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Friday, October 16, 2009

[ALOCHONA] 90 BNP, 10 AL leaders wanted Gen Moeen to float party:Gen Masududdin



90 BNP, 10 AL leaders wanted Gen Moeen to float party:Gen Masududdin

Almost 100 senior leaders from both Awami League and BNP had met the then army chief General Moeen U Ahmed requesting him to launch a new political party as, the politicians claimed, they had been fed up with the two ladies.

It was how the minus-two formula came up in the media, said Lt Gen Masududdin Chowdhury, a powerful general during the emergency rule, who is currently serving as Bangladesh High Commissioner to Australia.

In an interview with Canada-based online newspaper Natun Desh, Masududdin said there were 90 leaders from BNP and 10 from Awami League who met General Moeen inspiring him with political ambition. General Masud Uddin, however, claimed that he strongly opposed the plan to rule the country under emergency since he had no political ambition.

He also differed with the contents of General Moeen's book and said he had been saddened with the degree of corruption by the political leaders. He said some of the politicians were trying to create controversy about the role of the Army to get cheap popularity.

Some identified politicians from both the ruling party and the opposition are engaged in creating controversy and hindering the democratic process, General Masud told the Natun Desh.

Responding to a question about his personal involvement in torturing BNP leader Tareq Rahman, General Masud Uddin said the task of interrogating politicians was performed by DGFI and he was not with that department during the emergency rule.

When asked about the telephone call to the President for imposing emergency rule, General Masud categorically denied his involvement saying, "it was true that I served as the GOC of an important division and later as Principal Staff Officer but I had no authority to make a phone call directly to the President of the country".

The interview was taken by Harun Rashid Azad from Sydney last week.
 



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[ALOCHONA] Khaleda reject to join anti-poverty call for mysterious reason



Peoples expectation dashed out once again by Mrs. Khaleda Zia the ex prime minister and the chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist party. Grounds provided on her press conference for rejecting to join publicly agreed scheduled to make the anti-poverty call at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was not just bogus but another shameful act of her and her party.

 

We all thought she would have special sympathy for this anti poverty call, as we all know she and her sons rose from empty broken trunk full of tore garments after her husbands death only to become the richest political family in our subcontinent. Poor people of one of the poorest nation on earth applaud her becoming richest women in poverty prone country Bangladesh from almost having no belongings where she and her family had to take refuge on public fund just to have bread and butter in their table.

 

By rejecting, to join the anti poverty call arranged by not government but all party parliamentary committee, perhaps she sent a wrong message that she and her party BNP is not interested on poverty eradication rather chooses to stick with their quirk and sheer jealousy against the government. Alternatively, perchance, it could be a desperate attempt to divert peoples/media attention from persisting debacle of her party affairs. Only hours

 

However, whatever the reason is, it is unjust, act of an irresponsible person and acute display of a childish behavior not expected from a national leader. What prompted her change of mind in matter of hours to reject something she agreed to is anybody's guess. However, what ever she said in her press conference, even if one were in agreement with all the points she raised question still remains weather any of her allegations mystically appeared on her mind which she her self was not aware when she agreed to join the conference hours ago. Only hours ago opposition whip Zainal Abdin MP said, "We (government and opposition) are working together outside the parliament to make Oct 17 successful. These points provide definitive evidence that her publicly claimed reason for the rejection to join is misleading and fallacious.

 

Sincerely

Shamim Chowdhury

Maryland, USA

 

================================================================

 

Khaleda won't launch anti-poverty call with PM
 
 
Fri, Oct 16th, 2009 6:32 pm BdST
Dial 2324 from your mobile for latest news  
Dhaka, Oct 16 (bdnews24.com)–BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia has announced that she will not share the stage with prime minister Sheikh Hasina in launching a joint call for fight against poverty on Saturday.

Khaleda and her bitter political rival Hasina were scheduled to to make the anti-poverty call at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

She hit out at the Awami League-led government for not cooperating with the opposition and said, "Unilaterally cooperating with the government amounts to condone its crime, anarchy, repression and violation of human rights."

At an emergency news conference at her political office in Gulshan on Friday, the opposition chief said: "Observing the events over the last few days, we regret to announce that it will not be possible for us to join tomorrow's programme in the current circumstances."

Replying to questions from the media, she said: "We wanted to attend the programme. But I am ethically pressed to make this statement here today following the events over the past few days."

Khaleda pointed to the deteriorating law and order, high prices of commodities and politicisation of administration.

"The government has failed to protect the country's national unity. They have become a failed government.

"They have taken the country to point where people do not have minimum security."

She said the government has been more tyrannical in its nine months than the military-installed immediate past caretaker government was in the two-year term.

She asked the government to meet her party's four-point charter of demands, pointing out that creating a 'congenial atmosphere' is the pre-requisite for national unity.

"The process for creating national consensus on various issues can begin only after the government creates an congenial environment.

"Otherwise, the call for unity to alleviate poverty will ring hollow."

She quoted the famous lines of poet Sukanta Bhattacharya, "In the land of hunger, the earth is prosaic," and said, "If poverty rate does not reduce in Bangladesh, people may see the moon in the sky but will not see bread or even singed bread on their plates."

She thanked speaker Abdul Hamid for his efforts regarding the programme and said a letter of regrets will be sent to him on Friday.

Speaker Hamid said at a media briefing, flanked by chief whips of the ruling and opposition parties, on Thursday that it will be an unforgettable moment when the two leading ladies of the country will will for efforts to cut poverty.

Opposition chief whip Jainal Abdin Farrouque said at a press conference the same day: "We (government and opposition) are working together outside the parliament to make Oct 17 successful.

"I am hoping the speaker will create an environment suitable for the opposition to return to the parliament."

Farrouque also told a few TV channels that Khaleda would attend the event.

At Friday's news conference, Khaleda called on the ruling Awami League-led government to behave like the country's government, not the party.

"Ruling party people have been harassing and filing false cases against opposition party (BNP) activists in every thana across the country.

"Section 144 is being imposed on the spot where our MPs are calling meetings to prepare for council at their areas. Ruling party goons are also committing violence against women."

Replying to a query on transit, Khaleda said, "We want Asian Highway Network, but not any corridor. The government has not held any talks with us on the Asian Highway issue."

"The Indian high commissioner has also not contacted us."

The former prime minister said she was still willing to reduce the gap with the government. "We have been speaking of cooperation to close the gap with the government.

"But you can see what they are doing. The government itself is widening the distance."

Khaleda also pointed out the programmes her past 1996-2001 government had taken to reduce poverty.

She expressed the willingness to give the new government more time and cooperate with

"People will take to the streets against the government even if we we do not announce programme against it. Then we will have to stand by people."

BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, ASM Hannan Shah and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, among others, were present at the conference.

bdnews24.com/sm/zr/bd/1824h.
WARNING: Any unauthorised use or reproduction of bdnews24.com content for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.
================================================================================
Hasina-Khaleda joint call will be 'unforgettable moment'
 
 
Thu, Oct 15th, 2009 7:28 pm BdST
Dial 2324 from your mobile for latest news  
Dhaka, Oct 15 (bdnews24.com)–Speaker Abdul Hamid says it will be an unforgettable moment when the prime minister and opposition chief together will call for fight against poverty from the same stage on 'International Day for the Eradication of Poverty' on Saturday.

"Two leaders of two main parties of the country will together appeal the countrymen to fight against poverty. It will be an example, not only for Bangladesh but in the world history as well. It will be an unforgettable moment," he said at a media briefing along with chief whips of the two parties.

"Both the two main leaders are respectable to me. They will be able to see eye to eye on national unity in the future. This is just the start," he said.

At the briefing organised at parliament's media centre, the speaker said prime minister Sheikh Hasina will be present as chief guest at the programmes at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

Opposition chief Khaleda Zia will also be present there.

He also expressed hopes that 'International Day for the Eradication of Poverty' would be held annually in the country. The day is being observed for the first time in Bangladesh.

When asked if any new steps would be taken to bring back opposition to parliament, speaker said, "Not new, but the efforts to bring them back to the session would continue. I will not consider myself successful until I can bring them back."

He pointed to the presence of the two chief whips, Abdus Shahid and Jainal Abdin Farrouque, together at the briefing and said: "We did not see them together for a long time. Now they are here. This is also a sort of progress."

Opposition whip Abdin said, "We (government and opposition) are working together outside the parliament to make Oct 17 successful. I am hoping the speaker will create an environment suitable for the opposition to return to the parliament."

Government whip Shahid hoped that the opposition will take part in the discussions on second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in parliament on Oct 28.

Various programmes will be organised around the country from Oct 16-18 to observe 'International Day for the Eradication of Poverty'.

These programmes are organised with the assistance of National Committee against Poverty, Bangladesh National Parliament, All-party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and People's Empowerment Trust (PET).

Member secretary of APPG, Shishir Kumar Shil, said, "The UNDP has approved a budget of US$ 1.28 lakh for the three-day programme.

bdnews24.com/mhc/ff/aj/sh/dg/rn/1901h.
WARNING: Any unauthorised use or reproduction of bdnews24.com content for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.



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[ALOCHONA] The Return of the Prince [1 Attachment]

[Attachment(s) from Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman (Zaman) included below]

Hope you all enjoy.
 
M. Zaman
Missouri

Attachment(s) from Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman (Zaman)

1 of 1 File(s)


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[ALOCHONA] FW: On World Food Day, support women like Assantou




 


From: newsletter@mercycorps.org
To: farida_majid@hotmail.com
Subject: On World Food Day, support women like Assantou
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:34:51 -0700

Sign our petition asking the U.S. to fight hunger by investing in women. Learn more ›
Trouble viewing this message? Click here ›
October 16, 2009
Mercy Corps
Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
A small loan helped Assantou, a 25-year-old widow, earn enough money to feed her sons, ages five and three. Sign our petition and tell Secretary Clinton why we should invest in women to end hunger.
Today is World Food Day, a chance to recommit ourselves to ending hunger in our time.
Mercy Corps is fighting hunger by supporting women like Assantou. This 25-year-old widow in the impoverished Central African Republic struggled to feed herself and her two sons after her husband died in a car accident. She got a fresh start by joining a Mercy Corps-sponsored Village Savings and Loan Association, where she borrowed money to sell eggs in the town market. Today she makes enough to feed her family.
When a woman succeeds in school or farming or business, she provides food, education and healthcare to her family. Her own health and well-being improves, her household becomes stronger and the entire community benefits.

What can you do? Tell U.S. policymakers to invest in women like Assantou.


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that programs aimed at women will be an important part of America's strategy to fight global hunger. "We've seen again and again that women are entrepreneurial, accountable and practical," she said. "Women are a good investment."
We agree. And we hope you'll help hold America to its commitment by signing our petition and sharing your thoughts with Secretary Clinton. Thank you.
Sign the petition >

Mercy Corps - Dept. W - 45 SW Ankeny St. - Portland, OR - 97204


This email was delivered to you by Mercy Corps on behalf of Mercy Corps. You can take your email address off Mercy Corps' email list, or update your preferences and/or send comments to Mercy Corps. If you request to be taken off Mercy Corps' email list, Mercy Corps will honor your request. Postal address: 45 SW Ankeny St., Dept. W, Portland, OR 97204





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[ALOCHONA] Who is Col Imam - A Joker or a Papa of the Taliban & or ISI Man



http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/10/who_is_colonel_imam.php

By

 

Colonel-Imam.jpg

Colonel Imam. Photo from the Irish Times.

 

Pakistan's The News provides a [likely unintentional] humorous rebuttal to Hamid Mir's report that Ilyas Kashmiri was a member of the Special Services Group, Pakistan's elite commandos.

This is with reference to Hamid Mir's report (Sept 20) titled "How an ex-commando became a terrorist". It is total disinformation -- Ilyas Kashmiri neither had any association with the SSG nor did he serve in the army as a soldier. Being an ex-commando officer, I know that the SSG never indulges in such heinous crimes. It's a superior professional force of the army composed of responsible officers and men who carry out professional tasks. I would like to add that there is always an attempt by hostile agencies to defame the security forces of Pakistan with a malicious intent. Therefore, newspapers and columnists must refrain from falling prey to these fifth columnists.

Colonel (r) Imam

Ex-SSG officer,

Rawalpindi

So who is Colonel Imam anyway? This is the very same Colonel Imam who is the Father of the Taliban. Imam proudly talks of the Taliban victories in Afghanistan. From the Times Online:

 

Colonel Imam's faux outrage earns him the coveted Captain Louis Renault Award
If unfamiliar with Louis Renalt Award see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1DEG6BWgp0&feature=player_embedded

From The Sunday Times

June 7, 2009

The Taliban will 'never be defeated'

Christina Lamb in Rawalpindi

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6445981.ece#

 

'Colonel Imam', the Pakistani agent who trained Mullah Omar and the warlords to fight the Soviets, says the US must negotiate with its enemies The Taliban have Nato forces trapped says 'Colonel Imam'. Eventually the West will tire

 

THE Pakistani intelligence agent who trained Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, to fight has warned that Nato forces will never overpower their enemies in Afghanistan and should talk to them rather than sacrifice more lives.

 

"You can never win the war in Afghanistan," said so-called "Colonel Imam", who ran a training programme for the Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union's occupation from 1979 to 1989, then helped to form the Taliban.

 

"I have worked with these people since the 1970s and I tell you they will never be defeated. Anyone who has come here has got stuck. The more you kill, the more they will expand."

 

A tall, bearded figure, whose real name is Amir Sultan Tarar, he trained at Fort Bragg, the US army base where America's special forces are stationed.

 

During the late 1970s and 1980s he controlled CIA-funded training camps for 95,000 Afghans and often accompanied his students on missions.

 

After the Soviet defeat and the collapse of communism, he was invited to the White House by the first President George Bush and was given a piece of the Berlin Wall with a brass plaque inscribed: "To the one who dealt the first blow."

 

Today western intelligence agencies believe Imam is among a group of renegade officers from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) who continued to help the Taliban after Pakistan turned against them following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

 

United Nations officials and Afghanistan's intelligence service have reported sightings of him in the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan. It is a charge he shrugs off, claiming that at 65 he has not worked for almost eight years.

 

"I wish I could do it but they don't need me any more," he says. "My students are far ahead of me now. They are giving a lesson to the world. I am very proud of them."

 

Although he expresses great admiration for the British military ("far more gallant than the Americans"), Imam says that in sending troops to Helmand, Britain had forgotten its previous wars in Afghanistan.

 

In particular, he chides, they should have remembered the battle of Maiwand in 1880, in which 2,500 British troops took on 25,000 Afghans and suffered a devastating defeat.

 

"When people in Helmand heard the British were coming back, the cry went up all over: 'Remember Maiwand? Our old enemy has come to the same area where they were once defeated to take revenge'. Then everyone, Taliban and nonTaliban, joined together. They told me on the phone, 'Don't worry, we'll make sure the Brits don't have an easy time'."

 

His comments come as the number of British soldiers killed by enemy action in Afghanistan has risen to 137, one more than the number who have died in Iraq.

 

According to Imam, Helmand is particularly difficult because of the character of the people. "They couldn't care less about loss of property or loss of life," he said.

 

It is unlikely that anybody alive today knows the Afghans as well as Imam. All the key figures were trained in his camps, from the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panj-shir, to warlords such as Gul-buddin Hekmatyar, his "naughtiest" student. "It was a matter of pride for me that my students later became big commanders," he said.

 

"The Afghan is a very cunning soldier," he added. "He picks things up very quickly and never forgets. As a Pakistani unit commander I'd be training my men for six months and maybe they would remember 70%. But in Afghanistan teenagers came, had only three days' weapon training and they remembered 100%. In just 15 days they mastered the Stinger [the shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missile]."

 

Omar passed through his camps in 1985. "He was a simple man, a small commander leading a maximum of 40 people and didn't have much weaponry," Imam recalled.

 

One of Imam's biggest backers was Congressman Charlie Wilson, the Texan who was instrumental in securing funding for Operation Cyclone, the CIA programme to supply arms with which the mujaheddin would fight the Soviet troops.

 

"He used to dance with happiness at seeing our training camps," said Imam.

 

Within 10 years the Russians had been forced out. "Total expenditure just $5 billion and not a single American life," said Imam. "Now the Americans are spending hundreds of billions and losing hundreds of lives."

 

The last time he saw Wilson was after the 1988 Geneva accords on the Soviet withdrawal. Imam told him: "You're abandoning the Afghans. They need financial support for rehabilitation." Wilson replied: "Dollars don't grow on trees." "Do Afghan youth grow on trees?" asked Imam. "Over 1.5m Afghans have died."

 

Furious at the American betrayal and devastated by the resulting infighting in the Afghan resistance, he became close to Omar. "I love him," he said. "He brought peace to Afghanistan."

 

Imam was Pakistan's consul-general in Herat when the Taliban captured the city in 1995 from Ismail Khan, the mujaheddin commander, who claims the ISI agent oversaw the whole Taliban operation. From there he guided the Taliban as they took over the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad and eventually captured Kabul.

 

Like many Pakistanis he refuses to believe the September 11 attacks were carried out by Osama Bin Laden. "An operation like that needs ground support," he said. "I have no doubt it was carried out by the Americans to give a bad name to the Taliban government as an excuse to topple it."

 

When General Pervez Musharraf, then president of Pakistan, agreed to American pressure to cut ties to the Taliban, the colonel was outraged.

 

Recalled to Islamabad, he told Musharraf: "You cannot defeat these people, they are well trained, they have a lot of ammunition and the more you kill, the more supporters will come."

 

Today he adds: "It was the blunder of his life and because of it we are all doomed."

 

Imam left Afghanistan when the US bombing of the country ceased in 2001 and claims he has not returned. "I can go any time on my old routes, even the Americans cannot stop me, but there is no need," he said. "I have friends roaming all over there. At times they give me a call, they like to hear my voice.

 

"I'm quite happy with the current situation because the Americans are trapped there. The Taliban will not win but in the end the enemy will tire, like the Russians."

 

He has offered to find the Americans a way out: "We can give them a face-saving solution but they must change their strategy."

 

First, he says, they must spend billions on reconstruction. Then they must open talks with Omar rather than the so-called moderate Taliban with whom negotiations are under way.

 

"When are you people going to understand there are no number two Taliban?" he asked. "Those who break away from mainstream Taliban have no place in society. You may make deals in Dubai or Saudi Arabia, but when they come back to Afghanistan and people know they have compromised with the Americans, they are finished.

 

"In Afghanistan the only man who can make a decision and people listen is Mullah Omar. He's a very reasonable man. He would listen and work for the interests of his country."

 

He insisted the Taliban leader was not in Pakistan: "He's in the hills of Uruzgan, his home province. If there's a requirement he will listen to me, but why should I get him involved in a risky situation?"

 

Imam said he had watched with horror as fighting spread into Pakistan and had been shocked to see his fellow officers having to fight against their own countrymen in the Swat district.

 

"These are not Taliban, they are tribals," he said. "Mullah Omar told them time and time again not to fight against Pakistan. They are fighting against the government of Pakistan because it is supporting the enemies of Islam. Everybody knows our government is supporting the US drone attacks in our own area.

 

"This is an American plan to make us a subjugated country and have an excuse to get our nukes. Everybody, your prime minister, President Obama, all go, 'Oh, the nuclear weapons are unsafe'. I say you're making them unsafe. When you were not in the region there was no problem."

 

The call for prayer brings our interview to an end. Before he goes he has one last warning: "I tell you when my nation rises up it is not Afghanistan, not Iraq. There will be tremendous killing."

 



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[ALOCHONA] Documentary Film Show in Houston on October 23rd



Hello Everybody,
 
SHWADESH and the Bangladeshi Community in Houston cordially invite you to documentary film show "The Portrait of Jihad" on Friday, October 23rd.

The director of the film and eminent writer & activist Mr Shahriar Kabir will be present during the movie show and will discuss various topics regarding the movie & their activities.
 
Please find the details below:
 
Venue:
Bangladesh American Center
13415 Renn Road,
Houston, TX 77083
 
Date: October 23rd, Friday
 
Program Details:
Opening, dinner, and socialization: 7:30 pm ~ 8:00 pm
Movie: 8:00 pm ~ 9:30 pm
Open discussions: 9:30 pm ~ 11:00 pm
 
There is no fee to attend this program, dinner will be available for purchase.
 
Please contact any of the following persons should you have any questions:
 
Shahansha (713) 269-1350
Liton (281) 772-7262
Shapnik (713) 449-9532
Reshad (408) 306-1480



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