Ramanisblog

Tag: Saudi Arabia

  • Shadow World Of Arms 1 Major Suppliers Reasons

    Next to Drugs trafficking,Illegal Arms trafficking is the Highest Industry in The World.

    Facts;

    Drugs,Arms and Human Trafficking.
    Drugs,Arms and Human Trafficking.

    Drug Trafficking.  $ 32 Billion

    Arms Trafficking     $15.5 Billion

    As early as in 1970 there existed one fire arms for every man , woman and child living n the planet.

    Let’s see how the illegal Arms Trade operates.

    Every nation has an Arms industry for its Defense.

    The Investment for a normal Rifles, Machine Guns ,  Hand Guns,Ammunition for both and Grenades is not relatively high.

    Every Country has them,barring a few.

    But mere Guns and ammunition for them will no be enough to defend one country.

    One has to have Tanks,Artillery, Armored Cars, and Warships.

    In addition one has to have Research facilities  as well.

    One should have technology and the Investment capacity to produce them.

    Smaller countries do not manufacture them and they import from the Countries that develop these arms.

    How do these smaller get them?

    In Theory there is a ban on export of Arms.

    At the practical level, as the investment is huge for these Industries and you can not afford to keep them idle, they are continued to be manufactured.

    But the requirement for the Country’s consumption is limited.

    Continuous production implies additional investments, that too ,on a large-scale is required.

    So the countries that manufacture Arms, export, though paying lip service to” Ban of Arms exports’.

    Main Arms Suppliers are :US,Canada,Britain,France,Italy,West Germany(with certain banned manufactures under 1954 Paris Treaty,Sweden,Switzerland, Spain,Belgium, Israel and South Africa.

    Of these Western nations, Sweden and Switzerland are neutral Countries, bu still they make finest Weapons.

    Israel and South Africa, unsure of their stand in the world of Importing Arms because of their peculiar political situations , have their own Industries.

    The other countries are linked by NATO Treaty.

    The mutual export and Import is not a problem for them.

    Smaller countries requiring import from any of these countries have to get cleared by the War Office and the foreign Office of the respective countries they want to import from.

     

    Major West European Suppliers.
    The four major West European suppliers (France, United Kingdom, Germany,
    and Italy), as a group, registered a significant increase in their collective share of all
    arms transfer agreements with developing nations between 2003 and 2004. This
    group’s share rose from 5.5% in 2003 to 22% in 2004. The collective value of this
    group’s arms transfer agreements with developing nations in 2004 was $4.8 billion
    compared with a total of $830 million in 2003. Of these four nations, the United
    Kingdom was the leading supplier with $3.2 billion in agreements in 2004, a
    substantial increase from essentially no agreements in 2003. An important portion
    of the United Kingdom’s total in 2004 was attributable to a $1.8 billion agreement
    with India for 66 Hawk advanced jet trainers, and a large agreement totaling in
    excess of $1 billion with Saudi Arabia under the Al Yamamah military procurement
    arrangement. France increased its agreements total to $1 billion in 2004from $519
    million in 2003, aided by a contract to provide support for Saudi Arabia’s Crotale air
    defense systems, and Shahine ground-to-air missiles for about $410 million. Italy

    increased its arms transfer agreements with the developing world from $311 million
    in 2003 to $600 million in 2004. Germany registered effectively no new developing
    world arms orders in 2004. (charts 3 and 4)(tables 1A and 1B).

    http://www.fas.org/asmp/resources/govern/109th/CRSRL33051.pdf

     

     

    Contiues.

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  • Osama Bin Laden Killing Declassified Documents Bio

    I will be posting a series of Documents on the Assassination of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

    These files have been declassified and give an insight into the operation against Osama Bin Laden.

    “Washington, D.C., May 2, 2011 – The Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, killed in Pakistan by U.S. special operations forces yesterday, ranked as “one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic terrorist activities in the world” as early as 1996, according to declassified U.S. documents posted on the web today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org).

    The Osama Bin Laden File includes the CIA’s 1996 biographic sketch [Transcription], the infamous President’s Daily Brief from 6 August 2001 warning “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US,” a State Department issue paper from 2005 reporting that “some Taliban leaders operate with relative impunity in some Pakistan cities,” the 400-page Sandia National Laboratories profile of Bin Laden focusing on the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the 2006 State Department cable on the Taliban’s regrouping in Pakistan’s tribal areas making them “a sanctuary beyond the reach of either Government,” the demands made on Pakistan right after 9/11 by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and theonly known conversation between the U.S. government and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

    Osama Bin Laden
    Osama Bin Laden

    *             *             *

    One of the earlier publicly available documentary mentions of Bin Laden comes from a 1996 CIA bio sketch entitled “Usama Bin Laden: Islamic Extremist Financer” [Transcription]. It describes Bin Laden, “who joined the Afghan resistance movement in 1979,” as “one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world.” According to The New York Times, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the CIA actually helped Bin Laden – who supplied construction equipment from his family’s company in Saudi Arabia – to construct the Tora Bora complex as a base to fight the Soviets.  According to Bin Laden, “The [Mujahidin’s] weapons were supplied by the Americans, the money by the Saudis.”

    Almost a decade later, Bin Laden would make good use of his earlier investment. A 1997 State Department cable reported that he had likely retreated into hiding at Tora Bora, stating “bin Ladin had lived in caves south of Jalalabad in Tora Bora and the Taliban had become suspicious.” In December 2001, US troops engaged in a fierce firefight at Tora Bora, hoping to smoke out the Al Qaeda leader. The Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters were overrun but Bin Laden was not among the killed or captured.

    The earlier CIA bio indicates that after the 1989 victory over the Soviets, Bin Laden, while living in Saudi Arabia and Sudan, created “a network of al-Qaida recruitment centers and guesthouses in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan and has enlisted and sheltered thousands of Arab recruits.” The document also accused Bin Laden of “providing financial support” for the 1992 bombings against US servicemen in Somalia, “at least three terrorist training camps in Sudan” and one in Afghanistan, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

    In mid-1996, Bin Laden moved from Sudan to Afghanistan where he lived and operated under the umbrella of the Taliban. From there, he plotted the August 1998 bombings of two American embassies, in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed hundreds and wounded thousands more. In response, President Bill Clinton authorized the first U.S. official attempt to kill him. The problem was how to find him.  While CIA and U.S. military personnel tried to come up with actionable intelligence on his whereabouts, American diplomats in Afghanistan attempted to persuade Bin Laden’s Taliban hosts to give him up.  AState Department cable provided an unusual window into the bizarre negotiations, including recording the suggestion by a Taliban intermediary that the U.S. “arrange for bin Laden to be assassinated” because the Taliban could do nothing to prevent it.

    In 1999, Sandia National Laboratories compiled a 400-page profile of Bin Laden – far more comprehensive than the CIA’s brief 1996 sketch, and no doubt reflecting his stratospheric rise in importance to the United States. The report found that the African embassy attacks did not take the U.S. by surprise, given its existing counterterrorism intelligence capabilities.  It added that the retaliatory cruise missile strikes orderd by Clinton – which unfortunately destroyed a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant and killed several suspected terrorists training in Afghanistan instead of their intended targets – “did little to help solve the problem posed by bin Laden and may ultimately prove to have done more harm than good.” The Sandia analysts concluded – chillingly – that the bombings showed “The ‘war’ on terrorism will never be ‘won.’”

    On 25 January 2001 the National Security Council’s senior counterterroism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, sent a now-famous memo to incoming National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice which warned, “al Qida is not some narrow, little terrorist issue that needs to be included in broader regional policy.” The memo referenced the Al Qaeda suicide attack on USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, which killed 17 sailors and injured 39 others.  Clarke recommended that the United States “respond at a time, place, and manner of our own choosing,” pleading, “we urgently need … a Principals level review on the al Qida network [emphasis in original].”

    Less than nine months later, nineteen Al Qaeda operative hijacked four planes and struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

     Laboratories, “Osama bin Laden: A Case Study,” December 6,

     

    But the stepped-up pressure failed to produce all the desired results, and Pakistan soon became protected territory for the Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Immediately after September 11, according to an unnamed Pakistani security official, “the tribes were overawed by US firepower.” But by the time this quote was made to a senior State Department in Islamabad (reported in an embassy cable on 13 November 2002), “that window had closed.” The Federally Administered Tribal Areas were once again “no go areas.”

    Three years later, in late 2005, the situation had not changed.  Despite Pakistan’s formal denials that it was a safe haven for anti-American forces, a State Department Issue Paper for the Vice President confirmed that indeed “some Taliban leaders operate with relative impunity in some Pakistani cities, and may still enjoy support from the lower echelons of Pakistan’s ISI.”

    Source:

    http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB343/index.htm

    Source.

    NSA Archives.

    Related;

    http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB343/osama_bin_laden_file04.pdf

    Related articles

  • Why ‘Minority Muslim Sentiment is Not hurt’ By This?

    The Minority community expresses anger, hurt over a Film like Viswaroopam which in no way insults Islam or Muslims.

     

    Please read my post ‘Yes Viswaroopam Hurts, Review’

     

    Three has been no protest over the beheading of Indian Soldiers by Pakistani Soldiers.

     

    But there is protest over the hanging of a man who has attacked the Parliament of India and killed people!

     

    There is no ‘hurt’ over 6000 Indians jailed in maximum security jails in Saudi Arabia.

     

    ‘Over 6,000 Indians are currently languishing in foreign jails with the maximum of 1,691 being lodged in Saudi Arabia.   External affairs minister Salman Khurshid, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, said a total of 6,293 Indians are imprisoned in various

    countries.

     

    He said 1,012 Indians are lodged in jails in United Arab Emirates followed by 441 in the US, 426 people in United Kingdom, 377 in neighbouring Nepal, 279 in Qatar and 225 in Kuwait.

    The number of Indians lodged in Pakistani prisons is 224 while 114 people are languishing in jails in Australia, 167 in Bangladesh, 187 in Malaysia, 52 in Iran and 27 in Afghan prisons”

    http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Over-6000-Indians-jailed-abroad-maximum-in-Saudi/Article1-962828.aspx

    Muslims and World
    Muslims and World

     

    There is no anger at the discriminatory and insulting treatment meted out to Indian Muslims the Middle East,Indonesia and Pakistan to name a few Countries.

     

    Why?

     

    Look at these Statistics.

    Alcohol use in predominantly Muslim regions of the world increased by 25 percent between 2005 and 2010.

    Statistics provided by research group Euromonitor International reported a constant increase in the use of alcohol in several countries where the Muslim religion, which prohibits the use of any product capable of affecting behaviour (drugs included), is dominant. Quoting the survey, Le Monde reported that between 2005 and 2010 the average consumption by the French dropped from 104.2 litres of alcohol per year to 96.7, while in the same period in the Middle East and Africa area it increased by 25%, from 11.7 billion litres to 15.2 billion.[2]

    February, 2011
    “The Gulf is an important market for us to continue growing,” said Jane Ewing, Diageo’s general manager for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The London-based maker of Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka posted a 16 per cent rise in regional net sales last year [2010] and expects sales to double in the next five years in the MENA region. The Gulf Arab region alone accounted for 44 per cent of Diageo’s total sales in MENA, with the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon being its two largest markets.[3]

    March, 2011
    According to the study [cited by the Alriyadyh Arabic language daily], Arab countries spend more than $10 billion on Viagra and other anti-impotence medicines every year and that Saudi Arabia [ranked sixth largest consumer of sex drugs] alone spends over $1.5 billion [10 times more than Russia although the population in Russia is more than 10 times the Saudis]. It is followed by Egypt and the UAE, which spend about $one billion and $500 million respectively.[4]
    While alcohol consumption is supposedly forbidden, the Muslim world has seen nearly double the increase in alcohol consumption in the past decade, according to a new study.Across the Islamic world, The Economist magazine said, consumption is on the rise, with an increase of some 72 percent between 2001 and 2011.

    “I believe it 100 percent,” said Egyptian lawyer Ahmed, who regularly joins his friends at a bar after work for a beer.

    “We just like to enjoy ourselves and this whole religion thing has not been something that hinders us,” he told Bikyamasr.com.

    Surprisingly, the Islamic world’s increase in boozing has been as the rest of the world has only grown in its alcohol consumption by some 30 percent.

    The magazine, in its report on the new figures, said that the “rise [in alcohol-sales in the Middle East] is unlikely to be accounted for by non-Muslims and foreigners alone.”

    Muslims are just as likely to partake in drinking as their non-Muslim counterparts. Granted, there are some Muslims who maintain abstinence to drinking, but the magazine and others believe Muslims have had a direct role in the rise of alcohol.

    Although a taboo in many Muslim countries, more so in places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Pakistan where it is legally banned, drinking is still commonplace.

    In other places, such as Lebanon, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and Egypt it is legal to consume alcohol and bars are often crowded.
    . . .

    While there are some countries where drinking is lower, overall drinking is becoming a common part of many lives in the Islamic world, from Morocco to Indonesia.

    Children

    • 4 out of 5 Middle-Eastern women are sexually abused between the ages of 3 and 6 by family members.
    • More than half of all Yemeni girls are married before reaching puberty.
    • About 1 in 10 pregnancies in the Arab world ends in abortion. In Pakistan every 6th pregnancy is terminated.
    • 94% of Yemeni children (2-14 yrs) subjected to violence from a parent or guardian. (read more)

    Crime & Prejudice

    • 2011 Pew study finds Muslims are more “phobic” of non-Muslims than the non-Muslims are “Islamophobic” of Muslims.
    • According to FBI 2008 statistics, anti-Muslim incidents in the US are dropping and only account for 1.3% of all hate crimes.
    • Jewish victims of hate crimes in the US outnumber Muslim victims by a 10-1 ratio.
    • Anti-Christian hate crime incidents outnumber anti-Muslim incidents in the US. (read more)

    Free Speech

    • Turkey has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world, almost double that of China and Iran.
    • 40% of Indonesian Muslims say they would use violence against those blaspheming Islam.
    • 78% of British Muslims support punishing people who publish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
    • Since 1990, 52 people accused of blasphemy in Pakistan have been extra-judicially killed by lynch mobs. (read more)

    Homosexuals

    • As of 1999 in Iran, more than 4000 lesbians and gays had been executed since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
    • Two thirds of all reported incidents of anti-gay violence in Amsterdam are by Muslim youths.
    • A 2009 Gallup survey could not find a single UK Muslim who approved of homosexuality. (read more)

    • Pornography

      • Google survey finds mostly Muslim states seek access to sex-related websites (they rank 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 & 8 in the top 10).
      • Iranians made the highest number of visits to “immoral sites” on Ashura Day.
      • Approximately 2 million online users watch pornographic films each minute in Turkey.
      • Pakistan ranked No. 1 in searches for “child sex,” “animal sex,” “rape sex,” “camel sex,” “dog sex,” “rape video.” (read more)

      • Scripture

        • There are 164 Jihad verses in the Qur’an & nearly 500 verses (roughly 1 out of every 12) that speak of Hell.
        • Practicing Muslims recite anti-Semitic & anti-Christian rhetoric at least 17 times a day, and over 5,000 times a year.
        • Compared to Mein Kampf, the non-abrograted Medinan verses of the Qur’an contain more than 2x the amount of anti-Jewish text.
        • 122 peaceful Qur’anic verses have been abrogated by the Sword verse (9:5) and Fighting verse (9:29). (read more)

        Slavery

        • Africans taken (or died in the process of being taken) as slaves by Muslims is estimated to be higher than 140 million.
        • 1.25 million white European Christians were captured and sold into the Muslim slave trade between the 16th and 19th century.
        • The Islamic slave trade still flourishes in Muslim countries. There are over half a million slaves in Mauritania alone.
        • Christian Solidarity International (CSI) has liberated over 80,000 Sudanese slaves taken captive by Arab Muslims. (read more)

        Women

        • In terms of cultural/tribal/religious danger to women, 4 of the 5 most dangerous countries are Muslim majorities.
        • Egyptian women are sexually harassed 7 times every 200 meters and well over two-thirds are harassed on a daily basis.
        • The Maldives, an Islamic country with a 100% Muslim population, has the highest divorce rate in the world.
        • Egyptian study contradict widely held belief that unveiled women are more likely to suffer harassment than veiled ones. (read more)
    • http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Muslim_Statistics

  • YouTube Block and Pakistan

    YouTube has been blocked by Pakistan over what it terms to be inappropriate content, that is Movie on The Prophet which it considers as blasphemy.

    It ha s asked Google to remove content but of no avail.

    So the position in Pakistan is that YouTube remains blocked with surfers not being able to browse non controversial contents.

    The US Government, despite Pakistan’s pleas can do nothing for to ensure removal of the content by Google, Pakistan must sign the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with the US before asking the America-based company Google (which owns the YouTube)to remove the objectionable content from the website.

    Pakistan is unable to decide either way.

    To complete this process Pakistan Government must have the will to sign.

    The dilemma is if Pakistan signs, then Militant groups will react for having surrenders to US Company.

    If it does not ,non fundamentalist Groups will be restive.

    A bunch calling itself a Government, where a President is facing corruption charges,a Prime Minister who has been asked to vacate his seat by the Supreme Court, besieged by The ISI,Army, Fundamentalists,,Moderates,Pro US lobbies…what can it do!

    Split Personalities can not function, let alone decide. .

    Story:

    YouTube
    IT experts say that after signing an agreement with Google and getting YouTube registered, the Pakistan government will be in a position to ask the US company to provide Pakistan-specific content on the website.

    Since blocking the YouTube five months ago in the wake of protests across the country over a blasphemous movie, the government has done practically nothing to either get the objectionable content removed from the website or open access to its non-controversial pages for millions of internet users.

    ..

    Explaining the reason, the convener of the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), Wahajus Siraj, said: “Unlike Pakistan,
    countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia have entered into agreements with the US. Under the MLAT, these countries are in a position to request Google to follow local laws and remove the objectionable content from YouTube,” said Mr Siraj.

    The IT expert said the agreement safeguarded interests of the service provider (Google in this case) by not holding it responsible for any blasphemous or anti-state content posted online by individuals/users.

    According to Mr Siraj, absence of the treaty was why, despite repeated requests from Pakistan, Google has not taken out the anti-Islam movie. Access to YouTube was blocked on Sept 18 last year following protests in the country.

    “Even India has signed the MLAT with the US and because of this New Delhi is able to get all objectionable contents blocked without denying access to YouTube,” Mr Siraj said. According to a senior official of the ministry of information technology there was a status quo on the matter. “The Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty if signed is the only way to restrict/block blasphemous material on internet, but there is no progress yet on the matter,” the official said, adding that without signing the agreement links and websites would have to be manually blocked which was not possible.

    http://dawn.com/2013/01/28/govt-doing-nothing-to-resolve-youtube-issue/

  • Saudi Tweet On Prophet To Be Deported Back

    In yet another instance of fundamentalism and youth clashing, a Saudi man was found guilty of insulting the Prophet, flew to Malaysia where he was rearrested and is being flown back, despite his apology and his mother’s entreaties.

     

    Can not people excuse a youth who seems to have done this in a moment of the aggressiveness of Youth?

    Tweet On Prophet
    Hugh Tomlinson Dubai Published at 12:01AM, February 11 The Times UK

     

    Story:

    Malaysia on Sunday deported the young Saudi journalist who is wanted in his home country over a Twitter post about the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) that sparked calls for his execution, an official said.

    Hamza Kashgari, who was detained in Malaysia during the week after fleeing Saudi Arabia, left the country in the custody of Saudi officials, according to a Malaysian government official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

    Malaysia’s government would not immediately confirm Hamza’s deportation, but a Home Ministry statement Sunday said Kashgari would be sent back to Saudi Arabia.

    “Malaysia has a long-standing arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other, and (Kashgari) will be repatriated under this arrangement,” the statement said.

    “The nature of the charges against the individual in this case are a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities.”

    Mother appeals for mercy

    The mother of a 23-year-old Saudi columnist accused of insulting Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) has made an impassionate appeal for authorities in the conservative Muslim Gulf Kingdom to pardon her son.

    The appeal by Umm Hamza followed reports of her son’s arrest in Malaysia just after he fled the country and coincided with calls by Saudi Islamic fundamentalists to punish Hamza Kashgari in accordance with Islamic law, which involves death penalty for apostasy, newspapers in the Kingdom said.

    http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/malaysia-deports-saudi-over-twitter-posts-2012-02-11-1.442363