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Break-India-says-China-think-tank/articleshow/4883573.cms
However after mass hysteria in the media, the spokesperson of the Indian ministry of external affairs clarified to them that the article was representing only the personal opinion of an analyst rather than anything to do with the official Indo –Chinese bilateral relations.
Hence after carefully interpreting the Ralph peter’s map, we can safely reach the conclusion that the map was based on a hypothetical analysis, merely recommending that Pakistan, Israel and some other states give up territories in order to accommodate the demands of the oppressed people and to somehow bring peace in these restive regions.
If an opinion from an individual analyst, journalist or think tank is taken to represent the official policy of a country then how should one interpret former ISI’s chief General Hamid Gul statements in favour of balkanaizing India? Should this also be considered an official declaration by the Chief of Army Staff or the President of Pakistan?
Please refer to this many video of Hamid Gul legitimizing Indian balkanization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N-uoukDCD0&feature=related
Also refer to this Hamid Gul’s article:
http://generalhamidgul.com/pakartic...rat-kay-tukray-tukray-hota-dekhna-chahta-hoon
Theory 3
Indian Weapons in Swat:
This has been an important theory to support the hypothesis of Indian and Pakistani Taliban Nexus. Many newspapers in Pakistan (especially TheNation english and DailyMail) have published several stories claiming that Pakistan army has captured huge collection of Indian made weapons from swat and now it’s the civilian government’s responsibility to diplomatically take up this grievance with the U.S.
Recently Director General ISPR Athar Abbas conducted a press conference claiming having captured Indian weapons
The question is that how is the Pakistan Army reaching this conclusion that the weapons captured in swat were Indian made?
Is this evidence enough for Pakistan to justify the Indian complicity claim?
Why would India give its own, locally made weapons to these terrorists when it is well aware of the threat this will pose to its secret endeavour of destabilizing Pakistan?
The first rule for any covert operation is to make sure that that the operation remains clandestine. CIA has been an expert in covert operations and one good example of its successful operation was in 1980’s during afghan jihad when the mujahedeen who fought the Russians were supplied with Israeli weapons by the Americans.
Americans wanted to give the appearance that mujhadeen were using Russian made weapons. U.S Congressman Charlie Wilson together with Mossad agent Zvi Rafiah brokered a deal between the then Pakistani president Zia-ul-haq and Israeli government to help supply Russian made weapons that Israel had captured from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon to Afghanistan.
So why would India supply its locally made weapons to insurgents in Pakistan? Why would it not use Chinese or Pakistani made weapons?
Below is the link of Ahmed Qureshi’s website with a picture that is found on forums, blogs and websites which promotes the above mentioned conspiracy theory.
http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=708
http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/indian-weapons-in-swat-fata/
The above picture is showing weapons purportedly captured by Pakistani army in Swat. According to Zaid Hamid, Ahmed Qureshi and other conspiracy theorists, the weapon in the picture is an Indian made gun called Vickers-Berthier, hence it proves that India is secretly supplying weapons to the Pakistani Taliban in order to destabilize Pakistan.
Here is the text accompanying the above picture in Ahmed Qureshi’s website:
“A number of the Indian army standard issue Vickers-Berthier (VB) light machine gun, manufactured in India, have been found by the Pakistani military in the hands of the terrorists in Swat. This LMG has a 30-round box magazine and a bipod stand, and is sometimes mistaken for the Bren. Apart from India, it was only sold to a few Baltic and South American states”
Rebuttal:
The Vicker – Berthier is a machine gun manufactured by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited “a British engineering conglomerate”. It was adopted by the British Indian Army and its production line was established at the Ishapore Rifle Factory in India, and still remains in reserve use for the Indian army. (http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg82-e.htm)
But the real question is, is the above picture really showing a Vicker – Berthier?
The image below shows a Vicker-Berthier from a reliable Vickers Armstrongs website
Please refer to these links for references about Vicker – Berthier:
http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/ (Click Links on the left-hand side and subsequently click “Light Machine Guns” under General Weapon information heading)
http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg82-e.htm
Clearly the original Vicker – Berthier as shown above differs in structure from the one shown on Ahmed Qureshi’s website. (Notice the difference between buttstocks).
The gun which Ahmed Qureshi falsely calls the Vicker is actually a Russian PK machine gun or another variant called PKM.
Below are two images of Russian PK Machine guns. The Second image is showing this gun loaded with 100-round belt in the attached box.
http://aacounterterror.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/pkm_11.jpg?w=650&h=364
http://aacounterterror.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/3pkma-prodmodwgroup.jpg?w=547&h=372
Please refer to these links for all the information related to PK Machine gun.
http://warfare.ru/?lang=&catid=276&linkid=2200 (From Russain Arms Database)
http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg07-e.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_machine_gun
http://www.armscontrol.ru/atmtc/Arms_systems/Land/Small_Arms/smarms.htm (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology – Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies)
Now let’s expose this propaganda of Pakistani conspiracy theorists further.
Below is a picture of former Afghan Taleban commander (Soviet Afghan war veteran) Mullah Dadullah. He was killed by US forces in fighting in 2007.
Source=Video interview of Dadullah by as-Sahab in 2006
Notice the gun above. It’s the Russian PK machine gun that has been a standard weapon for the Taliban along with the infamous Russian AK – 47. There are also dozens of videos on YouTube of afghan Taliban fighters clearly showing them with Russian PK Machine guns. (Please type Dadullah in YouTube search box and watch the videos for confirmation)
Now let’s look at some of the weapons captured by the coalition forces in Afghanistan and analyse the weapons used in recent attacks by Afghan Taliban on the Afghan Government officials, American, British and NATO troops.
Refer to these links below and notice that all weapons were PK machine guns:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rs-murdered-Afghanistan-Taliban-assassin.html (British Soldiers killed by Taliban Assassin)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8055247.stm (Karzai’s Brother Attacked)
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2009/02/12/marines-taliban-and-tactics-techniques-and-procedures/
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/06/26/monitor/entry4212617.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody (Taliban, Al Qaeda attacking British Troops)
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=67464&d=25&m=7&y=2005 (PK Machine guns Captured from Afghan Taliban)
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c2254a,4565c25f5a5,469f5b661e,0.html
(PK Machine guns Captured from Afghan Taliban)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-fending-off-Taliban-attack-with-bayonet.html
(British Officer Attacked)
PK Machine gun is one of the most common weapons in Afghanistan which is not only used by the Afghan Taliban but used also by the Afghan police and their national army. These guns are available in large supply in Afghanistan mainly because the Russian army left behind large caches of Russian made weapons in after the war in 1980s. Another reason is the drug trade between the Russian gangs and Taliban where the gangs buy cheaper drugs from Afghanistan and pay for it with guns instead of money. Please refer to a report on drug for guns trade with Taliban in the link below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...s-fuelling-the-taliban-insurgency-817230.html
This is exactly reminiscent of how the diamond for guns trade works to finance the African warlords in Africa.
Now for the final nail in the coffin of this conspiracy theory:
The Russian PK machine gun, which Ahmed Qureshi and Zaid Hamid claim is an Indian made Vicker, was captured by Israel from a Palestinian owned freighter in 2002. Here is the link
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/paship.html
Now even if we grant the crazy claim of Qureshi and Hamid that these weapons are indeed Indian made Vickers (as ridiculous as this is) we are faced with this puzzle: if Indian made weapons, Vickers, are found in the hands of Taliban which hence incriminates India of involvement in Pakistan, then by the same logic India is also supporting the Muslim, Palestinian militia against Israel and the Afghan Taliban, both of whom Pakistan glorifies as freedom fighters.
But this does not sound so ludicrously insane since Ahmed Qureshi’s sources are none other than the ever so reliable Brass Tacks which is ostensibly a security think tank founded by the “omnipotent and omnipresent” Zaid Hamid. Sources obtained by Zaid Hamid are as reliable as the sources that claim seeing the Loch Ness monster.
Here is the video link where he is telling us about his sources of information.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmNGpClflbQ
This is hilarious comedy material. He claims he has spies all over the world feeding him information through thousands of emails daily. Seriously, are we just supposed to take his word on this? He sounds like a megalomaniac freak.
Theory 4
American Government website supports terror in Pakistan.
There is another theory in Pakistan used by conspiracy theorists to describe Baluch insurgency as an American and Israeli agenda
The claim of this theory is as follows:
Americans support terror in Baluchistan because the American citizenship form lists Baluchistan as a separate entity in the address drop down box so therefore this indicates that Americans want balkanization of Pakistan.
For some readers this may be quite ridiculous but then again we can expect any absurdity from the proponents of such theories. As a starting point let us apply the rule we applied to analyse the other three refuted theories, that is, apply the message in the Quranic verse 36, Chapter 17 (To Verify).
This picture below is usually found on conspiracy theories websites; it is widely used to give substance to what is called the immigration form theory.
http://aacounterterror.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/uscis-ar-11_baluchistan-550x264.jpg?w=550&h=264
Below are WebPages including the one of Zaid Hamid’s puppet known as Ahmed Qureshi.
http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2009/08/19/us-immigration-form-lists-baluchistan-as-country-of-citizenship (Blog by Awab Alvi)
http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=777
Notice the word Baluchistan (Pakistan) above in the picture under the “Change of Address” online form.
Now let’s see the original website of US immigration services and compare this with the above so called separate Baluchistan version.
Here is the link to the immigration website. Please follow the steps below the link for verification as there is no direct working link to this online form. Also note that conspiracy theorists have provided a dead link for verification on their blogs.
https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=coa
(Scroll all the way down and click Change your address online. Next repeat the scroll down process and click I accept these terms and conditions. Click on No, this change of address is not for a US Citizen. Now check the country of drop down box under customer information and it is absolutely clear that there is no such thing as claimed by the conspiracy theorists. In fact, the odd thing is the colour of header in the webpage is quite different as the original has white header as compare to the fake that is shown above in blue.
Thoery 5
India has dozens of embassies in Afghanistan which it uses to support Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) (based in Israel according to Zaid Hamid) for internal unrest in Pakistan.
Another widely accepted theory in Pakistan.
Rebuttal
India has 1 embassy in Kabul and 4 consulates at Heart, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar – e- Sharif. Please refer to these government and independent sources for verification. The third link would provide details of (Websites, FAX numbers, Tel Numbers) for these consulates.
http://meakabul.nic.in/
http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/sam117.pdf
http://meaindia.nic.in/ (Click on Welcome, then “Missions & posts” on left and then select Afghanistan)
Note that Pakistan also has the same number of diplomatic missions in Afghanistan as India. 1 embassy in Kabul and 4 consulates at Heart, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar – e- Sharif
http://www.mofa.gov.pk/afghanistan/
The questions that come my mind are below:
Where in Afghanistan are these ‘dozens’ of Indian Embassies?
Why has Islamabad not handed over any evidence in relation to this to the UN? (India did so in the case of Jamat Dawa)
Why has this ‘common security’ threat never been shared with China? (Remember the Chinese Indian rivalry)
Where in Israel is this “Headquarter”of BLA? Is it in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or…?
What other evidence is there that BLA’s headquarters are in Israel other than the bizarre delusions of Zaid Hamid?
Why the army is silent on these issues and has instead expressed serious concerns on issues like the Kerry Lugar bill?
In any case, it is up to the Afghani people to decide who they welcome in their country.
According to Council on Foreign Relations, since 2001, India has offered $1.2 billion for Afghanistan’s reconstruction, making it the biggest regional donor to the country, while it has also poured in massive infrastructure investments including hospitals, schools, and dams. Pakistan’s aid is negligible compared to India even in relative terms. Although India also has political and strategic objectives in Afghanistan but it chose to use economic means as opposed to using an insurgency like Pakistan does. The choice is for the Afghani people to make, they can either choose hospitals, schools, roads, and dams or let mullahs run free and take them back to the dark ages.
References:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/17474/indiaafghanistan_relations.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1945666,00.html
Theory 6
Americans have not yet declared (BLA) Baluchistan liberation army a terrorist organization so therefore this proves American hand behind BLA.
http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=777 (Ahmed Qureshi on BLA)
Well the question is why would America officially have to declare a particular organization for it to be labeled a terrorist organization?
Why has Pakistan’s army’s best friend China, not declared al-Qaida a terrorist organization?
Why has Pakistan itself being the one fighting this war on terror not yet declared al-Qaida as a terrorist organization?
Why has not china declared BLA a terrorist organization (Forget America)?
Why Pakistan has not declared Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorists?
Why has Saudi Arabia not declared East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a terrorist organization?
Note: Please note that East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a militant organization fighting for the rights of brutally oppressed Muslim Uyghur population by China.
Can we then automatically derive support of a terrorist group where there is a lack of declaration of a terrorist by a country?
This is not how it works. U.S.A would declare an organization terrorist when it poses a threat to its national security; similarly China hasn’t declared Al-Qaeda a terrorist organization because there have been no al-Qaida attacks on its soil and the Chinese have not found any substantial evidence to form any nexus between ETIM and Al-Qaida.
Theory 7
China along with Pakistan has been a target of continuous Zionist Plots.
Conspiracy theorists romance with China.
(Zaid Hamid’s think – tank so called security report)
http://brasstacks.pk/pdfs/policypapers/PNACPolicyPaper.pdf
Rebuttal
Conspiracy theorists in Pakistan have deliberately avoided discussing two aspects of China’s policies that are sure to uncover the falsehood of their theories. They are:
1. China’s role in treatment of its indigenous Muslim population and of other Muslims all over the world (DARFUR).
2. Beijing’s rather liberal relations with Israel.
Perhaps due to self censorship, China – Israel relations are never mentioned, if at all, because that may cause Pakistan’s general population to protest against Sino Pakistan relations, which are all the more valuable because of Sino-Indian rivalry and China’s non democratic style of governance.
China, unlike Pakistan and most Islamic countries, recognized Israel in 1992. Moreover Israel is the second largest arms supplier to China after Russia; and China is Israel’s largest Asian trading partner with the trade expected to be USD $10 billion by 2010.
According to a report in the New York Times “China has sought Israel’s expertise in solar energy, manufacturing robotics, irrigation, construction, agricultural, water management and desalination technologies”. Both countries have strong bilateral relations and recently marked 17 years of good relations:
But in Pakistan, the media is more focused on Indo – Israel relations and that is often a bone of contention between India and Pakistan.
China’s record on human rights and freedom of press is quite notorious and it is also too oppressive to its Muslim population. For example Uyghurs, the ethnic term for the mostly Muslim population in the Chinese province Xinjiang, face religious persecution and discrimination at the hands of the Chinese government. The government controls the management of all mosques and only allows its own ‘approved’ version of the Quran to be used. Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to attend mosques.
But religious elements and Pakistani Nationalists fail to mention any of this since their goal is not to disseminate factual information but to spread propaganda. The Jamat Islami of Pakistan recently signed a death warrant for Muslims in China when it signed an MoU with the Chinese government supporting its actions in Xinjiang Province; it is contradictory to sign an agreement with a country that discriminates against its Muslim population, and at the same time accuse Israel and India for the same kind of mistreatment. It is hard for people like Zaid Hamid to highlight the miserable condition of the Uyghurs when China is the main weapons supplier of Pakistan and equally as hard when China can so easily be used in propaganda against India since both the former and latter have a history of rivalry. Whatever national interests Pakistani establishment thinks it is serving by promoting its conspiracy theories are doomed to failure since China will always keep its own national interests ahead of everything else.
Furthermore, China’s economic policies have been subject to much criticism in Africa for being exploitative. In the case of Darfur in Sudan, arguably the most brutal conflict in Africa today, Chinese involvement has been under fire from international institutions. With this record on human rights it is disappointing to see Zaid Hamid praising China as a partner of Pakistan. What is even more interesting is that Sudan’s population is mostly Muslim; but as we have already seen this is not the only case where Zaid Hamid has overlooked the hardships of foreign Muslims. He has also claimed that China is Pakistan’s partner against the ‘Zionists’ which sounds absurd as China and Israel have strong bilateral ties.
References:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=163116 (Qazi Hussain China)
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1167467702533
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1116961.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/22/w...s.html?sec=technology&&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100518.htm
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/DL04Ad01.html (Israel China Relations)
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/hair-02202009174717.html
Theory 8
Chanakya Ideology (According to Zaid Hamid, India should never be trusted because of their belief in Chanakya)
Under the ancient powerful Maurya Empire, Chanakya (Kautilya) a military strategist was the first Prime Minister. He was a great philosopher and a pioneer in the field of economics and political science.
According to Shaikh Azizur Rahman’s article “India defence looks to ancient text” Indian scientists recommended Indian defence to apply the modus operandi of Chanakya as described in the book Arthashastra, written more than 2,300 years ago. These include secrets of effective stealth warfare such as how to keep a soldier fighting for a month.
However, Zaid Hamid falsely asserts that we should never befriend India because Indian foreign diplomatic policy is dominated by Chanakya and they believe in the Chanakya Ideology which, according to him, is a Janus faced ideology telling its followers to act superficially in the best interests of enemies (Pakistan) but at the same time sawing away at it’s roots. Though Chanakya’s ideas may seem harsh, historians have no proof of the characteristics Zaid Hamid attributes to this particular ideologist.
An instance of his assertion of this ideology is when a book praising Jinnah (Jinnah: India -Partition -Independence) was written by a BJP finance minister, Jaswant Singh. In it he claimed that Nehru was responsible for the partition between India and Pakistan and openly praised Jinnah. As a result, Mr. Jaswant Singh was expelled from the party since he did not represent the views of the party. This was a welcome step for Pakistanis and a step forward for Indo Pak friendly relations. However, Mr. Zaid Hamid proclaimed that this was a disguised attempt to gain Pakistan’s trust under the Chanakya ideology and that under this guise; the Indians will always seek to harm Pakistan’s interests. Now since there is no concrete proof of this, and Zaid Hamid certainly is no historian himself… is it possible that he has a couple of ‘agents’ who report to him live from that era as well??
If India applies the Chanakya Ideoloy in its Military Warfare, do Pakistanis not also hail Mohammad Bin Qasim and Khalid Bin Waleed for their strategies? If our praise is justified, then so is their strategy.
Now since there can be no peace between India and Pakistan if we are to presume Zaid’s theory as correct, then there is only one other way left for us: Ghazwa-e-Hind. Zaid Hamid believes that in order to restore peace to our land, it is important to have control over our neighbouring lands. He further believes that it has been foretold by the Prophet (PBUH) in his sayings that there will come a time when the Pakistan Army will conquer its enemies.
The real reason for using this theory of Chanakaya ideology is to legitimize the theory of Ghazwe Hind. In other words the strategy of Zaid Hamid is to make his followers believe that peace with India cannot be achieved at any cost (based on his interpretation of Chanakya ideology and its role in Indian foreign policy) and the only way left is Ghazw e Hind.
Getting information on Chankya’s life from Zaid Hamid, given his hostile views on India and non Muslims, is like asking Bal Thackhery (Hindu Extremist Anti Pakistani) about Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Pakistan’s Founder.
References:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1986595.stm
http://aacounterterror.wordpress.com/section-1-part-2/
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