2G: A Raja cross examines former aide Aseevatham Achary

NEW DELHI: Former communications minister A Raja on Thursday cross-examined his former aide in a special CBI court here during the hearing of the 2G case on a day when a man was arrested for allegedly issuing life threat to the minister's ex-assistant.

Raja's counsel and senior advocate Sushil Kumar asked his former assistant private secretary Aseevatham Achary about a Tata Motor agency in Tiruchirapalli distirct. Achary replied: "It is incorrect to suggest that I have a benami Tata Motor Agency."

He said he was not aware of any Tata motor agency in Tiruchirapalli.

Testifying as a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) witness before Special Judge O.P. Saini, Achary said that the conversation between him and corporate lobbyist Niira Radia was broken into three parts.

First part related to the problem of Kalaignar TV and the second to his entering politics, he added.

"The third part pertained to a Tata Motor agency and the factum of my being subject of discussion in relation thereto and Radia warning me about this, but I deny that this was about my owning a benami Tata Motor agency," Achary said.

The witness added that he expressed to Raja his desire to join politics in July 2008. Raja advised him that politics was not a easy field, so from then on he decided not to join politics.

A man sitting in the court was earlier taken into custody when Achary accused him of threatening him.

Achary told the court that he had been given a life threat and the person who had threatened him was sitting in the room.

He told the court Wednesday that Radia wanted him to convey a message to Raja, a DMK leader, about Kalaignar TV.

He had said that Raja told him that Kalaignar TV was a propaganda organ of the DMK party.

He denied that he used Raja's name for seeking employment for his wife.

Achary told the court that it was Raja's trust in him due to which he was selected for this sensitive post of stenographer. "I was the private secretary to Raja since 1999," he said.

According to the government auditor, the 2G scam, allegedly masterminded by Raja, pertained to a biased distribution of mobile airwaves and operating licences, in lieu of kickbacks, to telecom firms that could have cost the treasury up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore in lost revenue.

The number of individuals accused in the case now stands at 19, while the companies against which charges have been framed add up to six.

Except for Raja and former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, no accused is behind bars
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/2g-a-raja-cross-examines-former-aide-aseevatham-achary/articleshow/11208607.cms

Dutch Catholic Church Abuse Investigated, Thousands Of Victims

-- 

MIKE CORDER   12/16/11 11:39 AM ET   

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions over the past 65 years, and church officials knew about the abuse but failed to stop it or help victims because they feared sparking scandals, according to a long-awaited report released Friday. The report also estimated that one in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of sexual abuse more broadly in society.

The findings detailed some of the most widespread abuse yet linked to the Catholic church, which has been under fire for years over abuse allegations in multiple countries including the United States. The Dutch probe prompted the archbishop of Utrecht to apologize to victims on behalf of the entire Dutch Catholic organization, saying the report "fills us with shame and sorrow."

The abuse ranged from "unwanted sexual advances" to rape, the report said. Abusers numbered in the hundreds, at least, and included priests, brothers, pastors and lay people who worked in religious orders and congregations. The number of abuse victims who spent some of their youth in church institutions likely lies somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000, according to the probe, which went back as far as 1945.

The commission behind the investigation was set up last year under the leadership of former government minister Wim Deetman, who said there could be no doubt church leaders knew of the problem. "The idea that people did not know there was a risk ... is untenable," he said.

Deetman said abuse continued in part because the Catholic church in the Netherlands was splintered, so bishops and religious orders sometimes worked autonomously to deal with abuse and "did not hang out their dirty laundry." However, he said the commission concluded that "it is wrong to talk of a culture of silence" by the church as a whole.

Similar investigations and reports in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Belgium and other countries also have documented widespread cases of children suffering at the hands of Catholic clergy and others working at church institutions.

In Ireland alone, judge-led investigations have produced four mammoth reports since 2005 documenting how bishops shuttled known pedophiles throughout Ireland and to unwitting parishes in the United States and Australia. They detailed how tens of thousands of children suffered wide-ranging abuses in workhouse-style residential schools, and how leaders of the largest diocese in Dublin didn't tell police of any crimes until forced by the weight of lawsuits in the mid-1990s.

In September, abuse victims upset that no high-ranking Roman Catholic leaders have been prosecuted for sheltering guilty priests called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the pope and top Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity. The Vatican called the move a "ludicrous publicity stunt."

The Dutch probe followed allegations of repeated incidents of abuse at one cloister that spread to claims from Catholic institutions across the country.

The investigating commission received some 1,800 complaints of abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and orphanages. It then conducted a broader survey of the general population for a more comprehensive analysis of the scale and nature of sexual abuse of minors in the church and elsewhere.

Based on a survey of more than 34,000 people, the commission estimated that one in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of abuse broadly in society. The number doubled to 20 percent of children who spent part of their youth in an institution like an orphanage or boarding school – whether Catholic or not.

Bert Smeets, an abuse victim, said the report did not go far enough in investigating and outlining in precise detail exactly what happened.

"What was happening was sexual abuse, violence, spiritual terror, and that should have been investigated," Smeets told The Associated Press. "It remains vague. All sorts of things happened, but nobody knows exactly what or by whom. This way they avoid responsibility."

Archbishop Wim Eijk said victims would be compensated by a commission the Dutch church set up last month and which has a scale starting at euro5,000 ($6,500) and rising to a maximum of euro100,000 ($130,000) depending on the nature of the abuse.

He said he felt personally ashamed of the abuse. "It is terrible," he said.

The Dutch Conference of Religious Orders also apologized, calling the abuse "a dark chapter in the history of religious life."

"We want to apologize for these mistakes and we want to never make them again," the conference said in an open letter to all victims.

The commission said about 800 priests, brothers, pastors or lay people working for the church were named in the complaints. About 105 of them were still alive, although it was not known if they remained in church positions, the report said. It did not release their names and identified them as "perpetrators" rather than "offenders," meaning they had not been proven to have committed a crime.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Deetman's inquiry had referred 11 cases – without naming the alleged perpetrators – to them.

Prosecutors opened only one investigation based on those reports, saying the other 10 did not contain enough detailed information and adding that they also appeared to have happened too long ago to prosecute. Had the case files contained enough information to trigger an investigation, prosecutors could have asked for the identities of the suspected abusers.

Deetman said the inquiry could not establish a "scientific link" between priests' celibacy and abuse, but he added, "we don't consider it impossible ... maybe if there was voluntary celibacy a number of problems would not have happened."

According to the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics, 29 percent of the Dutch population of 16 million identified themselves as Catholics in 2008, making it the largest religion in the country.

Team Anna files petition in Bombay HC seeking place for fast

Suspense continued on Thursday over the venue of Anna Hazare's proposed 3-day fast from December 27 with NGO Jagruk Nagrik Manch filing a writ petition in the Bombay High Court seeking direction to the state government to allot a place for the protest.

The petition is likely to come up for hearing on Friday.
"Maharashtra [ Images ] government is not giving us a place to protest peacefully so we had to file this petition with the Bombay high court," Himanshu Shah, who looks after legal matters of India [ Images ] Against Corruption, spearheading Hazare's anti-graft protests, told PTI.
Jagruk Nagrik Manch is an affiliate of IAC.
"When we wanted Azad maidan, we were told that we cannot sit there beyond 6 pm, and when we wanted MMRDA grounds we were asked to pay up in lakhs. We don't have that kind of money as we are a non profit making organization," he said, adding "This seems to be an attempt by the Delhi [ Images ] to ensure that we don't protest."
Maintaining that Rs 3.5 lakh per day rent for MMRDA ground for Anna Hazare's fast was too steep, Team Anna had sought state government's intervention for lowering it.
IAC, which got the permission to rent the MMRDA ground here to host the next leg of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign, had on Tuesday written to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan [ Images ], requesting for waiver or reduction of rent. However, the government's response is still awaited.
Earlier in the day, key Hazare aide Arvind Kejriwal had told a press conference in Ghaziabad that the anti-graft crusader will fast at Azad Maidan.

© Copyright 2011 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/2g-a-raja-cross-examines-former-aide-aseevatham-achary/articleshow/11208607.cms

Anna will be easier to deal with if NAC is sent packing

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/anna-will-be-easier-to-deal-with-if-nac-is-sent-packing-158874.html

Anna will be easier to deal with if NAC is sent packing

R Jagannathan 





If the UPA government is running helter-skelter in the face of Anna Hazare’s repeated challenges, it has only itself to blame.
It has tried everything in the book – from half-hearted engagement with Anna in the drafting of the Lokpal Bill to verbal skirmishes with his team (courtesy Digvijaya Singh and Manish Tiwari) to planting stories about the team in various newspapers — and nothing has worked.
Earlier this year, it tried promoting Baba Ramdev to break the anti-corruption camp, but ended up shooting itself in the foot when it found the Baba had his own agenda. The midnight swoop on Baba’s yoga shibir dented the government’s democratic credentials.
As a last-ditch effort, it tried fielding Rahul Gandhi with “game-changing ideas” about giving the Lokpal constitutional status, but in the end it had to let Parliament to adopt Anna‘s key demands as “sense of the house”. It then tried to scuttle these demands through the parliamentary standing committee’s final recommendations on the Lokpal — and this is what has brought on yet another confrontation with Team Anna.

If the UPA government is running helter-skelter in the face of the activist's repeated challenges, it has only itself to blame. PTI

In short, no matter what the Congress-led UPA did, Team Anna has won.
There are two reasons why.
One is that the Congress did nothing to stop any of the major corruption scandals that happened during its watch – CWG, 2G, unfreezing of Quattrochi’s accounts, etc. Sonia Gandhi and her National Advisory Council (NAC) members claimed to be working on another Lokpal, but all they ended up doing was convince the public that they were sarkari NGOs. Team Anna was left with sole ownership of the anti-corruption standard. Even the foibles of Bhushan, Kejriwal and Bedi did not dent this image.
Two, this is the original sin. The only way Team Anna’s claim to represent civil society could have been rubbished and Parliament’s role upheld was by abandoning the NAC. The logic is clear: if NAC can draw up bills without any kind of legitimacy, so could Team Anna. When there is a government and Parliament, why should laws emanate from the NAC’s stable? Just to boost the Dynasty’s ratings?
Says columnist Deepak Lal in Business Standard: “The fault lies in the creation of the NAC by the Congress president as a body of NGO activists who not only provide the major opposition to the reformers in the government but, in many cases, are usurping the legitimate legislative functions of the elected government.”
His solution: “A good start would be to abolish the NAC.”
Quite clearly, the government lacks legitimacy in dealing with Team Anna precisely because NAC and Sonia had destroyed its credibility first.
Currently, the government has no option but to give in on most of Team Anna’s Lokpal demands. If it wants to regain any of its moral authority and credibility, it must send the NAC packing.
The problem is only the Congress president can do that.
Result: Team Anna wins by default.

Occupy Long Beach, General Strike Meeting, Iraq

--  Occupy Long Beach, General Strike Meeting, Iraq
December 20th, 2011 
Yesterday evening I went to my first Occupy Long Beach General Assembly in a long time. I wanted to announce the meeting tonight 12/20/11 at La Placita Church 7:30 pm tonight for the May Day General Strike committee. Some persons expressed interest in going, this is the time to get involved and help determine the direction of the General Strike for Southern California. Contact me at Garyrumor2@yahoo.com if you want to carpool from Long Beach, CA. 

I was impressed with the businesslike manner in which the GA was held. People seemed to want to get on with the projects at hand rather than grandstanding as often happens in these kind of assemblies. 

The main problem in Long Beach seems to be lack of participation by the community as a whole. The Occupy movement seems to have fallen in numbers to the hard core of activists and students. This will have to change if the Long Beach movement is to grow. I would suggest that they develop some institutional changes to allow this. One reason the numbers have declined in my mind is the unwieldy nature of the decision making process. Consensus works for small groups, like what they have now, 20 or so persons. But for hundreds, it is simply not the easiest process, and demands very strict adherence to protocols if anything is to be done at all. This discipline I saw in Long Beach, the question is, will the switch to democratic decision making as they grow larger again or stick to consensus? They have a fairly stable inner cadre, now the question is will they expand again as winter turns to spring, or become another cult like leftist grouplet? 

The meeting was mostly made up of reports from committees, of which there are probably too many for the number of people involved. The same 3 or 4 persons seemed to be on almost all the committees. I felt the urge to help out, they especially need outreach people, legal support and financial support. I am particularly impressed with the quality of the graphics on several of the internet posters I have seen. They don't seem to manage to get much into print though. 

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International News has shifted from the Euro to the Middle East again with Egypt on the edge of exploding and Iraq facing a renewal of the civil war only days after the US troops removed. The situation in Iraq is largely dependent upon Iran. If they pressure the Maliki government to tone down the repression, they will need something from the west, mainly backing off on Syria and Iranian nuclear programs. As this is unlikely to happen, renewed warfare in Iraq may be the consequence. This might lead to the ironic situation of the USA backing the Baathists in Iraq against the Shiites. Certainly Saudi Arabia cannot be looking at this situation with anything other than horror. Will the US retain troops in Kuwait as a buffer or return to Iraq? That would certainly not be a popular move although the Obama administration did not want to leave Iraq to begin with.

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From the New York Times

Arrest Order for Sunni Leader in Iraq Opens New Rift

By JACK HEALY

Published: December 19, 2011 

BAGHDAD — A day after the United States withdrew its last combat troops, Iraq faced a dangerous political crisis Monday as the Shiite-dominated government ordered the arrest of the Sunni vice president, accusing him of running a death squad that assassinated police officers and government officials. 

On Monday, Iraqi television showed bodyguards for Mr. Hashimi confessing to running death squads and planting bombs. 

The sensational charges drew a worried response from Washington and brought Iraq's tenuous partnership government to the edge of collapse. A major Sunni-backed political coalition said its ministers would walk off their jobs, leaving adrift agencies that handle Iraq's finances, schools and agriculture. 

The accusations against Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi also underlined fears that Iraq's leaders may now be using the very institutions America has spent millions of dollars trying to strengthen — the police, the courts, the media — as a cudgel to batter their political enemies and consolidate power. 

On Monday night, Mr. Hashimi was in the northern semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, beyond the reach of security forces controlled by Baghdad. It was unclear when — or if — he would return to Baghdad. 

In Washington, where officials have been quietly celebrating the end of the war, Obama administration officials sounded alarmed about the arrest order for Mr. Hashimi. "We are talking to all of the parties and expressed our concern regarding these developments," said Tommy Vietor, the National Security Council spokesman. "We are urging all sides to work to resolve differences peacefully and through dialogue, in a manner consistent with the rule of law and the democratic political process." 

The breakdown in relations between Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and Mr. Hashimi and his Iraqiya Party arrived at an inopportune moment for the administration, coming so close to the troop withdrawal. American officials have spent years trying to urge Iraq's Shiite-dominated government to work with the country's Sunni minority, and are wary of having things fall apart now. 

To government critics, the charges seemed to be part of a wide-reaching consolidation of power by Mr. Maliki. Amid the anxiety stirred by the American departure and unrest in neighboring Syria, Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, has tightened his grip on this violent and divided nation by marginalizing, intimidating or arresting his political rivals, many of whom are part of Iraq's Sunni minority. 

Hundreds of people have been swept up over the last two months in arrests aimed at former members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party. In recent weeks, security forces also arrested at least 30 people connected to a former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite and caustic critic of Mr. Maliki, according to Mr. Allawi's office. And on Sunday, Mr. Maliki asked Parliament to issue a vote of no confidence in his own deputy, Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni prone to hyperbole who had compared Mr. Maliki to a dictator in an interview. 

"Any leading Sunni politician seems now to be a target of this campaign by Maliki," said Reidar Visser, an expert on Iraqi politics. "It seems that every Sunni Muslim or secularist is in danger of being labeled either a Baathist or a terrorist." 

Mr. Hashimi has not often been described as either. Sometimes abrasive and always self-interested, he was one of the first Sunni leaders to embrace the political process after the American invasion, and lost three siblings to terrorist attacks during the height of the sectarian war. 

"He was someone who tried to be conciliatory with the Shiite Islamists at a time when others did not do so," Mr. Visser said. "Now, Maliki is going after him." 

Any resolution seems a distant hope. The Iraqiya coalition, a large political bloc led by Mr. Allawi that includes Mr. Hashimi, Mr. Mutlaq and many other prominent Sunnis, stopped attending sessions of Parliament on Saturday. On Monday, there were not enough lawmakers to reach a quorum, so Parliament was adjourned until Jan. 3. 

On Monday night, Iraqiya members called for the president of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, to intervene and reprise a role the Kurds played in bringing together discordant factions and helping to resolve the long stalemate that collapsed after last year's national elections. 

The recent tumult has put Baghdad's political elite on edge. 

Inside the concrete-ringed Green Zone, the heart of Iraq's government and home to the American Embassy, Iraqi Army tanks and Humvees have proliferated. Freshly reinforced platoons of soldiers are standing guard over intersections, and security forces have pushed to the edge of the compounds of Mr. Hashimi and other Sunni leaders. 

"It's crisis after crisis," Mr. Mutlaq, the deputy prime minister, said in an interview. "None of the political parties want Maliki to be in this position anymore, but Maliki is controlling everything. Through his police, his army, his security measures. Everyone is afraid." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/world/middleeast/iraqi-government-accuses-top-official-in-assassinations.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

—————————————————-

From Guardian.uk

Sunni leaders warn of sectarian chaos in Iraq

Duleimi sheikhs claim marginalised Sunnis now have little input into affairs of state in post-US Iraq

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 December 2011 14.39 EST

Two leading members of Iraq's largest and most powerful Sunni tribe have warned of imminent sectarian chaos in the wake of the US withdrawal, claiming that the government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is promoting an anti-Sunni agenda.

The sheikhs, leaders of the highly influential Duleimi tribe, both insist that Sunnis have been increasingly marginalised over the past year to the point where they now have little input into affairs of state in post-US Iraq.

Their warnings come as Iraq's vice-president, Tariq al-Hashimi, defended himself over claims in an arrest warrant issued for him that he had used his guards to act as hit squads to target political rivals and had ordered a recent car bombing near the Iraqi parliament.

The dramatic allegations against one of the highest ranking Sunni figures in government have sharply raised the stakes in Iraq. The crisis risks unravelling a fragile power-sharing deal among Shia, Sunni and Kurdish blocs that have struggled to overcome tensions since sectarian slaughter drove Iraq to the edge of civil war in the years after Saddam Hussein fell in 2003.

Senior Iraqi politicians have been holding talks with Maliki and other leaders to contain the dispute.

On Monday the president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional government, called for dialogue among the different parties.

"We call for a national political conference urgently to prevent the political process from collapsing and exposing the country to uncalled consequences," Barzani said in a statement.

The unravelling domestic scene is in stark contrast to the portrait painted by US commanders of a representative government that has found its feet after almost nine years of war.

The claims about Hashimi, made on state television, which aired the alleged confessions of three of his guards, have inflamed already high tensions between Sunni politicians and the Shia-led government of Maliki, which last week ordered a second prominent Sunni figure, deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, to stay away from parliament.

The Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc, which has 91 seats in the 325-seat parliament, has flagged a boycott from the legislature by many of its members. Three Sunni provinces have made unilateral declarations of autonomy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/20/sunni-leaders-sectarian-chaos-iraq

The Turn to Armed Rebellion in Syria: The Rise of the Free Syrian Army

The Turn to Armed Rebellion in Syria: The Rise of the Free Syrian Army
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 9 Issue: 46
December 16, 2011 
By: Chris Zambelis
http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=38797&tx_ttnews[backPid]=26&cHash=1ecee7b349db6791fc3a274766c7b683

Tensions in the Levant remain at a fever pitch as the uprising against the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad presses ahead into its ninth month in the face of a relentless government crackdown and a rising body count Occurring on the back of the popular revolts launched against incumbent autocrats that have taken the Arab world by storm, opponents of the sitting Baathist regime operating under the auspices of the Syrian National Council (SNC) are leading the charge to forge a unified political front against the regime. Led by Paris-based professor Burhan Ghalioun and composed of a disparate array of activists based in Syria and abroad, including Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the SNC serves as an umbrella movement agitating for the fall of the Baathist regime. [1] The SNC continues to petition the international community to levy additional punitive measures against Damascus. In a sign of its growing clout, SNC leaders recently met with U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva, her second meeting with the group.

While domestic and international pressure builds on Damascus, the Baathist regime continues to demonstrate its resilience. The regime's resort to suppressing dissent with violence, however, has triggered a violent response in kind by a murky network of defectors from the Syrian Army and other sections of the security apparatus as well as civilian volunteers who have collectively dubbed themselves the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Having established formal contacts with the SNC, the FSA has steadily gained traction as the official armed wing of the Syrian opposition (al-Jazeera, November 16). 

A Call to Arms

In the FSA's July 29 inaugural statement, FSA commander Riyad Musa al-Asa'd and seven other defecting officers outlined the FSA's positions and mission. Al-Asa'd is a Syrian Air Force colonel who defected from his position after refusing to follow what he alleges were orders to open fire at unarmed protesters. In a call to arms, al-Asa'd implored members of the Syrian Army to join the FSA while lambasting the actions of the Syrian Army: "The Syrian Army now represents only the gangs that protect the regime" (al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 1). Remarking on the officers' decision to defect from their posts, al- Asa'd added:

Proceeding from our nationalistic sense, our loyalty to this people, our sense of the current need for conclusive decisions to stop this regime's massacres that cannot be tolerated any longer, and proceeding from the army's responsibility to protect this unarmed free people, we announce the formation of the Free Syrian Army to work hand in hand with the people to achieve freedom and dignity to bring this regime down, protect the revolution and the country's resources, and stand in the face of the irresponsible military machine that protects the regime" (al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 1).

Al- Asa'd followed with a threat to his former military colleagues: "As of now, the security forces that kill civilians and besiege cities will be treated as legitimate targets. We will target them in all parts of the Syrian territories without exception" (al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 1). [2]

A Budding Insurgency

The FSA has staged a number of attacks on Syrian military and security force targets. The FSA has also struck civilian facilities linked to the regime, including offices associated with the ruling Baath Party. The formation of the FSA signals an attempt to unify the multiple pockets of armed resistance that are being formed by defectors from the Syrian Army and other armed factions. As is often the case with nascent insurgencies, accurate reports regarding the number of FSA fighters are hard to find, but estimates range from the high hundreds up to 25,000 men organized into 22 battalions across Syria the latter a bold exaggeration likely crafted to amplify the perception of the FSA's capabilities (al-Jazeera, December 2). FSA leaders operate from refugee camps along the Turkish-Syrian border in Turkey's southern Hatay Province, although Ankara insists that it is not lending the group operational support. Hatay and other regions in southern Turkey are host to thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence back home. In spite of Turkish denials of support, FSA fighters are exploiting the relative safety they enjoy in southern Turkey to mount attacks against Syrian forces (Hurriyet [Istanbul], December 6). The FSA is also alleged to have established bases in northern Lebanon and northern Jordan, regions that have similarly witnessed an influx in Syrian refugees (al-Jazeera, October 28). Overall, the FSA appears to be growing in strength and scope.

Since emerging on the scene, the FSA has boasted of engaging Syrian security forces across the country in armed skirmishes, hit-and-run ambushes, assassinations, and other operations conducted in and around hotbeds of opposition such as the cities of Homs and Hama (located in the west-central part of the country), and the northwestern Idlib Province along the Syrian-Turkish border (al-Jazeera, September 27). It was the FSA's November 16 attack against a Syrian Air Force Intelligence facility in Harasta (approximately six miles northeast of Damascus) that elevated the group's profile in Syria and beyond. Previously seen as a ragtag assembly of fighters, the attack using rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and coordinated small arms fire against a hardened target like the intelligence facility at Harasta demonstrated a new level of operational sophistication for the FSA. The symbolism behind the attack is also noteworthy: Syrian Air Force Intelligence works in concert with other sections of Syrian Military Intelligence to root out dissent within the armed forces (al-Jazeera, November 16). The FSA attacked an additional Air Force Intelligence facility on December 1 in Idlib Province, killing at least eight members of the unit (al-Akhbar [Beirut], December 2). Elsewhere the FSA has executed attacks against Syrian military and police checkpoints and armored vehicle convoys. Fixed installations such as police stations are also being struck with increasing regularity. 

The FSA and SNC appear sensitive to allegations directed against them by the regime and their detractors in Syria and abroad that they are harboring criminal or terrorist militants with radical Islamist or other insidious agendas within their ranks. SNC head Ghalioun and other key figures in the opposition recently met with FSA leaders in Turkey to convince them to restrict their activities to what Ghalioun labeled "defensive" as opposed to "offensive" operations to maintain the "peaceful nature" of the uprising. 

During a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal outlining the opposition's position on a number of key issues, Ghalioun expressed his concern about the role of the FSA in a post al-Assad scenario: "We do not want, after the fall of the regime in Syria, armed militias outside the control of the state" (Wall Street Journal, December 2). A December 8 attack in the region of Tal Asour against a major pipeline that transports crude oil to the refinery in Homs and similar attacks targeting Syria's economic infrastructure have elicited a fierce reaction from the regime, which blames "terrorists," a euphemism for the FSA and the broader opposition. The FSA has not claimed responsibility for the attack against the pipeline. Opponents of the regime allege that the pipeline was sabotaged by Damascus, possibly in an effort to discredit the opposition in the eyes of the residents of Homs (al-Akhbar, December 8). The FSA has also engaged in a series of lengthy firefights in recent weeks, including a battle in the northern town of Ain al-Baida along the Syrian-Turkish frontier that followed an attempt by 35 FSA fighters to infiltrate Syrian territory from Turkey (al-Akhbar, December 7). The FSA engaged Syrian forces in another major confrontation in the southern towns of Busra al-Harir and Lujah near the Syrian-Jordanian border (al-Akhbar, December 11; al-Jazeera, December 12). 

In spite of claims by the regime and its opponents that it is receiving foreign support, the FSA appears to be relying on light automatic weapons, RPGs and explosives, essentially the weapons carried by servicemen prior to defecting from the Syrian Army. A brisk trade in arms between Lebanese smugglers with access to Lebanon's copious arms market and their Syrian counterparts is also helping to replenish FSA weapons and ammunition stocks (al-Akhbar, December 4). It is unclear if the FSA is receiving intelligence support or other forms of assistance to bolster its operational capabilities. The FSA has expressed its wish for foreign military support akin to the assistance NATO and other members of the international community provided to Libyan insurgents during their struggle against the regime of Mu'ammar Qaddafi regime (Hurriyet, October 8). The FSA has also called for the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Syria (al-Jazeera, November 20). With an eye toward winning over international public opinion, the FSA operates an extensive information section issuing regular announcements online through its official Facebook page as well as a network of websites sympathetic to its cause. The FSA has also posted video footage of its attacks on YouTube and other online social media outlets. FSA leaders as well as regular members frequently engage with journalists to make their case. 

Filling the Ranks

A great detail of uncertainty surrounds the composition of the FSA and its ultimate intensions. The Islamist component of its SNC partner has elicited similar concerns regarding the overall trajectory of the Syrian opposition. Specifically, the sectarian makeup of the FSA, a group dominated by low-ranking conscripts and officers of the Sunni Arab majority, has led many to examine the potential influence of ultraconservative Salafists or even al-Qaeda-style militants on the movement. The public role of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in the SNC is already well known (al-Arabiya [Dubai], November 17). The dominant role of the Alawis, an Islamic sect viewed by many orthodox Muslims as heretical, is a source of widespread resentment within the Sunni community. President al-Assad is an Alawi and many of the most influential positions in politics, the economy, and the security services are dominated by his Alawi allies. The specter of creeping sectarianism in Syria has left many fearful of the prospects of a sectarian-driven civil war.

Damascus regularly attributes a role to criminal gangs, domestic and foreign terrorist organizations, and international rivals such as the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in sustaining the FSA and the broader opposition movement (Syrian Arab News Agency, November 30; December 10). Concerns about radical Islamist influence within the FSA and the opposition were frequently conveyed to this author in discussions with Syrians living and working in Beirut, including many who sympathize with the demands of the opposition. [3] FSA and SNC leaders categorically refute reports of radical Islamist influence within their ranks.

Battleground Lebanon

A consideration of Syria's alliance with Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas the so-called "Axis of Resistance" against the backdrop of the uprisings that are upending the regional status quo provides insight into the multiplicity of interests at play. The regional fallout stemming from the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and the concurrent displays of dissent in Bahrain and other U.S. allies is a trend viewed by many as strengthening actors such as Iran and Hezbollah even as their ally Syria contends with its own crisis. In spite of their popular appeal among wide segments of Syrian society, the actions of the FSA and its SNC partner must also be considered in the context of the greater rivalry between the United States and its regional allies on one side and Iran and Syria on the other. The reaction of key actors in neighboring Lebanon to events in Syria, a country whose fortunes are tied so closely to Syria, also reflects this trend. 

Support for the FSA and the Syrian opposition is being broadcast out of Lebanon. Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, a traditional center of Salafist activism, has seen a number of protests against Syria. Prominent radical Salafist clerics in Tripoli, including Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal, have called on Syrian Sunnis to join the uprising against the Baathist regime (Daily Star [Beirut], July 9). Beirut has also witnessed a number of protests in recent months by anti-Syrian demonstrators. Lebanon's U.S.- and Saudi-aligned March 14 Alliance (which includes former Lebanese prime minster Sa'ad Hariri's Sunni-dominated Future Movement) is in the forefront of organizing anti-Syrian activities in Lebanon. March 14 dominates the political landscape in Tripoli, where it enjoys a loyal following among the local Salafist community. 

The March 14 Alliance's rival in Lebanon is the March 8 Alliance, which features Hezbollah, a close ally of Syria and Iran. Hezbollah has not shied away from affirming its support for Damascus. To mark the occasion of Ashura on December 6, the day when Shi'a Muslims mourn the death of Hussein during the Battle of Karbala in 680 BCE, Hezbollah Secretary General Shaykh Hassan Nasrallah made a surprise public appearance in Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh, his first public appearance since 2006. Reiterating Hezbollah's support for the Syrian president, Nasrallah declared: "We remain in our stance; we support the reforms in Syria, and we are with a resisting government," adding that "some people want to destroy Syria and compensate for their loss in Iraq" (al-Manar [Beirut], December 12)

Conclusion

Syria has fast emerged as a battleground for the wider currents angling to shape a new geopolitical map of the Middle East in their favor. Damascus believes that the FSA and its SNC partner are acting to shore up the position of the United States and its Gulf allies following the resilient displays of dissent in Egypt and other pro-U.S. authoritarian regimes, the perceived gains made by Iran in Iraq and the wider Gulf region, and the growing influence of Hezbollah in Lebanon. On the surface, SNC head Ghalioun's intention to steer Syria away from its strategic military relationships with Iran and Hezbollah in a post al-Assad scenario in favor of friendlier relations with Gulf countries appears to vindicate the Baathist regime's claim that the FSA and the opposition in general have a duplicitous nature.

Syria, in essence, sees the FSA and SNC as illegitimate proxy forces acting at the behest of hostile foreign interests. Many of the objectives and interests of the FSA and SNC clearly converge with those of Syria's rivals, a reality that strengthens the regime's narrative of domestic and regional events. At the same time, the reality of having to confront a widening insurgency that is becoming progressively more aggressive and effective in the midst of sustained international pressure does not bode well for the regime's long-term stability. 

Chris Zambelis is an author and researcher with Helios Global, Inc., a risk management group based in the Washington, DC area. He specializes in Middle East politics. The opinions expressed here are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the position of Helios Global, Inc.

Notes:

1. See http://www.syriannc.org/. See also Terrorism Monitor Brief, October 15, 2011.

2. The FSA's inaugural videotape statement is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZcCbIPM37w.

3. Lebanese expressed similar concerns regarding the extent of radical Islamist influence inside the Syrian opposition and the potential of spillover of instability into Lebanon in the event that the regime falls. Insights gleaned through numerous discussions with members of the Syrian community in Beirut, as well as Lebanese, Beirut, Lebanon, November-December 2011.

Why do Students commit Suicide?

Why do Students commit Suicide?

 

    There are different reasons which make the students commit suicide. Some of the main causes of suicides among students are the beatings and insults they get from their teachers in front of the other students, ragging by the bullies of their schools and colleges, caste-based discrimination, poverty, and failure in examinations, especially due to the difficult subjects like MATHEMATICS.

 

    Among the subjects taught for many courses in schools and colleges, Mathematics is the biggest curse for the majority of students.

 

    More than 95% of the Mathematics taught to students has no practical value, and so it must be removed from their courses. Why are the students forced to learn Impractical Mathematics, which has absolutely no relevance in real life? The majority of school and college students should not be taught Mathematics that will never be used in practice at any time in their lives.

 

    Instead of being made to waste their time in learning Impractical Mathematics, many of the students should be spending their time in some health-promoting sports and games, or in learning to sing and dance. The students should be made to feel the joy of learning useful subjects like the Science of Nutrition and Health. They should cherish their school days when they become adults.

 

    Some of our greatest industrialists, businessmen, philanthropists, writers, film makers, actors, singers, dancers, painters, orators, social and political leaders, saints, etc, had been very weak in Mathematics and had even failed in the subject. We should never belittle their contributions to society just because they were weak in Mathematics.

 

Education is a Big Farce in India

 

    For more than 50 years, I have known that corrupt officials of School Boards and Universities have been leaking question papers before the examinations to those students who are ready to pay high amounts of money for the question papers. Even some examiners are known for taking bribes to pass the students who had actually failed in Mathematics and other difficult subjects. By paying big bribes, the rich students can even get very high marks in Mathematics that are needed for admission to some courses of higher studies. Education has become a highly commercialized farce in India.

 

    Thousands of students have committed suicide because of failing in Mathematics. Even some bright students have killed themselves because they could not get high marks in Mathematics, which are required for getting admission to many higher courses. There is no need to torture the students by making them learn something that has no practical value in life. It is absolutely idiotic to waste massive amount of time of the millions of students in making them learn the Mathematics, which is not of any use in their lives. The lives and welfare of the students are much more important than the teaching of Impractical Mathematics.

 

Impractical Mathematics is Anti-Dalit

 

    Many adversely affected students, who fail in Mathematics, belong to the Dalit and other poor classes because they cannot afford to take additional private tuitions like the well-to-do students from the rich families. Many poor students do not even have enough time to study because they have to do part-time work to finance their studies. So how can they manage to get more time to learn Mathematics? The teaching of Impractical Mathematics is anti-Dalit and anti-poor. 

 

    Should Impractical Mathematics be taught compulsorily to all students in schools just to keep all the Mathematics teachers in employment? The Mathematics teachers, who insist that all the students must be forced to learn Impractical Mathematics, are just a pack of lunatics and criminals who deserve to be sent to Mental Hospitals and Prisons. The interests of millions of students are much more important than the interests of a few teachers who can teach Impractical Mathematics.

 

    There should be a worldwide campaign by the students, their parents and well-wishers against the compulsory teaching of Impractical Mathematics. Only those students who are really interested in learning such Mathematics should be given the option to do so. The other students, who form the vast majority, should be taught only some simple type of Mathematics, which can be proved to be of practical use in their real lives. There are many types of simple Mathematics that can be taught to the students of different courses. The type of Mathematics that is taught in any particular course should be based mainly on its suitability for the jobs that the students want to take up after completing their course. 

 

    The students should not be detained if they fail in one or two subjects. They should be allowed the option of promotion if they continue their studies in the subjects in which they have passed. They should also have the right to get any suitable employment on the basis of their marks in the subjects in which they have passed. Should the marks in any subject be considered when the knowledge in such a subject is not required for any particular job? The marks in such a subject should be ignored while selecting a candidate for a job for which he is really suitable.